biography has sex problems: edward klein and the c. david heymann dilemma
if we’re having a reckoning, hey, let’s look at biography. this is edward klein: we need to talk about him.
if we’re having a reckoning, hey, let’s look at biography. this is edward klein: we need to talk about him.
WHERE TO BEGIN? because, after driving away 79% of the people who might have read this, that title really raised the stakes for whoever’s left. props to ya’ll who’re sticking it out! ❤ ❤ ❤
it’s a very personal thing, biography. take the question “why jackie?” i don’t know how to answer that without referring to the badly xeroxed women’s history handout from mrs. pavlick’s 6th grade english class. “why tabloids?” leads to a similarly intimate anecdote of my family’s mid-90s mania for antiquing. when everyone around you has a […]
i started writing about jackie because i deplored the way she was written about. shoddy writing, shoddy scholarship, shoddy story-telling. when you read 97 books about someone, certain trends begin to emerge.
John Kennedy’s victory in the 1960 presidential election raised interest in his wife to a fevered pitch. But, Jackie was adamant that she would do things on her own terms. She detested the prying and made a preemptive move to thwart conjecture about her private life. At her mother’s suggestion, Mrs. Kennedy appointed Mary Van Rensselaer Thayer— […]
(24 may 2011) biographers don’t eat. at their conferences the food is placed strategically just beyond the bar, which is surrounded by such a crush of people that one can never break through. in my many futile attempts to reach the mountains of canapés i could see on the other side of the room, i spent a significant […]
NOTES PROLOGUE x. “They said her independence and courage…” Bradford, pg. 23; Thayer, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, pg. 14. x. “the circus queen.” Thayer, pg. 36. x. “not to be a housewife.” Ibid., pg. 67. x. “Can you think…” Telegraph, 22 April 2011. x. “I’m an outsider…”Kelley, pg. 323. xi. “In the larger bear hug…” Time, […]
that’s the title of rose kennedy’s 1974 memoir. at this point my biggest memory of times to remember is of the time i spent in the research room at the jfk library powering through the cassette tapes of rose kennedy’s recorded interviews with someone whose name i cannot remember. someone who may or may not […]
this’ll be about jackie having died on this day twenty-eight years ago today. wait for it.
this is a thing we historically have done so i’mma just dive right on in. if you’re like DOCTOR ONLINE WUT EVEN IS THIS, i refer you to my rich seam of informal, doctoral-level scholarship on emotions and dolls: HERE. ya’ll.
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