44
PARTISAN REVIEW
inability that I had at that time (and that Jeffrey Meyers certainly does
not have)
to
leave out anything that one had found that had never been
mentioned before. It could be a third grade report card, or the full
menu-every course-of a dinner with friedrich Nietzsche. And I
wanted
to
ask-it would be practical
to
know in case I still have time
to
write another biography-how you deal with this issue? Do you make
a choice about eliminating certain details, or is it a matter of how you
incorporate them into the context?
Jeffrey Meyers:
I'm going to use that question as an excuse to say some–
thing I didn't have time
to
speak of, which I think might be provocative:
the twelve principles of literary biography, which include an answer
to
your specific question. This is how I think lives should be written and
what they ought
to
achieve. I feel this could be helpful to biographers:
1.
Read everything in print and follow up every lead.
2.
Be persistent and see everyone who'll 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. Descri be the su bject's persona I ha bits a nd tastes.
6. Portray the minor characters as fully as possible.
7. Illuminate the recurrent patterns of the life-that is, 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
lI1ean.
10.
Be selective rather than exhaustive, analytical rather than descrip–
tive. Aim for four hundred pages and rememher that a shorter
book is much harder
to
write than a long one.
IT.
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 the responsibility of the biographer
to
do justice
to
his subjects.
Rita Kramer:
That is a wonderful recipe. Thank you.
Sidra Ezrahi:
J
want
to
thank all three of you for a wonderful spectrum
of evocative presentations . Referring primarily
to
Micha l's presentation,
I want to thank her for having done what she says needed doing, which
