and edmund white, and brenda wineapple and jay parini. and are subject today, "the biographer as autobiographer and the limits of objectivity," which is a subject very dear to me in which i dreamed up. which is a lie. now, i would like to begin very practically by mentioning the biographies of each of our, i guess you're not contestants -- [laughter] >> are participants. well, after that harold bloom -- have written and then ask you what it is that drew you to these particular subjects. in each case it will be different perhaps my but perhaps also a committee of theme will emerge. and i won't describe all their books, which are profoundly and numerous. but just for our purposes here, phyllis is the author on virginia woolf, the biography of josephine baker, and as literary classic parallelize. and edmund is the author among many other books in various forms, wonderful novelist and essayist, the biography of jean genet, and beautifully brief biographies of proust and rimbaud. emily dickinson, hawthorne, and jay, when falcon, john steinbeck

and i think this is some of what brenda wineapple has in mind by recovery.but how you do it is another and more complicated matter, and i will not try to get into that this morning. but bringing your subject back to life is a great and worthy goal. so if i may quickly wrap up, to ezra pound's excellent advice to make it new, i think we might also want to add and make it live again. thanks. [applause] we seem to be running a little early, so we have time for questions if -- >> not a question, but, um, a huge appreciation for you and what you just said. thank you very much. >> oh, roz, that's sweet. [applause] >> i think i'm scooping myself with a question i want to ask you in a session next weekend -- [laughter] but why not seize the moment. first time i ever saw you and met you was 2003 in boston, i think massachusetts historical society, on the 200th birthday,

this is some of what brenda wineapple has in mind.w you do it is another and more complicated matter and i will not try to get into that this morning but bringing your subject back to life is a great and worth the gold so if i may quickly wrap up, to ezra pounds excellent advice to make it new i think we might also want to add and make it live again. thank you. [applause] we seem to be running a little early so we have time for a few questions. >> not a question but a huge appreciation for you and what you just said. thank you very much. >> well, isn't that sweet? [applause] >> i think i'm scooping myself but the question i want to ask you about a section nest weekend. the first time ever saw u.n. met you was 2003 in boston. i think on the 200th birthday in fact of ralph waldo emerson of whom you have written an absolutely marvelous book but it was a gathering of scholars, historians, critics, writers the whole continental gang of appreciating emerson from a whole variety of particular angles and lo and behold he stood up in the middl