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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2009
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NEWS ABOUT: biography

biography stories: 36 news summaries

1 - 20 of 36 Stories | 1 2 Next >>

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BOOK REVIEW

 Liz Taylor: 
 The First 
 Paparazzi 
 Magnet 

New biography offers a 'yummy' look at the actress who truly mastered fame

Oct 19, 09 10:10 AM CDT
(Newser) - Elizabeth Taylor, whose affair with Eddie Fisher was more scandalous than the Brad-Jen-Angelina triangle can ever hope to be, is “a pioneer for the Madonnas and Lindsay Lohans of today, women whose personal lives occupy more of the public imagination than does their creative work,” writes Laura Miller... More »

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entertainment • celebrity • biography • Elizabeth Taylor • Eddie Fisher

BOOK REVIEW

 At Heart of 
 Marilyn's Fall, 
 a 'Very Sick Girl' 

Monroe's life, death explored in another tell-all, but there's still no 'external villain'

Sep 30, 09 12:21 PM CDT
(Newser) - J. Randy Taraborrelli’s new 541-page biography, The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe, doesn’t really deliver on promises of “explosive,” “revelatory” discoveries—at least, “not to a Marilyn obsessive like myself,” writes Lori Leibovich for DoubleX. “Instead, there is the deepening of... More »

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entertainment • mental illness • celebrity • biography • Marilyn Monroe • celebrity tell-alls

 Tomb May 
 Hold Key to 
 Shakespeare 


Sarcophagus may hold manuscripts tying Bard to another writer

Aug 9, 09 1:27 PM CDT
(Newser) - A 17th-century tomb might hold the key to the enduring mystery of William Shakespeare's identity, the Daily Telegraph reports, and researchers are hoping to take a peek inside. A scan found that the ornate sarcophagus, built at an English church by Shakespeare contemporary and fellow scribe Fulke Greville, contains three... More »

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England • biography • history • monument • Britain • William Shakespeare • sarcophagus • manuscript

(Newser) - The Queen Mum, Queen Elizabeth II's mother, gave just one interview at age 22 and guarded her privacy the rest of her long life. But a new official biography, published next month, draws on hours of interviews she secretly gave to a school headmaster. As the Telegraph reports, the book... More »

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United Kingdom • Queen Elizabeth I • biography • British royals • Royal Family • Queen Mother

(Newser) - Jacqueline Kennedy’s four-year love affair with RFK was so intense that it was she, rather than his wife, who made the decision to turn off his life support after he was shot, according to Bobby and Jackie: A Love Story, which hits shelves this month. The New ... More »

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John F. Kennedy • sex • affair • biography • Robert F. Kennedy • Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis • lover

(Newser) - Lynndie England is trying to rebuild some semblance of a normal life, but her past continues to haunt her, she tells the AP. “It’s my face that's always recognized,” the former Army Reservist and poster child for Abu Ghraib abuse said of trying to get a job—... More »

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Abu Ghraib • US military • abuse • prisoners • detainee • US Army • biography • West Virginia • Lynndie England • Iraq war

 Jackie, Bobby Had Affair: Book 

Neighbors claim to have seen frisking; experts decry

Jun 25, 09 8:25 AM CDT
(Newser) - Jackie Kennedy turned to the arms of brother-in-law Bobby after John F. Kennedy’s assassination—or so a Kennedy biographer claims in Bobby and Jackie: A Love Story, out July 14. C. David Heymann alluded to such claims in two previous books, the New York Daily News reports, but Kennedy... More »

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John F. Kennedy • sex • affair • biography • Robert F. Kennedy • Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis • lover • Marlon Brando

Words Failed Kennedy on Chappaquiddick

Senator invited Kopechne's parents over, couldn't talk

May 19, 09 11:06 AM CDT
(Newser) - Though he longed to tell Mary Jo Kopechne’s parents about the 1969 accident that killed their daughter, Ted Kennedy couldn’t find the words on two occasions when he invited them into his home, a new book on the senator says. “When the time came, after plenty of... More »

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Ted Kennedy • biography • Chappaquiddick • Mary Jo Kopechne • Gwen Kopechne • Edward Klein

 Bio Details 
 Swayze's 
 Cancer Fight 

It was almost too late before actor visited doctor

May 8, 09 9:56 AM CDT
(Newser) - Patrick Swayze’s first inkling that something was wrong came while sipping champagne on New Year’s Eve 2007, reports the New York Daily News. “It was like acid on an open wound,” he recalls in a new biography out Tuesday. At the end of January 2008, after... More »

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cancer • entertainment • celebrity • biography • Patrick Swayze • The Beast • Lisa Niemi • Wendy Leigh • Jamie Erlicht

Newman More Hustler Than Mr. Nice Guy: Bio

Book claims 'faithful' star was boozing philanderer

Apr 18, 09 2:44 PM CDT
(Newser) - Paul Newman’s own secret recipe was a steady diet of booze and womanizing, according to a biography of the late star obtained by the New York Post. In Paul Newman: A Life, slated to come out next month, author Shawn Levy describes the Oscar winner as a functioning alcoholic... More »

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Hollywood • alcohol abuse • biography • infidelity • Paul Newman • womanizer

 Bio Unmasks 
 Astaire as 
 Racist 

Actor wouldn't donate to black workshop

Mar 25, 09 10:27 AM CDT
(Newser) - Fred Astaire was a great dancer, but he was also a bit of a bigot. A new bio by Peter Levinson cited by the New York Post includes this anecdote: Solicited for a donation to a program developing young black writers, Astaire responded, “Whatever gave you the impression that... More »

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celebrity • biography • bigotry • Fred Astaire • Budd Schulberg • Peter Levinson

Steinbrenner Inadvertently Paid for Kerrigan Hit: Book

Yankee owner was Tonya Harding's patron

Mar 9, 09 2:00 PM CDT
(Newser) - Tonya Harding paid for the notorious attack on Nancy Kerrigan in part with George Steinbrenner’s money, according to George, a new Steinbrenner biography. The Boss was a major patron of young Olympians, including Harding, according to the book, and some of his donations funded “the hit.... More »

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George Steinbrenner • biography • Nancy Kerrigan • Tonya Harding

 Bio Sheds Light on 
 Palin's 'Secret 
 Pregnancy' 

Guv nearly outed herself to daughters

Feb 16, 09 10:42 AM CST
(Newser) - Sarah Palin kept her pregnancy with son Trig a secret from her girls until late in the game—but almost outed herself when one of her daughters found an ultrasound scan, People reports. This and other tidbits are revealed in Trailblazer, an unauthorized biography of the guv out tomorrow:
... More »

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pregnancy • biography • book • Sarah Palin • Bristol Palin • Levi Johnston • Trig Palin

glossies

 LBJ Biographer 
 Aims for Eternity 

Tireless writer published average of one book every ten years

Feb 8, 09 6:56 PM CST
(Newser) - Lyndon Johnson's biographer takes his work seriously—so much so, he didn't cover LBJ's presidency for 30 years, Newsweek reports. Rising from the tabloid world in the 1960s, Robert Caro first wrote a painstaking biography of New York mogul Robert Moses. Next came a volume on LBJ's youth; Caro even... More »

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Newsweek • Lyndon Johnson • Pulitzer Prize • biography • nonfiction books • writers • authors

Told-On Buffett Cools Toward Tell-All Author

Billionaire not thrilled with messy details of warts-and-all bio

Feb 4, 09 10:08 AM CST
(Newser) - Billionaire Warren Buffett has canceled his annual public tête-à-tête with his biographer after the book they collaborated on left him with mixed feelings, reports the New York Times. For the past decade, the Oracle of Omaha has submitted to questions from Alice Schroeder during a huge dinner... More »

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Warren Buffett • biography • Berkshire Hathaway • Alice Schroeder • Astrid Buffett • Susan Buffett

OPINION

Black Berates Newser Founder From Jail

News mogul attacks biography's depiction
of rival Murdoch

Dec 17, 08 1:40 PM CST
(Newser) - Convicted felon Conrad Black has skipped time in the exercise yard to pen a review from prison of the new biography of his old rival Rupert Murdoch. Black complains that biographer Michael Wolff is at once too deferential and takes "extreme psychological liberties" in The Man Who Owns the ... More »

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Rupert Murdoch • Conrad Black • biography • book • News Corp • Michael Wolff • Daily Beast

opinion

Need a Job? Write a Book About Lincoln

Honest Abe titles
keep coming despite economic bust

Dec 7, 08 7:25 PM CST
(Newser) - Looking for a recession-proof job? Write a book about Abraham Lincoln, Joe Queenan advises in the Los Angeles Times. There are some 15,000 books about Lincoln already, and 50 more coming out next year. “As the very title Lincoln at Peoria suggests, there is literally no Lincoln-related subject... More »

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biography • Abraham Lincoln • authors

Lennon Not a Nice Guy, New Bio Says

Tell-all portrays him as callous, abusive; Ono calls it 'too mean'

Oct 12, 08 7:05 PM CDT
(Newser) - Not everything John Lennon could Imagine was so nice, the New York Post reports. The ex-Beatle callously cheated on his first wife, groped a girl in front of Yoko Ono, and upset Ono by treating her like a lay du jour when they first met, a new biography says. But... More »

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Yoko Ono • John Lennon • biography • Beatles

Women Tower
in Buffett's Biography

Oracle of Omaha needed 'to be loved
and never criticized'

Sep 24, 08 3:00 PM CDT
(Newser) - Warren Buffett’s personal life is a lot messier than his balance sheet, according to a biography. In The Snowball: Warren Buffet and the Business of Life, which hits stores Monday, the Oracle of Omaha for the first time cooperates with a biographer, producing a revealing look at the... More »

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Warren Buffett • marriage • money • biography • relationship • book • Oracle of Omaha

Top-Secret Woodward Tome Gets a Name

White House braces for debut of Iraq-centric The War Within

Aug 19, 08 11:20 AM CDT
(Newser) - Bob Woodward’s fourth book on the Bush White House, originally a mere 352 pages, has ballooned into 496 pages of inside dope and is due in stores Sept. 8, Politico reports. And the mystery-shrouded volume, which focuses on the Iraq conflict, officially has a name: The War Within: A ... More »

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Bush administration • Dick Cheney • Condoleezza Rice • Bob Woodward • publishing • Bush legacy • biography • Iraq war • Simon & Schuster • George W. Bush • Alice Mayhew

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