Pat McNees, writer, editor,
personal historian

On this page:

• Meetings of the Washington Biography Group
• Links to websites and books of WBG members
• Boston biography group
• Other biography centers and resources
• Where and when WBG meets

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Meetings of the Washington Biography Group

The meetings of the Washington (DC) Biography Group take place one Monday evening a month at the Washington International School, 3100 Macomb St., NW, Washington, DC 20008 (between 34th St. and Connecticut Ave).

This is an informal gathering of people who write memoirs or biography, attended by professional writers as well as people writing personal or family memoirs (and a few who are working up the courage to do so). After an initial “go-around,” catching up on where we are in our projects, our guru Marc Pachter or someone else leads a discussion on a topic, and on nights when Marc is hot the best part of the discussion is the great insights he offers into the art and the craft. It may not be worth making a special trip to DC for, but if you're going to be here anyway, it is worth scheduling your visit around one of these meetings, if you have a special interest in life story writing.

The Washington (D.C. Area) Biography Group is open to all who are seriously interested in reading, writing, or researching biographies. The group was inspired by Marc Pachter, then chief historian of the National Portrait Gallery, who organized an all-day symposium on "Biography: Life As Art" at The Smithsonian Institution's Baird Auditorium. Held December 6, 1986, the symposium was attended by 325 people. Three biographers talked about their work: David McCullough (author of Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt; Phyllis Rose (author of Parallel Lives: Five Victorian Marriages); and Marc Pachter (who did a video interview of Edmond Morris about his book, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt).

Marc Pachter, Judy Nelson, and others wondered if members of the audience would like to continue meeting, so Marc announced at the end of the day that those interested in meeting to discuss biography writing should send him a postcard and he would schedule a meeting. In February 1987, about 30 people attended the first meeting, at Chick and Judy Nelson's home. The group continued to meet once a month, first in people's homes, then in independent schools (first Maret, and then and now at the wonderful Washington International School). Now we meet most often in the main building, in the Terrace Room. Marc Pachter — who taught biography for Smith College (here in Washington) and edited Telling Lives: The Biographer's Art — guides the discussions, on topics chosen by the group, and provides invaluable insights into what makes biographies work. (Among topics discussed: the relationship between fiction and biography; problems we wrestle with in our work; family biographers; privacy and the biographer; biography in historical context; the treatment of childhood in biography; what makes a title good; what to leave out of a biography; how to find the central story of the life; the ways of literary agents; how to handle things we don't like about our subjects; front and back matter: finding the essence of the biography; who the heck are YOU to be writing this biography (can a man write about a woman, can an American write about a Brit, can a nonscientist write about a physicist — what entitles you to be writing this life story — one of our best discussions), what new resources are available in the digital age and how reliable are they? At potluck socials held twice a year, in December and in June, where we schmooze and get to know each other, some members read brief selections from their work.

In a discussion of editing, one member spoke of "research rapture," apropos the stuff you are so proud you found that you want to put it in even if it doesn't fit. And Marc Pachter reminded us that as biographers our obligation is not principally to inform but rather to fascinate our readers ("If you are fascinated with the subject, your obligation is to make me fascinated.") He emphasized the importance of finding and crystallizing the essential message of the life we are presenting. (The essential message of the National Museum of the American Indian is "We're still here.") Narrative is principally about change, which doesn't have to take the form of action--it could be quest, transformation, internal drama. Jean Strouse in her biography of Alice James uses traditional structure to show Alice trapped in a prison of Jamesness. (Everyone agrees, more than half the pleasure of these meetings is Marc's comments.)

Links immediately below are to sites of members of the WBG. Scroll or jump to the bottom of page for directions to WBG meetings.

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Links to websites and books of WBG members

Websites of some people and books associated with the Washington Biography Group (some members live outside of the DC area but plan visits so they can attend meetings)

Do not look for logic in the alphabetical order. Browse, as if in a casual old bookstore.

Kenneth Ackerman's biographies (and Ken teaches a great workshop on narrative nonfiction at the Writer's Center in Bethesda):
• Boss Tweed: The Rise and Fall of the Corrupt Pol Who Conceived the Soul of Modern New York
• Young J. Edgar: Hoover, the Red Scare, and the Assault on Civil Liberties
• The Gold Ring: Jim Fisk, Jay Gould, and Black Friday, 1869
• Dark Horse : The Surprise Election and Political Murder of President James A. Garfield

Biographer's International Conference
Brian Jay Jones, postconference report on the first meeting of Biographers International

Ayn Rand and the World She Made by Anne C. Heller (go here for Mike Wallace's interview with Ayn Rand and more on Anne Heller)

Barbie and Ruth: The Story of the World's Most Famous Doll and the Woman Who Created Her, by Robin Gerber. Read New York Post story about the book here.

Tom Benjey
• Carlisle Indian School (Tom's blog)
• Doctors, Lawyers, Indian Chiefs (with Francis Bernie Kish)
• Oklahoma's Carlisle Indian School Immortals
• Keep A-Goin': The Life of Lone Star Dietz
YouTube reading about Pop Warner and the Carlisle Indian School Immortals

Lauren Goldstein Crowe and Sagra Maceira de Rosen, The Towering World of Jimmy Choo: A Glamorous Story of Power, Profits, and the Pursuit of the Perfect Shoe

Diane Diekman, Live Fast, Love Hard: The Faron Young Story (Music in American Life)

Kirsten Downey, The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life of Frances Perkins, FDR'S Secretary of Labor and His Moral Conscience

Kelly DiNardo, Gilded Lili: Lili St. Cyr and the Striptease Mystique

Dorothy Fall, Bernard Fall: Memories of a Soldier-Scholar. See also Dorothy's website and a site for Bernard Fall and his works.

Millicent Fenwick. In a debate about equal rights for women, a male legislator said, "I just don't like this amendment. I've always thought of women as kissable, cuddly and smelling good." Her reply was classic Fenwick: "That's the way I feel about men, too. I only hope for your sake that you haven't been disappointed as often as I have." ~ quoted by Amy Schapiro in her biography and in an article published for what would have been her 100th birthday: Remembering New Jersey's Millicent Fenwick at 100: Outspoken, unique and 'the conscience of Congress'



Jo Freeman, At Berkeley in the Sixties: The Making of an Activist

Robin Gerber's books:
• Barbie and Ruth: The Story of the World's Most Famous Doll and the Woman Who Created Her
• Eleanor vs. Ike (a "thought-provoking novel of what could have been")
• Katharine Graham: The Leadership Journey of an American Icon
• Leadership the Eleanor Roosevelt Way: Timeless Strategies from the First Lady of Courage

Mimi Clark Gronlund, hot-off-the-presses biography of her fatherSupreme Court Justice Tom C. Clark, A Life of Service. You can buy on University of Texas Press website at 33% discount or full price at Amazon (an approach new to me!). Foreword by Clark's son, Ramsey Clark.
And here's an early story, Daughter of Former Justice Pens Biography of Father (by Brian Trompeter, Sun-Gazette).

Nancy Thorndike Greenspan, The End of the Certain World: The Life and Science of Max Born

Faith Reyher Jackson has led several interesting lives, parts of which are captured here , on her publisher's website. Her books include the novel Meadow Fugue and Descant and the biography Pioneer of Tropical Landscape Architecture: William Lyman Phillips in Florida .

Brian Jay Jones, Washington Irving: An American Original

Kitty Kelley's biographies (intentionally unauthorized):
• Oprah: A Biography
• The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty
• The Royals
• Nancy Reagan: The Unauthorized Biography
• Jackie Oh!
• Elizabeth Taylor: The Last Star
• His Way: An Unauthorized Biography Of Frank Sinatra

Oprah: A Biography by Kitty Kelley. Excerpt from the foreword:
With each biography the challenge has been to answer the question John F. Kennedy posed when he said, "What makes journalism so fascinating and biography so interesting is the struggle to answer the question: 'What's he like?'" In writing about contemporary figures, I've found the unauthorized biography avoids the pureed truths of revisionist history — the pitfall of authorized biography. Without having to follow the dictates of the subject, the unauthorized biographer has a much better chance to penetrate the manufactured public image, which is crucial. For, to quote President Kennedy again, "The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie — deliberate, contrived and dishonest — but the myth — persistent, persuasive and unrealistic."
~ see fuller excerpt with Karen Grigsby Bates' story on NPR about the book: Oprah the Icon Gets the Kitty Kelley Treatment

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Linda Lear's books:
• Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature
• Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature
• Lost Woods: The Discovered Writing of Rachel Carson

Pat McNees's books:
• My Words Are Gonna Linger: The Art of Personal History (co-edited with Paula Stallings Yost)
• Contemporary Latin American Short Stories (edited by Pat and in print since 1974)
• New Formulas for America's Workforce: Girls in Science and Engineering (written for the National Science Foundation), readable or downloadable free here
• Building Ten at Fifty: Fifty Years of Clinical Research at the NIH Clinical Center, from which you can read selections and watch a video here.
• An American Biography: An Industrialist Remembers the Twentieth Century, with a foreword by Robert Kanigel. Comments here.
• By Design: The Story of Crown Equipment Corporation
• YPO: The First 50 Years (a history of the Young Presidents' Organization)
• Dying: A Book of Comfort (healing words on loss and grief) , Pat's popular anthology. Go here to buy the lovely small gift edition (available only from Pat), go here to read selections from the anthology, and go here for the companion website with useful links and information about critical and chronic illness, caregiving, death and dying, end-of-life care, and funerals and memorial services.

Kristie Miller's website and blog (Kristie writes about women in politics) and her books:
• Ellen and Edith: Woodrow Wilson's First Ladies (the Modern First Ladies series -- WONDERFUL cover). Check out the great blurbs on the publisher's page.
• A Volume of Friendship: The Letters of Eleanor Roosevelt and Isabella Greenway, 1904-1953
• Isabella Greenway: An Enterprising Woman, reviewed here by Jo Freeman
• Ruth Hanna McCormick: A Life in Politics, 1880-1944
and
• Kristie Miller's Letter of Intent

Nell Minow, stories about:
• MovieMom's Double Life by Christina Ianzito (WashPost Magazine, 7-5-09: When Nell Minow isn't ripping apart some lame action film or appalling gross-out comedy, she's busy attacking overpaid corporate executives and the 'boneheaded' decisions they make)and the online chat with Nell the following week. Also, check out her blog: her blog, Movie Mom (a parent's eye on media, culture, and values)
• "The Pay Problem" by David Owen, The World of Business (New Yorker, 10-12-09, on Nell Minow and the regulation of executive compensation), followed by Nell Minow on the gutting of financial reform (an edited transcript of Avi Zenilman's conversation with Nell).
• The Corporate Critic; Nell Minow Uses Her Zeal for Films to Investors' Advantage (Adam Bryant, NYTimes, 1-19-1999)

Ann Miller Morin, Her Excellency: An Oral History of American Women Ambassadors (mandatory reading for new ambassadors)

Marc Pachter, editor of Telling Lives: The Biographer's Art

Henry "Duke" Ryan's books:
• The Fall of Che Guevara: A Story of Soldiers, Spies, and Diplomats by Henry Butterfield Ryan
• The Vision of Anglo-America: The US-UK Alliance and the Emerging Cold War, 1943-1946 by Henry Butterfield Ryan
• Impure Thoughts four novellas by Duke Ryan

Amy Schapiro, Millicent Fenwick: Her Way

James Srodes's books:
• Franklin: America's Essential Founding Father
• Allen Dulles: Master of Spies
• Dream Maker: The Rise and Fall of John Z. DeLorean, with coauthor Ivan Fallon

David Stewart's books:
• Impeached: The Trial of President Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln's Legacy (forthcoming)
• The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution
• His blog: Constitutional Journal and the father-son bike trip blog, with photos (and a biking adventure with his son, Matt, from Warsaw to Odessa, in search of family roots (July 2008)

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Boston Biography Group

As of January 2008, this new biography group is meeting once a month, Sunday afternoon at 3 pm, in a private home in Newburyport, MA. How and why the group formed:

At a one-week workshop on biography held at Radcliffe (June 2007), 36 applicants ("The Schlesinger 36") who were chosen to have one-on-one mentoring got more favorable mingling opportunities than the one-hundred-odd others. Some participants noticed that those with academic affiliations were given better opportunities to mingle with the great than, say, journalists were, although journalists may be as qualified to write biographies as scholars are. A small group from Boston's north shore and the southern New Hampshire area decided to form a group to build community among biographers and provide mentoring and networking opportunities, and a chance to exchange leads and tips on publishing. Let me know if you are interested in joining and I'll forward your e-mail to someone in the group (until they get a website or an e-mail address they don't mind making public).

Other local biography groups

Los Angeles Biographers. A group of biographers loosely affiliated with PEN meets fairly regularly in Santa Monica, with Kay Mills at its center.

The London-based Biographers Club has fairly frequent meetings, with speakers. Here's a description of the April meeting: Julie Wheelwright, the programme director of the UK's first MA in Creative Writing Nonfiction at City University and author of The Fatal Lover: Mata Hari and the Myth of Women in Espionage, will be talking about 'Where the Truth Lies? An exploration of the challenges biographer and historians face writing in an unstable genre.' Fake memoires, doctored documentaries, nonfiction books outstripping sales for fiction - what does it all mean? Julie Wheelwright explores the pressures that historians and biographers face as access to information explodes while the media increasingly blurs the traditional divide between fact and fiction.