In the Fall issue we ran 5 questions past "serial biographer" Jeffrey Meyers (p. 90), who took his doctorate in English at Cal in 1967. Since that time, he has written 43 books, including more than 20 biographies -- most recently, Samuel Johnson: The Struggle. In addition to providing answers to our questions, Meyers sent his "12 principles of biography." They are:
1. Read everything in print and follow up every lead.And there you have it all you aspiring Boswells: A baker's dozen.
2. Be persistent and see everyone who will talk to you.
3. Weigh all the evidence like a lawyer. A biographer is an artist on oath.
4. Get the subject born in the first five pages. Nothing is duller than genealogy.
5. Describe the subject's personal habits and tastes.
6. Portray the minor characters as fully as possible.
7. Illuminate the recurrent patterns of the life. Look at the big picture, not the small details.
8. Keep up the dramatic narrative, employing the same techniques as the novelist, and concentrate on your readers' interests rather than your own obsessions.
9. Don't focus on the events of the life, but on what they mean.
10. Be selective rather than exhaustive, analytical rather than descriptive. Aim for 400 pages and remember that a shorter book, though much harder to write, is easier to read than a long one.
11. Complete the book in a few years, at most, or you'll begin to hate the subject for eating up your life.
12. Always remember that the responsibility of the biographer is to do justice to the subject.
--As a lagniappe I should add: marry a woman who shares your passionate interest in biography, and is an excellent linguist, indexer, researcher, critic and editor.
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