Zachary Leader’s book on Richard Ellmann’s landmark work on James Joyce asks whether a biographer can be considered an artist. In 1927—just five years after the publication of Ulysses and five years ...

What has been said of Shakespeare could be said of Leonardo: All of the verifiable facts of his life can be set down on a page. Of course, that has not deterred biographers from making book on these ...

Alfred Tennyson remarked that he was grateful not to know very much about Shakespeare’s life. Biography, in other words, did not spoil an appreciation of the plays and poetry. What would Tennyson have ...