Featured series 
Tag: Biography
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Nation & World
Life seeking answers at Giza, Nubia
Egyptologist George Reisner transformed the field, and a biography by Peter Der Manuelian explores not just his career, but his life during what some consider the golden age of Egyptian archaeology.
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Nation & World
On the road to JFK
Fredrik Logevall, whose recent book, “JFK: Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917‒1956,” covers the president’s early years. In conversation Monday with fellow historian Jon Meacham, Logevall discussed his findings and offered some hints as to what is to come in the second volume.
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Nation & World
A portrait of JFK, in full
Fredrik Logevall’s biography on John F. Kennedy aims to chronicle a complex life amid a pivotal time for a nation.
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Nation & World
A too-short life, examined
D.T. Max, author of a new biography of David Foster Wallace, sat down with professor and critic James Wood to discuss the writer’s legacy and his brief time at Harvard, a catalyst for the breakdown and recovery that inspired much of Wallace’s masterpiece, “Infinite Jest.”
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Nation & World
High Financier: The Lives and Time of Siegmund Warburg
This biography by Niall Ferguson, Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History and Professor of Business Administration, chronicles the life of Siegmund Warburg, a financial wiz, prophet of globalization, and strategic businessman.
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Nation & World
His Majesty’s Opponent: Subhas Chandra and India’s Struggle Against Empire
Gardiner Professor of Oceanic History and Affairs Sugata Bose parses the life of Indian revolutionary Subhas Chandra Bose, who struggled to liberate his people from British rule and led the Indian National Army against Allied Forces during World War II.
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Nation & World
Johnson at 300
Harvard’s Houghton Library, home to a comprehensive collection related to 18th century English literature, sponsored a three-day international literary celebration of lexicographer, poet, essayist, and moralist Samuel Johnson, born 300 years ago this year. His work has inspired centuries of scholarship and generations of fervent ‘Johnsonians.’
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Nation & World
Appreciating Billie Jean King’s contribution to second-wave feminism
In a stately room in the Barker Center, flanked by portraits of famous men, Billie Jean King holds court. Not physically. She’s the topic of discussion, the name on everyone’s lips. One would think this were the after party of her notorious 1973 “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match with Bobby Riggs, the match she…
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Nation & World
Week of events at Radcliffe links history and biography
Twentieth century American historian Susan Ware will lead another workshop group. She’s an independent scholar who has written several biographies, including one of Earhart. At the Radcliffe Institute from 1997 to 2005, Ware was editor of volume five of the biographical dictionary “Notable American Women.”
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Nation & World
Seminar on gender history seeks participants
The March 15 application deadline for “Writing Past Lives: Biography as History” — the Schlesinger Library’s summer seminar on gender history — is fast approaching. Established scholars, writers, and advanced graduate students in U.S. history and gender studies are invited to apply.
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Nation & World
Chinese diarist opens door to history
Liu Dapeng (1857-1942), the subject of Henrietta Harrison’s book “The Man Awakened from Dreams” (Stanford University Press, 2005), seems an odd choice for a biography. A Confucian scholar and teacher in the village of Chiqiao in Shanxi province, northern China, Liu was poor and unknown, and, although a prolific writer, never published a word.