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Adventures of a Biographer in Search of Her Subject
Knopf
July 2007
On Sale: July 5, 2007
242 pages
ISBN: 0307264831
EAN: 9780307264831
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
The first rule of biography, wrote Justin Kaplan: βShoot the widow.β In her new book, Meryle Secrest, acclaimed biographer (βKnowing, sympathetic and entertainingly drollββThe New York Times), writes about her comic triumphs and misadventures as a biographer in search of her nine celebrated subjects, about how the hunt for a βlifeβ is like working oneβs way through a maze, full of fall starts, dead ends, and occasional clear passages leading to the next part of the puzzle. She writes about her first book, a life of Romaine Brooks, and how she was led to Nice and given invaluable letters by her subjectβs heir that were slid across the table, one at a time; how she was led to the villa of Brooksβ lover, Gabriele dβAnnunzio (poet, playwright, and aviator), a fantastic mausoleum left untouched since the moment of his death seventy years before; to a small English village, where she uncovered a lost Romaine Brooks painting; and finally, to 20, rue Jacob, Paris, where Romaineβs lover, Natalie Barney, had fifty years before entertained Cocteau, Gide, Proust, Colette, and others. Secrest describes how her next bookβa life of Berensonβprompted Francis Steegmuller, fellow biographer, to comment that he wouldnβt touch the subject with a ten-foot pole. For her life of British art historian Kenneth Clark, Secrest was given permission to write the book by her subject, who surreptitiously financed it in the hopes of controlling its contents; we see how Clarkβs plan was foiled by a jealous mistress and a stash of love letters that helped Secrest navigate Clarkβs obstacle course. Among the other biographical (mis)adventures, Secrest reveals: how she tracked Salvador DalΓ to a hospital room, found him recovering from serious burns sustained in a mysterious fire, and learned that he was knee-deep in a scandal involving fake drawings and prints and surrounded by dangerous characters out of Murder, Inc. . . . and how she went in search of a subjectβs grave (Frank Lloyd Wrightβs) only to find that his body had been dug up to satisfy the whim of his last wife. A fascinating account of a life spent in sometimes arduous, sometimes comical, always exciting pursuit of the truth about other lives.
 Media BuzzAll Things Considered - July 18, 2007
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