On Tuesday 14 February 2012, prize-winning author and memoirist Candia McWilliam came to OCLW to deliver one of the Weinrebe Life-Writing Lectures, entitled 'Where may truth lie? Fiction in memory, memory in fiction.' Candia's talk offered an exquisitely constructed meditation on the art of biography, combining an astonishing breadth of reference with meticulous attention to detail. You can read a full report of Candia's talk by clicking here.
Candia was also kind enough to construct a bibliography of her recommended reading in life-writing.
Candia McWilliam's Life-Writing Bibliography
Amis, Kingsley The King’s English
Baley, Blake Cheever
Ballard, J.G. Miracles of Life
Ballard, J.G. The Kindness of Women
Barber, Michael The Captain: A Life of Simon Raven
Bedford, Sybille Quicksands
Begley, Louis Wartime Lies
Clifford, James, ed, Biography as an Art
Cumming, Laura A Face to the World
Davenport-Hines, Richard Titanic Lives
Edel, Leon Henry James, the biography
Edel, Leon Writing Lives
Ellmann, Richard Oscar Wilde
Empson, William Using Biography
Fraser, Fiona Emma: A Life of Lady Hamilton
French, Patrick The World is what it is: A Life of V.S.Naipaul
Gosse, Edmund Father and Son
Green, Henry Pack My Bag
Haffendon, John William Empson
Hardy, G.H. A Mathematician’s Apology
Harman, Claire Sylvia Townsend Warner
Hoare, Philip Leviathan
Holroyd, Michael Basil Street Blues
Humphries, Barry My Life as Me
Jarman, Derek Modern Nature: Journals
Josipovici, Gabriel Touch
Kermode, Frank Not Entitled
Lanchester, John A Family Romance
Larkin, Philip Letters to Monica
Lee, Hermione Virginia Woolf
Lee, Hermione Elizabeth Bowen
Lessing, Doris Walking in the Shade
Lewis, Roger Anthony Burgess
Logue, Christopher Prince Charming
Mantel, Hilary Giving up the Ghost
Marcus, Laura Auto/biographical Discourses
Maurois, Andre Voltaire
McGahern, John Memoir
Miller, Jane Relations
Miller, Karl Rebecca’s Vest
Nabokov, Vladimir Speak, Memory
Naipaul, V.S. A House for Mr Biswas
Naipaul, V.S. The Enigma of Arrival
Nicolson, Harold The Development of English Biography
Origo, Iris Images and Shadows
Parker, Peter The Last Veteran: J.R.Ackerley
Powell, Anthony, and Vanderbilt, Robert The Acceptance of Absurdity
Powell, Violet A Substantial Ghost
Powell, Anthony A Dance to the Music of Time
Proust, Marcel In Search of Lost Time
Sage, Lorna Bad Blood
Schiff, Stacy Vera
Shilling, Jane The Stranger in the Mirror
Shulman, Nicola Graven With Diamonds: A Life of Sir Thomas Wyatt
Sonnenberg, Ben Lost Property
Spark, Muriel Curriculum Vitae
Spurling, Hilary The Life of Ivy Compton-Burnett
Symonds, A.J.A. The Quest for Corvo
Talbot, Mary M and Bryon Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes
Thurman, Judith Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette
Vidal, Gore Palimpsest
Waugh, Alexander Fathers and Sons
Williams, Rowan Dostoievsky
Wilson, Edmund Journals
Wollheim, Richard Germs
