Candia McWilliam's Life-Writing Bibliography

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