Biographies

Apparently this is National Biographers Day.

I love biographies and autobiographies.  I am currently reading (among other things) Andy Cohen's recently published "Daddy Diaries," which reads more like something I'd write than something written by someone who wanted to write a serious autobiography.  But getting the sense of his relationship with his son (and presumably before the book ends, his new daughter) is so beautiful.

The other autobiography I can recall where the parent/child relationship is expressed so beautifully was, surprisingly, Rob Lowe's autobiography, "Love Life."  This is actually his second autobiography, the first of which was "Stories I Only Tell My Friends."  "Love Life" is not, as some would suspect, the story of the various relationships he has had, but more what he loves about his life -- his wife (to whom he had been married >22 years at the time of this writing), his sons, his work, his friends.  Particularly beautiful was the story of his son's going off to college and his sadness at the child leaving the nest.  

I have read so many biographies.  The first one I remember reading was of actor Paul Muni. who died in 1967.  I couldn't pick him out of a group of pictures, don't remember ever seeing anything he was in, but someone gave me this biography to read back in the 1970s and I was so taken with it that with all the books I have given away over the years, I somehow hold onto this one because it hit me so strongly.

Of course I've read a lot of biographies of Judy Garland.  I don't know how many biographies of her I have, but keep buying them.  It was a great surprise to read the last book I bought, "Get Happy: the Life of Judy Garland" which was filled with information I'd never read before.  I thought after reading 5 or 6 books about her life I pretty much knew everything.

Another autobiography that surprised me was of Kate Mulgrew, whose book I read after seeing her in Orange is the New Black.  I never saw her Star Trek series or anything else she  was in, but I got this book because I was curious about her character in Orange.  However, the book doesn't quite go that far in her history.  Still, I was so impressed with how well written the book was.

Some biographies are just surprising.  Raymond Burr's story was pretty much a surprise from beginning to end, though the book itself was pretty boring.  What is interesting about this man is how he fabricated his history to include 3 wives and one son. One wife divorced him after a few months, the other two wives and the son, all of whom died, never existed. The military history he tells, including receiving a purple heart, never happened, but people believed it so much that these appeared in some of his obituaries. Throughout his life he refused to discuss personal matters and it was not until he died that I found out that he was gay and had been living with his partner for 33 years.

We watch Match Game every night and I was tickled to find the biography of host Gene Rayburn.  I  think of all the regulars on that show, only Richard Dawson is still alive, but finding out all the ins and outs of the show was fascinating.

It's the kind of information I hoped to get in Kelly Ripa's autobiography, which was just boring period.

You can't say that about Alan Cumming's autobiography, "Not My Father's Son," which starts with the mental and physical abuse he and his brother received from their father.  I started my review, "I can't think of a biography I have ever read that has moved me to this extent. I'm not necessarily a fan of Alan Cumming, though I think he is a fine actor, but I heard his book was good--and I do love a well written book. My word."  It's not for the faint of heart, for sure.

There is much joy in the historical novel-biography, "White Houses." There is pathos and great sadness in the story of Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hitchcock, the reporter with whom Eleanor had a physical relationship for many years (making her the first and so far only--that we know of--lesbian first lady!)

And then there is "Never Caught," the story of George Washington's runaway slave, whom he pursued for the rest of his life.  But she found a way to leave him and live as a free woman.

I could go on and on and on.  My GoodReads list has 26 biographies and 59 autobiographies (and that doesn't include the two I'm reading now, Cohen's and Julie Andrews' story of her years in Hollywood.  I know I  read a lot of crime novels (160 on my GoodReads list) but a good percentage of my  reading is stories of people  that I find interesting.

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