The Biographer Inspires Reading and Writing

Montgomery Clift with his "Misfits" co-star, Marilyn Monroe.

You don't know this about me, but I love to read biographies. I love the writing. I love the research. I adore visiting someone's life through the words written by their biographer. In particular, I love Hollywood biographies. Patricia Bosworth is the author of the 1978 Montgomery Clift: A Biography. I consider this to be the best biography that I had read as a teenager. Clift had starred in several of my favorite films: "A Place In The Sun", which was based on the Theodore Dreiser novel,  An American Tragedy;  "Suddenly Last Summer", which was based on the one-act play by Tennessee Williams (it was also directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz); "The Misfits" which was directed by John Huston and featured a screenplay written by Arthur Miller; and "Freud: The Secret Passion" which featured a screenplay written by Jean-Paul Sartre.  Sartre's name was removed from the screen credits by Huston.

Montgomery's films featured collaborations and the works of novelists, screenwriters, playwrights, and directors that I admired. Sometimes reading a biography causes you to go back and explore the works of other writers and or filmmakers. Clift and his generation of actors which included, Monroe, James Dean, and Marlon Brando, were well-read and admired by writers. This love affair between actors and writers is all over the pages of this biography. Also as a reader, when I discovered the connections between writers in the text, I was motivated to read the works of writers that I hadn't yet read. For example, I had read Jean-Paul Sartre, but when I learned of his relationship with Simone de Beauvoir, I immediately went to Mac's Backs on Coventry to get a copy of The Second Sex.

Nobody wrote about Hollywood like Vanity Fair's Patricia Bosworth.

Now about Patricia Bosworth, she is one of my favorite journalists and biographers. She presently serves as a Contributing Editor with my favorite magazine, Vanity Fair. Bosworth has worked at the magazine for nearly 30 years and a reason why I don't throw the book out for at least three or four years--her articles can be read and re-read on the cloudy gray Sunday morning over a cup of Celestial Seasonings tea. Her brief career as an actress featured appearances in films like "Inherit The Wind" and "Young Dr. Malone". I admit I didn't remember seeing her onscreen in either picture. She made the change to journalism and has held positions at Screen Stars, Harper's, McCall's, and of course, Vanity Fair.

A young Elizabeth Taylor with an older, Montgomery Clift

  Bosworth's biography was a tender portrayal of a troubled actor who lived a duplicitous, well confused lifestyle because he wasn't certain about his sexuality. This becomes the crux of the complex story that Bosworth pieces together after conducting her research. The loner whose beautiful looks belied his tremendous acting ability, died alone. His co-star Elizabeth Taylor became one of his closest friends; one of his great loves. Bosworth writes of their relationship:

Copyright 1990 Patricia Bosworth.

 If you enjoy biographies, Bosworth's work is worth reading. There is the Brando book, the Diane Arbus, and the most recent, Jane Fonda biography. I'm glad I spent a couple of weeks re-acquainting myself with the Montgomery Clift biography, it was a welcome, no needed, bit of inspiration.

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A Writer Will Learn To Write

Kate Hepburn: Reading her biography was heavenly.

Someone asked me where I went to school and I had to tell them that there was no one place. I learned my craft at the library like many writers. We have a fine library system in Northeast Ohio. I spent part of my youth in the Fine Arts Department of my city's main library. I tried to read as many Hollywood biographies as possible and I continue this practice to this day. And sure, I went to college, however, I discovered that craft is not easily taught when you don't have writing faculty members. I don't mean scholarly writers, I mean, working writers who teach the craft of fiction and non-fiction writing. There were several British Literature professors at my school, but I only had one real writer-teacher, and that was the late Sheila Schwartz. She was beloved by her students.

Sheila talked to you like a writer. She took you to task for your sloppy work, she complimented you when your work deserved it. I took advantage of my time with her to develop my skills as a fiction writer--I had been told not to go there. But I knew I was more than a memoir writer.

But I go back to reading biographies and what it did for me as a writer. I received inspiration from the stories of famous people. You never realize what a person goes through to ascend to great heights in this life. Biographies not only celebrate the life of the subject, but also that of the person who spent those years researching that person. I cannot imagine the hard work that is involved in writing the biography of a Hollywood icon like say, Katherine Hepburn.

If I were to be given a chance to write a biography, it would be difficult to think of a personality that I would want to spend years researching. Therefore, I'd probably rather research some like writer-director, JJ Abrams (Lost, Alcatraz, Cloverfield, Alias, etc.). He is almost like an old-school writer-director--someone with a definite non-Hollywood point-of-view. I am excited by this kind of against-the-grain thinking. Abrams thinks like a writer.  A writer will learn to write--his life is his classroom.