It is not surprising that biography is one of the most popular literary genres of our day. What is remarkable is that there is no accessible guide for how to write one. Now, following his recent Biography: A Brief History (from Harvard), award-winning biographer and teacher Nigel Hamilton tackles the practicalities of doing biography in this first succinct primer to elucidate the tools of the biographer’s craft. Hamilton invites the reader to join him on a fascinating journey through the art of biographical composition. Starting with personal motivation, he charts the making of a modern biography from the inside: from conception to fulfillment. He emphasizes the need to know one’s audience, rehearses the excitement and perils of modern research, delves into the secrets of good and great biography, and guides the reader through the essential components of life narrative. With examples taken from the finest modern biographies, Hamilton shows how to portray the ages of man—birth, childhood, love, life’s work, the evening of life, and death. In addition, he suggests effective ways to start and close a life story. He clarifies the difference between autobiography and memoir—and addresses the sometimes awkward ethical, legal, and personal consequences of truth-telling in modern life writing. He concludes with the publication and reception of biography—its afterlife, so to speak. Written with humor, insight, and compassion, How To Do Biography is the manual that would-be biographers have long been awaiting. (20080415)

Product Description: Modeled on one of the most famous histories of ancient Rome (The Twelve Caesars), Nigel Hamilton’s new book, American Caesars, looks afresh at the lives and careers of the twelve leaders of the American empire since World War II, from Franklin D...read more

Product Description: For thousands of years we have recorded real lives--the lives of others, and of ourselves. For what purpose and for whom has this universal and timeless pursuit endured? What obstacles have lain in the path of biographers in the past, and what continues to confound biographers today? Above all, how is it that biographies and autobiographies play such a contested, popular role in contemporary Western culture, from biopics to blogs, from memoir to docudrama? Award-winning biographer and teacher Nigel Hamilton addresses these questions in an incisive and vivid narrative that will appeal to students of human nature and self-representation across the arts and sciences...read more

Product Description: A decade-and-a-half after William Jefferson Clinton first took the oath of office, biographer Nigel Hamilton tells the riveting story of what was possibly the greatest self-reinvention of a president in office in modern times. The Clinton presidency began disastrously and deteriorated in a series of fiascoes...read more

Product Description: From best-selling, award-winning biographer Nigel Hamilton, this is an insightful, prodigiously researched, and wonderfully readable account of Bill Clinton’s first term in office. It shows how a well-meaning but naïve new president failed to assert true leadership in his first two years, and then illustrates how, in an astonishing act of self-reinvention, the president turned defeat into victory...read more

Product Description: This fascinating study of military leadership follows British general Bernard Law Montgomery’s military career from his cadet days and service in World War I to his great victories of World War II, including his defeat of the great German panzer commander, Erwin Rommel, at Alamein...read more

Nigel Hamilton brings all the magisterial authority he brought to his Whitbread-winning biography of Monty, and all the talent for tracking down and verifying hidden, controversial material that he showed in JFK: Reckless Youth, which topped the American bestseller charts for months, in this new biography of Bill Clinton.

A biography of America's first baby-boomer president offers an examination of Bill Clinton's background and career, from his Arkansas upbringing and education at Oxford to his early political life.

Product Description: The first in a multi-volume new biography of John F. Kennedy encompasses the early years of Kennedy's career, his youth and Harvard education, the story of PT-109, his affair with a suspected Nazi spy, and more. 100,000 first printing. $150,000 ad/promo. Tour.

The best-selling author of JFK: Restless Youth provides an analytical portrait of British Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery, detailing his remarkable military achievements and his difficult personality. 12,500 first printing.

Product Description: A variety of contributors write about the great dividing lines that cut off one people from another and mark the barriers between culture, language, religion and race. Some frontiers follow natural features such as rivers or mountain ranges, whilst others are the results of recent wars or old imperial bargains, but they are all man-made...read more

Details the last thirty-two years of Monty's life, from the Normandy invasion and the end of World War II to his death

Traces the career of the British Field Marshal from his decisive victory at El Alamein to the Battle of Normandy and describes his relationships with other Allied military leaders

This biography of Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery, based on his private papers, reveals his strategies, complex relationships with military leaders and details about his personal life, and provides accounts of him as a soldier

Studies the political and artistic rivalry and emotional closeness of Thomas and Heinrich Mann, analyzing the cultural, social, and familial milieu in which the brothers developed and worked