Leon Edel, The Art of Biography

American poet Susan Howe and author Charles Ruas interview award-winning biographer Leon Edel, as he leads a very stimulating conversation about the most famous authors seen through a practiced biographer's eyes. Edel goes into detail about his essay on Thoreau's experience at Walden Pond, and the role of alcohol in Fitzgerald's life as well as Hemmingway's. Edel says biography is his "natural form of expression," and his deep interest stems from how literature comes into being through the internal torture of the writers. As the expert, Edel talks about what it takes to write a successful biography, and what it means to essentially live with your subject for four or five years.

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