Biographers
Books
Kathy Acker’s Art of Identity Theft
By stealing the work of others, the author remade herself—and reinvented what autobiographical writing could be.
By Maggie Doherty
Watch
“Making Montgomery Clift” Is a Fascinating Study of the Ethics of Biography
In a new documentary, Robert Clift suggests homophobia may have poisoned biographers’ depictions of his Oscar-nominated uncle’s life and untimely death.
By Michael Schulman
Postscript
James Atlas’s Life in Life-Writing
The writer, who died at the age of seventy, dissected and elevated the vocation of biography.
By Judith Thurman
Ink
Documenting Trump’s Abuse of Women
For his 1993 book, “The Lost Tycoon,” Harry Hurt III acquired Ivana’s divorce deposition, in which she stated that Trump raped her.
By Jane Mayer
A Reporter at Large
Mysterious Circumstances
The strange death of a Sherlock Holmes fanatic.
By David Grann