By Charles Caramello (NHC Fellow, 1984–85) Focusing on biographical portraiture, Charles Caramello argues that Henry James and Gertrude Stein performed biographical acts in two senses of the phrase: they wrote biography, but as a cover for autobiography. Constructing literary genealogies while creating original literary forms, they used their biographical portraits of precursors and contemporaries to … Continued
By James L. W. West, III (NHC Fellow, 1981–82) The story of how Fitzgerald wrote and published the book is fascinating. In The Making of "This Side of Paradise", James West studies the inception, composition, publication, and textual history of the novel. He traces its growth from its earliest version, entitled "The Romantic Egotist," to its … Continued
By Fred Kaplan (NHC Fellow, 1985–86) A vivid portrait of one of the most influential writers in our literary tradition. Kaplan creates a richly woven, psychologically astute portrayal of James' Victorian life and world. James' unpublished letters, as well as published and unpublished family letters, are at the heart of this vivid biography of the … Continued
By Sanjay Krishnan (NHC Fellow, 2012–13) The author of more than thirty books of fiction and nonfiction and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, V. S. Naipaul (1932–2018) is one of the most acclaimed authors of the twentieth century. He is also one of the most controversial. Before settling in England, Naipaul grew up … Continued
Edited by James Knowlson (NHC Fellow, 2002–03) and John Haynes Images of Beckett combines John Haynes' unique repertoire of photographs of Beckett's dramatic opus alongside three newly written essays by Beckett's biographer and friend, James Knowlson. Haynes captures images of Beckett's work in progress and performance and includes hitherto unknown portraits of Beckett himself. Haynes … Continued
By Denis Donoghue (Trustee; NHC Fellow, 1991–92; 1995–96; 1997–1998) Only the most naive or tendentious among us would deny the extent and intensity of suffering in the world. Can one hold, consistently with the common view of suffering in the world, that there is an omniscient, omnipotent, perfectly good God? This book argues that one … Continued
Edited by Emory Elliott (NHC Fellow, 1979–80) The earliest of the American writers, the colonials, were truly voices in the wilderness-authors of a literary heritage largely overlooked until early in the 20th century. It was then that the literary merits of sermons, autobiographies, histories, diaries, poems and elegies from the 1600s and early 1700s were … Continued
By Andrew Delbanco (Trustee; NHC Fellow, 1990–91; 2002–03) If Dickens was nineteenth-century London personified, Herman Melville was the quintessential American. With a historian’s perspective and a critic’s insight, award-winning author Andrew Delbanco marvelously demonstrates that Melville was very much a man of his era and that he recorded — in his books, letters, and marginalia; and … Continued
By James L. W. West, III (NHC Fellow, 1981–82) William Styron was one of the most highly regarded and controversial authors of his generation. In this illuminating biography, James L. W. West III draws upon letters, papers, and manuscripts as well as interviews with Styron’s friends and family to recount in rich detail the experiences … Continued
Edited by Emory Elliott (NHC Fellow, 1979–80) This award-winning series is dedicated to making literature and its creators better understood and more accessible to students and interested readers, while satisfying the standards of teachers and scholars. It systematically presents career biographies of writers from all eras and all genres through volumes dedicated to specific types … Continued