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icon caret-right instagram pinterest linkedin facebook twitter goodreads question-circle facebook circle twitter circle linkedin circle instagram circle goodreads circle pinterest circle Cathy Curtis Home My Books Biography Coaching Blog Contact Paperback edition of A Splendid Intelligence: The Life of Elizabeth Hardwick (W. W. Norton, 2023). A Splendid Intelligence: The Life of Elizabeth Hardwick ( W. W. Norton, 2021). Alive Still: Nell Blaine, American Painter (Oxford University Press, 2019). A Generous V
I look for an artist or writer whose work I admire, who led an eventful life, and who has an archive that is open for researchers. By now, having written five biographies (the fifth is still in manuscript), I've learned that the most important components of an archive for my purposes are the subject's journals and letters (written and received), followed by newspaper and magazine interviews. Of course, I also look for letters from my subject in the archives of the people to whom she wrote.
One of the questions I'm fascinated with right now is how biographers name their subjects, particularly when writing about a woman. Where do you stand on the first name/last name question in your books?