Carl Rollyson

Carl Rollyson's Biography: A User's Guide is an informative and entertaining text for those interested in biography. No aspect of the genre, from A to Z, goes uncovered: issues around authorized and unauthorized biography, censorship, libel, fair use, public domain (referred to as "PD" by publishers and editors), and a great deal more-including examples drawn from published biographies, as well as general and specific assessments of the biographer's art. Mr. Rollyson demonstrates that biography has more dimensions than are generally gleaned from book reviews and academic discourse. In a lively and provocative style, he argues with other biographers and critics, avoiding the polite and vague tones of many reference books on the subject.

Reading Susan Sontag is the first book to survey the broad range of Ms. Sontag's work, including full discussions of her fiction. Carl Rollyson, Ms. Sontag's first biographer, is uniquely situated to provide well-informed and clear readings of all her major work. He writes for general readers and students as well as for specialists. Each of his chapters is devoted to one of Ms. Sontag's books and is divided into three sections: synopsis, Ms. Sontag's own views of her work, and critical commentary, and thus progresses from basic knowledge to more sophisticated interpretation. In a detailed chronological overview of her work, Mr. Rollyson also describes and comments on Ms. Sontag's forays into film and theatre, showing how her interests in dance and opera, for example, are connected to her aesthetic view of the world. A helpful glossary at the end of the book defines the terms and figures of speech that characterize her essays and may inhibit readers who do not share her formidable command of world culture; it also traces her use of allusions to other writers from one essay to the next. In all, Reading Susan Sontag is an enormously useful companion to the work of one of our major writers.