biography

Biographer Ruth Franklin joins us to tell us about her new biography ‘The Many Lives of Anne Frank.’ Franklin explores the transformation of Anne Frank from ordinary teenager to icon shedding new light on the young woman whose diary of her years in hiding is now translated into more than 70 languages and is the most widely read work of literature to arise from the Holocaust.Franklin’s book comprehensively researched but experimental in spirit chronicles and interprets Anne’s life as a Jew in Amsterdam during World War II, while also telling the story of the diary, its multiple drafts, its discovery, its reception, and its message for today’s world.

In his latest biography, “Mark Twain,” Ron Chernow brings to life the man known as the father of American literature, Mark Twain. Chernow peels back the layers of this complex figure, showing us the man behind classics like “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and “The Innocents Abroad.”

Megan Marshall, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for biography, has long been revered for her narrative skills and deep insights into historical figures. In her new book “After Lives: On Biography and the Mysteries of the Human Heart” she takes those skills to her own art and life.

Author Meryl Gordon’s new biography “The Woman Who Knew Everyone: The Power of Perle Mesta, Washington’s Most Famous Hostess” delves into the life of Perle Mesta, a prominent socialite, political hostess, activist, and U.S. envoy to Luxembourg.

In his latest biography, “Mark Twain,” Ron Chernow brings to life the man known as the father of American literature, Mark Twain. Chernow peels back the layers of this complex figure, showing us the man behind classics like “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and “The Innocents Abroad.”

Historian James Bradley has written a major new biography of local resident and the 8th president of the United States, Martin Van Buren. He was the first chief executive not born a British citizen and the first to use the party system to chart his way from tavern-keeper's son to the pinnacle of power.This new biography of Van Buren - the first full-scale portrait in four decades - charts his ascent from a tavern in the Hudson Valley to the presidency, concluding with his late-career involvement in an antislavery movement. Offering vivid profiles of the day's leading figures (Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, John Calhoun, John Quincy Adams, DeWitt Clinton, James K. Polk), James Bradley's book depicts the struggle for power in the tumultuous decades leading up to the Civil War.

Megan Marshall, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for biography, has long been revered for her narrative skills and deep insights into historical figures. In her new book “After Lives: On Biography and the Mysteries of the Human Heart” she takes those skills to her own art and life.

Music writer Peter Ames Carlin explores the lives of four college friends—Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, and Bill Berry—whose bond was unbreakable, even as their fame grew and they became one of the biggest rock bands in the world. Peter's new book is "The Name of This Band is R.E.M."

Magazine writer and biographer, Bill Zehme had been on the Johnny Carson beat for decades. He was a fan and looked at Carson as the great American Sphinx. Finally, he landed a prized interview for Esquire Magazine in 2002 - a decade after Johnny left the airwaves. When Carson died in 2005, Zehme signed a contract to do an expansive biography on the "King of Late Night.He worked on the book for more than a decade and then a cancer diagnosis and ongoing treatments halted his progress. Zehme died in 2023. The New York Times called it "one of the great unfinished biographies." Enter: Mike Thomas, Zehme's former research assistant, who took the notes and the finished chapters and completed the project which became the book "Carson: The Magnificent."

In "Reagan: His Life and Legend" Max Boot, the distinguished political columnist, illuminates the untold story of Ronald Reagan, revealing the man behind the mythology. Drawing on interviews with over one hundred of the fortieth president’s aides, friends, and family members, as well as thousands of newly available documents.