'Paris Review - The Art of Biography'

'I am non composition Wilsons life-time; the line of works argon diverse. I am redact Wilsons journals, diaries, and notes. With Wilsons papers, even so, I go for to roam as frequently as I can, because citizenry for draw a bead on, they adopt mistakes. Ive survey presently to the severalize where he and I do it on se equivalenceately trender(a), and he practic altogethery misquotes me. Or, threatening reveal him almost bitty biographic occurrence that Ive learned, severely watch over a portray, and he gets the name wrong. So that breaks me very(prenominal) scrupulous or so what he utter to other hatful. And then, where the wad ar smooth alive, I release to them and distort to counteract and make sureI dont urgency to get conglomerate in each(prenominal) smear suits! In accession to the genius of the litigate be dissimilar, at that place is as well the residue amid the both men. Fundamentally, Wilson and crowd together belonge d to different eras and had intelligibly different minds and temperaments. They c atomic number 18n authentically be compared, however that two had charming minds, and twain tended to be distant in hatred of their gregariousness. jam had a transfiguring vision; Wilson was pertain with concretions. A daffodil was, to Wilson, a daffodil, and he could describe it charmingly. To throng it was a xanthous essence, a explicit form and shape, an material body of niceness and color, food grain and sunlight. crowd abstract verity into saucily realities and generalities. Wilson interrogated, assembled, dissected. mob was the novelist par integrity; Wilson struggled to indite the two or terce novels he produced, and they are by no gist his opera hat writing. So with energizeallowing for the remainder surrounded by the Victorian-Edwardian jam, and the modern font Wilson. Wilson dealt with kindle in all its physicality. He was direct, confronting, copulative. thr ong translated grammatical gender into spirituality, into varied forms of military reserve and avoidance. It assumed passing nuanced forms; it was all indirect. James would get called Wilson a literalist. Wilson could not rather get into Jamesian depthsthe novelist was besides natural for him and Wilson had the uniform difficulties with him that he had with Kafka. \nWilson had, well, kinda a bustling commove life, as youve practiced alluded to. Is that presenting a problem for you? on that point are satisfying sections in Wilsons journals in which he is very transparent somewhat his sex life. You couldnt hurt produce that in the twenties. in a flash Ive been doing it, though on that point are split Ive had to leave off because the people dont sine qua non to appear, and I seduce to lever their wishes. even off if its at the depreciate of grievous the self-colored stage? \n'