PositiveThe Huffington PostHe devotes one chapter to the history of biography and, though it’s relatively brief, it’s satisfyingly thorough. He spends several pages parsing James Bowell’s up-close-and-personal Samuel Johnson coverage. Elsewhere, he talks about the demands of gathering letters and other artifacts. He covers the serendipity that can accompany those searches ... Chatting about his life he is often witty and, less often, merely cute. I did appreciate his mentioning, in regard to rereading, that 'You can never read the same book twice.' How indisputably true that is! ... Let’s just say that as Atlas presents it, biography is a labor of love where the exact nature of that love (giving precedence to love of family?) can be questioned. That message of love of one’s calling, as relayed in this 'tale,' just might be the genuinely significant one the dedicated biographer has to send.
