Biography Theory at a Glance (3/9)

Nicolson, Harold. The Development of English Biography. London, L. & Virginia Woolf, 1927.

Nicolson dwells on the need for a good biography to exhibit a "creative mind," yet refrain from projecting the substance of that mind onto the biographical subject. Inasmuch as he aims for a perfect application of scientific method to produce biography, perhaps he is not successful; yet, we have here historic readings of Boswell, Lockhart (Walter Scott's son-in-law), Froude (biographer of Thomas Carlyle; juicy controversy here), Sir Edmond Gosse's Father and Son, and Lyton Strachey's Queen Victoria. (Thanks to Ford K. Brown's review, MLN 1929)

Apparently Nicholson was a biographer, a CIA operative with expertise in Balkan affairs, and Vita-Sackville West's partner in a marriage of convenience. Fun!