Who Writes the Biographer's Biography?

"In 1927-just five years after the publication of and five years shy of his 50th birthday-James Joyce decided it was high time for someone to write his biography. Joyce first approached Stuart Gilbert, who was already working on an authorized study of Ulysses with the author's encouragement and collaboration. Gilbert wisely demurred. So Joyce turned to Herbert Gorman, the author of a critical study, James Joyce: His First Forty Years (1924), and offered him the burden of a lifetime (or at least a decade)."

"In Joyce's case, the word author in authorized bears extra weight: Joyce, a nightmare subject who was prone to fantastic paranoia, prodded Gorman when his progress stalled; threatened Gorman (menacingly, through his financial adviser and legal representative, Paul Léon) when he felt disserved by the draft chapters provided (and those withheld); and insisted on correcting Gorman's page proofs-demanding in at least one case that Gorman tell a bald-faced lie for his benefit-before he would allow the biography to be published."

James Joyce commissioned a biography in 1927 and initially approached Stuart Gilbert, who declined. Herbert Gorman accepted and undertook the project, which became protracted and harrowing. Joyce continuously intervened: prodding progress, threatening Gorman through his financial adviser when displeased, insisting on corrections to page proofs, and demanding at least one deliberate falsehood before permitting publication. Joyce also delayed the book’s release to prioritize the completion of Finnegans Wake, which issued in 1939. After years of interference Gorman declared he would never again attempt a biography of a living man, calling the work too difficult and thankless.

Read at The Nation