IIOW TRUE TO LIFE IS BIOGRAPHY?
55
the reader. In this rebellion against your own projected plot, I see the
responsibility to the reader and to the future. Because plots might have
a dictatorial, imposing power on us. Exposing this hold of the plots–
cultural, historical, ideological, etc.-either by the structure of the
novel, or by the characters' or the narrator's consciousness is, I believe,
an act of responsibility for a future lived not as a predestination, but
rather with freedom.
Jeffrey Meyers:
Well, the pressure of the future to me, in a biography,
means two things. First, the immediate effect of what you say about the
people involved. Most of the time I try
to
ignore that. It's axiomatic that
the family won't like what you say because they have their idea, and
your idea will never match theirs. So, you really have to repay some peo–
ple who helped you a lot with a certain amount of tact and discretion
that you might not otherwise show if they hadn't been kind to you.
Conversely, people who have been nasty and uncooperative let them–
selves open
to
a more brutal honesty than perhaps you would have
given them in the first place.
Some of the most interesting things that ever happen in writing a
biography are the letters you get afterwards. I'll just cite one incident,
which I found particularly interesting. The big discovery in my Robert
Frost book was the fact that he had had a mistress for the last twenty–
five years of his life, which nobody knew about, and nobody mentioned.
To me it was really a spectacular discovery, which changed the whole
notion of the last part of Frost's life, and especially the first book of
poetry he published after that very passionate love affair began.
I had a lot of trouble seeing the daughter of the mistress, Kay Morri–
son. When eventually I went to see her two things happened. One, as I
walked in the door, she saiu, "I've been waiting my whole life for some–
body like you
to
come. This story, that has been held in since I was a
child, can now be told, because you are the one who is anointed to
receive this." In the course of talking, I asked her about the husband she
was married
to
at that time, and she dismissed it, "Oh, he doesn't know
anything," or "I hate him." It was so difficult getting things out of her
that I let that go. The book was published, and I got a letter from her
husband. And he said, "[ was on the scene, and I was there with Ted and
with Kay, the husband and wife, and I was there with Robert Frost, and
I was watching it every day, and I knew that something was going on,
and I never understood until I read your book what was actually hap–
pening." I then thought, that's really great stuff. I got it right.
