y separately published work icon Life Writing periodical issue   peer reviewed assertion
Issue Details: First known date: 2018... vol. 15 no. 4 2018 of Life Writing est. 2004 Life Writing
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Contents

* Contents derived from the , 2018 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
The Biographer’s ‘Keeper’ (When the Estate Is With You) : Writing the Biography of Thea Astley, Karen Lamb , single work essay

'Writing biography is often layered in its telling with long lapses of time between research and writing. Of necessity, the perspectives of the biographer change during that time. This article explores the challenges of writing on a living writer, with or without their approval, then writing on the same author, but after their death. Many relationships are made or re-made in such a process. How is the interpretation of new literary evidence, or the selective decisions made about its inclusion, influenced by a biographer having a kindly ‘keeper’ – a supportive literary estate – rather than a hostile one? This article considers that question. What emerges is the story of how license affects not just access to archival material, or to individuals' key to the story, but how support from a literary estate enables the writing of the biography itself. It offers the biographer special freedoms: the chance to stretch interpretation, to experiment with style, and the opportunity to conjure a subject's personality in full – without risking offence. Most importantly, a ‘kindly keeper’ liberates a biographer in unexpected personal ways, affording the privilege of sharing a family's most intimate dynamics as well as contributing rich nuanced understandings of their own life's challenges.'  (Publication abstract)

(p. 591-596)
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