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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2009
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NEWS ABOUT: biography

biography stories: 36 news summaries

21 - 36 of 36 Stories | << Prev 1 2

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 Porn Claim Riles Kafka Scholars  

Experts have uneasy dreams about author's proclivities

Aug 15, 08 10:23 AM CDT
(Newser) - Literary circles are in an uproar over a new biography of Franz Kafka that says the existentialist author had a penchant for porn, the Guardian reports. Kafka expert James Hawes, who says he unearthed some of the not-exactly-mainstream magazines the author enjoyed, makes the claim in a new book and... More »

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pornography • biography • British Library • anti-Semitism • Franz Kafka • literary criticism • Heinrich Heine • Bodleian • Rainer Stach • Klaus Wagenbach

Bro Dishes Dirt on Madonna
in Tell-All

Alleges Gwyneth smooch, pill-popping, fighting dirty with Guy

Jul 6, 08 1:00 PM CDT
(Newser) - Amid rumors of a crumbling marriage and an A-Rod affair, Madonna’s juicy past is now bubbling to the surface in a new biography written by her brother. At a boozy Hollywood party, the mega-star was dancing on a table when she pulled a surprised Gwyneth Paltrow up onto the... More »

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music • drugs • lesbians • celebrity • biography • Madonna • celebrity tell-alls

 Hef Had 
 Family 
 Foursome, 
 Gay Tryst 

Playboy founder green-lights a sex-filled biography

Jun 23, 08 11:00 AM CDT
(Newser) - Hugh Hefner has signed off on a new biography that delves into the Playboy kingpin's sexual liberation, the New York Post reports. In "Mr. Playboy: Hugh Hefner and the American Dream," Steven Watts writes how the skin-mag magnate had a foursome with his first wife, his brother Keith... More »

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pornography • sex • oral sex • homosexuality • biography • Hugh Hefner • group sex

Book review

Nixonland Gets 'Excellent' Prez Utterly Wrong

Conrad Black, author of rival bio, scorns hit job, recites strong points

Jun 19, 08 4:46 PM CDT
(Newser) - The biography Nixonland is a hatchet job on an “excellent president,” media mogul Conrad Black (from behind bars) writes in the New York Sun, picking apart author Rick Perlstein’s slights—and reminding of the profound accomplishments of the 37th president. Beyond crediting Nixon with coarsening the political... More »

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Conrad Black • Richard Nixon • race riot • biography • book reviews • welfare • Rick Perlstein • EPA

Spielberg to Shoot Lincoln Picture Next

He ducks rumor that Liam Neeson will portray prez

May 10, 08 5:21 PM CDT
(Newser) - Once he wraps up Tintin, Steven Spielberg will make a long-awaited biopic about Abraham Lincoln, the Los Angeles Times reports. The director spilled the beans while promoting Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and said he wants to shoot the flick next year, Lincon's 200th anniversary—but... More »

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Steven Spielberg • film • biography • Abraham Lincoln • movies • Liam Neeson

Magic of 'This American Life' Returns to Small Screen

Second season debuts tonight

May 4, 08 11:57 AM CDT
(Newser) - The stories on the small-screen version of “This American Life” start out small—a husband’s protest over the oppressive American trend of lawn-mowing, a young man living with spinal muscular atrophy—and become something universal, both dark and light, even a little magical, writes Heather Havrilesky on Salon.... More »

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television • radio • art • Ira Glass • Showtime • This American Life • biography

Robocop Director Pens Shocking
Jesus Bio

Claims Jesus' dad
was a Roman rapist

Apr 24, 08 5:42 AM CDT
(Newser) - Dutch director Paul Verhoeven, best known for directing films like Robocop, Basic Instinct, and Total Recall, is releasing a biography of Jesus which is bound to spark an angry response, reports AP. The book, which Verhoeven has been working on for 20 years, suggests that Jesus' father was a Roman... More »

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religion • biography • film director • Jesus Christ • Paul Verhoeven

book review

 Cracking the Steve Jobs Code 

Author peers into the brain of Apple's elusive guiding force

Apr 21, 08 6:39 AM CDT
(Newser) - Though it’s near impossible to get an interview with Steve Jobs, author Leander Kahney’s book Inside Steve’s Brain gives a “fresh, noble perspective” on the Apple icon’s impenetrable mind, Jon Swartz writes in USA Today. Like most who try, Kahney couldn’t score facetime, but... More »

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Steve Jobs • Apple • iPod • Pixar • biography • book reviews • book

New Site Wants Your Wikipedia Rejected Bio

Biographicon invites the real average Joes to tell their tales

Apr 2, 08 9:45 PM CDT
(Newser) - While Wikipedia may promote itself as an encyclopedia of, for, and by the people, anybody who's had his stint as autobiographer cut short by the infamous "notability" requirement knows the site to be otherwise. Or so hope the creators of startup Biographicon, a website that invites the nobodies of... More »

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Internet • Wikipedia • Facebook • biography • autobiography • online encyclopedia • Biographicon

'Bossy? Aloof?' Index of Hillary Bio Is Way Off

Blogger dissects
back pages of book
on Dem hopeful

Feb 11, 08 7:39 PM CST
(Newser) - Readers looking for a crash course in everything Hillary can try the index of Carl Bernstein's A Woman in Charge, and find a laundry list of moody traits: "bossiness," "aloofness," "anger, temper and hurt" are only the A's and B's. But New York Times blogger... More »

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Hillary Clinton • Carl Bernstein • Clinton 2008 • biography • personality • book

NEW RELEASE

Dewey Cox Rocks!

Despite being a little uneven, Judd Apatow parody provides lots of laughs

Dec 21, 07 4:35 PM CST
(Newser) - Judd Apatow's Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story "is less thoughtful satire and ... more the distant cousin of Airplane!," writes Brian Orndorf of OhMyNews.com. Starring John C. Reilly as a blues prodigy who ultimately experiences success, failure, and redemption, it plays like "an extended riff... More »

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parody • comedy • movie review • biography • Johnny Cash • Judd Apatow • John C. Reilly

Wharton Letter Bolsters
Suicide Theory

Heroine Lily Bart overdosed deliberately, note implies

Nov 21, 07 5:47 PM CST
(Newser) - A recently-discovered letter by Edith Wharton provides new evidence in The House of Mirth's lingering literary mystery, suggesting that heroine Lily Bart does, in fact, intend to kill herself at the book's end, the New York Times reports. Though the ambiguous text has led many to believe she died... More »

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suicide • literature • letters • biography • book • Edith Wharton • Lily Bart • House of Mirth

Young Stalin Follows His
Rise From
Street Thug

Seminary dropout used 160 aliases as criminal

Oct 27, 07 9:02 AM CDT
(Newser) - Drawing on previously classified material, Simon Sebag Montefiore's new biography, Young Stalin, follows the despot through his formative years, from Georgian street tough to the Bolshevik revolution. In a "morbidly fascinating" account, he describes how the young Josef Djugashvili dropped out of a seminary, assumed 160 aliases, robbed stagecoaches,... More »

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biography • Bolshevik Revolution • Stalin

Good Grief! Peanuts Writer Was Depressive

New biography
depicts buried rage
of comic artist

Oct 13, 07 8:23 PM CDT
(Newser) - Charles Shulz hid his dark side amid tales of Charlie, Lucy, Linus and Snoopy, according to a new biography. Snoopy's romance was secretly Shulz's extramarital affair, and Charlie Brown was victim to the very buried rage that Shulz took out on others. An old pal confirmed this dark portrayal, writing... More »

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Vietnam • depression • Coca Cola • biography • cartoonist • Peanuts • Schulz • Charlie Brown • Snoopy • Linus • Great Pumpkin • Eisenhower

Kahlo Letters Reveal Anguish Over Miscarriage

A patron kept them hidden, afraid of hurting her reputation

Aug 12, 07 8:06 PM CDT
(Newser) - Mexican artist Frida Kahlo reveals one of her long-held secrets in a new collection of letters published for the centenary of her birth, the Guardian reports. Titled “My Beloved Doctor,” they express her anguish over being unable to bear Diego Rivera’s child after injuries she suffered in... More »

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Mexico • letters • biography • Frida Kahlo • Diego Riviera • My Beloved Doctor • new publication • painter • artist • book

Cheney Book Offers Rare Bits of Candor

Secretive VP admits missteps, displays humor in new bio

Jul 23, 07 5:23 PM CDT
(Newser) - Dick Cheney makes jokes about his own penchant for secrecy in a new biography due out tomorrow by journalist Stephen Hayes, Raw Story reports. The veep makes a rare admission of error, confessing to Hayes that the appointment of the Coalition Provisional Authority in the early stages of the war,... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Dick Cheney • torture • biography • vice president

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