Biographies

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  • "Lives" of our time

    Paul Johnson's "Napoleon" embodies the best of Penguin's discontinued short biography series, while Jane Smiley's "Dickens," alas, represents the worst.
    By Allen Barra July 1, 2002

  • Salon recommends

    Stylish new Wodehouse editions and more of our favorite books.
    April 22, 2002

  • Pietro di Donato's "Christ in Concrete"

    The long-lost novel that inspired Jimmy Breslin to write "The Short Sweet Dream of Eduardo Gutierrez."
    By Allen Barra March 14, 2002

  • The lady's Yves

    Yves Saint Laurent's love for women was never so loudly professed as in the lines of his garments.
    By Stephanie Zacharek January 22, 2002

  • Rick Bragg

    He's gone from Calhoun County, Ala., to Islamabad and back, but the author of "Ava's Man" never leaves his family far behind.
    By Lynda Cardwell December 13, 2001

  • Jeanne Moreau

    When you visit the woman Orson Welles called "the greatest actress in the world," don't try to light her cigarette -- you might get burned.
    By Jeff Galipeaux December 6, 2001

  • Meg Whitman

    The CEO of eBay presides over a company worth more than four times as much as Kmart. Maybe there's something to this e-commerce thing after all.
    By Loren Fox November 27, 2001

  • Wilma Mankiller

    The first female chief of the Cherokee Nation, she took tragedy and illness and made strength. And don't even ask where she got her name.
    By Andrew Nelson November 20, 2001

  • Tom Stoppard

    For the last four decades, the playwright has filled the theater world with clever wordplay, big ideas and palpable passion.
    By Amy Reiter November 13, 2001

  • "Isadora: A Sensational Life"

    An excerpt from the new biography of dancer Isadora Duncan.
    By Peter Kurth November 12, 2001

  • David Lynch

    The pleasant, bizarre filmmaker who gave us the Lynchian world insists that now, more than ever, we must face the darkness.
    By Brian Libby November 6, 2001

  • Roger Payne

    After fighting to protect whales for 30 years, the biologist who discovered that humpbacks sing still feels nothing but awe for the huge "impossible animals."
    By Amy Standen October 30, 2001

  • Don DeLillo

    America's premier novelist of ideas has long anticipated a world in which spectacle and terror would achieve totemic significance in our everyday lives.
    By Jeffrey MacIntyre October 23, 2001

  • Art Howe

    The laid-back manager of the hard-charging Oakland A's does it his way, laconically and happily. And that drives his critics crazy.
    By Steve Kettmann October 16, 2001

  • Rickey Henderson

    Say what you will about his attitude, he walks the walk. And in the last few days he's walked right into the record books -- twice.
    By Allen St. John October 9, 2001

  • Bono

    Over two decades, U2's leader has evolved from heart-on-his-sleeve idealist to irony-drenched rock 'n' roll Liberace to hopeful pragmatist.
    By Brian Libby October 2, 2001

  • The opposite of sex

    Andy Warhol, ultimate icon of pop, made painting an orgy and pornography an art form. But you'll never guess what he did between the sheets.
    By Jonathon Keats September 28, 2001

  • Paul Harvey

    He's been a radio icon since Limbaugh and Stern were in grade school. More than that, he is the finest huckster ever to roam the airwaves.
    By Mike Thomas September 25, 2001

  • Anne Bancroft

    Thirty-four years after creating the indelible Mrs. Robinson, she's an actress who still shines in every role.
    By Elizabeth Kuball September 18, 2001

  • David Mamet

    He mows down b.s. with his satire, yet still sells popcorn.
    By Paul A. Toth September 11, 2001

  • Jonathan Richman

    The rough and charming godfather of punk sings quietly now and makes us nostalgic for a time that never existed.
    By Chris Colin September 4, 2001

  • Dion

    His voice belongs not solely to the chart-making pop star but also to another, secret singer, who sang in the margins when practically no one was listening.
    By Stephanie Zacharek August 28, 2001

  • For the love of literature

    Scott Fitzgerald stole Zelda's ideas, plagiarized her diaries and even pushed her into an affair. He was arguably the worst husband of his generation -- and that made him its best author.
    By Jonathon Keats August 25, 2001

  • Janet Jackson

    Her best singles represent the kind of quality craftsmanship that made us listen to the radio in the first place.
    By Steve Burgess August 21, 2001

  • Marvin Miller

    As the head of the Major League Baseball Players Association, he challenged the assumptions that players are chattel and that labor unions have no place within sports.
    By David Davis August 8, 2001
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