The Art of Biography

by Paul Murray Kendall

Discusses the purpose of biography, looks at biographies from ancient Greece to modern times, and examines the techniques these biographers have used

158 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Paul Murray Kendall was an American academic and historian. A 1928 graduate from Frankford High School, Kendall studied at the University of Virginia, receiving a bachelor's degree in 1932, and master's in 1933. In 1937, while studying for a Ph.D, he became an instructor in English at the Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. He obtained a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia in 1939, and continued as professor at Ohio University until his retirement in 1970, after which he served as head of the Shakespeare Institute at the University of Kansas.

Reviews

[Anson Cassel Mills · Rating 3 out of 5]

Paul Murray Kendall (1911-1973) was a professor of English at Ohio University and briefly head of the Shakespeare Institute at the University of Kansas. This book, which originated as a series of lectures given at Wayne State University, consists of five chapters: the first an attempt to delineate the nature of biographical and autobiographical writing and the remaining four an idiosyncratic historical review of “life-writing” since antiquity. Because Kendall’s expertise was in the Renaissance—he wrote notable biographies of Richard III, Louis XI, and Warwick the Kingmaker—the third chapter, which concentrates on life writers of the fifteenth century, was of most interest to me.

Unfortunately Kendall decided to spend thirteen pages of this slim book attacking the biographical theories of Leon Edel (1907-1997), who had recently won the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award for his ultimately four-volume biography of nineteenth-century novelist Henry James. In a long review in the New Republic (March 6, 1965), Edel pointed out the weakness of Kendall’s logic, especially noting that Kendall, a specialist in the Renaissance where narrative had to be teased from the barest scraps of information, did not understand the dilemma of the biographer who worked in “thicker times…constantly pitchforking straw out of his workshop.”

[Susan Abernethy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been considering writing a biography and wanted to read this book to see what Kendall has to say. He has written two biographies which I consider favorites of King Richard III of England and King Louis XI of France. Kendall is an academic in literature rather than an historian and he has some interesting input on writing biography. This book also covers the history of biographical writing starting with the ancients. He defines biography and has some great tips. I enjoyed the book and will use it in the future when I write that darned book!

[Michael Lever · Rating 3 out of 5]

Biographers seem incapable of speaking clearly and analytically on the principles of their discipline. Allegory, metaphor and reference to existing works (often their own) prevail. Kendall at least is brief and insightful, while still indulging in the mechanisms mentioned.