Sunday, May 25, 2008

John Updike on Literary Biography

John Updike on why we read literary biographies:

We read, those of us who do, literary biographies for a variety of reasons, of which the first and perhaps the most worthy is the desire to prolong and extend our intimacy with the author—to partake again, from another angle, of the joys we have experienced within the author's oeuvre, in the presence of a voice and mind we have come to love.

From John Updike, "On Literary Biography" in Due Considerations: Essays and Criticism (Random House, 2007).

3 comments:

Kate Evans said...

Great quote--it's true for me.

Anonymous said...

Well said, by both you and Updike!

Anonymous said...

Perfect quote - I've been thinking about this subject a great deal recently, and Mr. Updike helped clarify my thinking :)