Michael Shelden (born 1951) is an American
biographer
Biographers are authors who write an account of another person's life, while autobiographers are authors who write their own biography.
Biographers
Countries of working life: Ab=Arabia, AG=Ancient Greece, Al=Australia, Am=Armenian, AR=Ancient Rome ...
and teacher, notable for his authorized biography of
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalitar ...
, his history of
Cyril Connolly
Cyril Vernon Connolly CBE (10 September 1903 – 26 November 1974) was an English literary critic and writer. He was the editor of the influential literary magazine ''Horizon'' (1940–49) and wrote '' Enemies of Promise'' (1938), which combin ...
’s ''
Horizon
The horizon is the apparent line that separates the surface of a celestial body from its sky when viewed from the perspective of an observer on or near the surface of the relevant body. This line divides all viewing directions based on whether i ...
'' magazine, his controversial biography of
Graham Greene
Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...
, and his study of the last years of
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...
, ''Man in White''. In March 2013 his ''Young Titan: The Making of Winston Churchill'' was published. In 2016 his biography of
Herman Melville
Herman Melville (Name change, born Melvill; August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American people, American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance (literature), American Renaissance period. Among his bes ...
, ''Melville in Love'', was published by Ecco/HarperCollins.
Education and career
Born in Oklahoma, Shelden earned his
Ph.D.
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...
in English from
Indiana University
Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana.
Campuses
Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI.
*Indiana Universit ...
in 1979. He then began teaching at
Indiana State University
Indiana State University (ISU) is a public university in Terre Haute, Indiana. It was founded in 1865 and offers over 100 undergraduate majors and more than 75 graduate and professional programs. Indiana State is classified among "D/PU: Doctor ...
, where he was promoted to professor of English in 1989, and where he remains a full-time member of the faculty. For ten years he was a fiction critic for ''
The Baltimore Sun
''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries.
Founded in 1837, it is currently owned by Tr ...
'', and from 1995 to 2007 he was a features writer for ''
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was fo ...
'' of London, where he contributed several articles on notable figures in film, literature, and public affairs, including interviews with
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Chemi ...
laureate
Shirin Ebadi
Shirin Ebadi ( fa, شيرين عبادى, Širin Ebādi; born 21 June 1947) is an Iranian political activist, lawyer, a former judge and human rights activist and founder of Defenders of Human Rights Center in Iran. On 10 October 2003, Ebadi wa ...
; American
philosopher
A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...
Richard Rorty
Richard McKay Rorty (October 4, 1931 – June 8, 2007) was an American philosopher. Educated at the University of Chicago and Yale University, he had strong interests and training in both the history of philosophy and in contemporary analytic phi ...
; and
feminist
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
Betty Friedan
Betty Friedan ( February 4, 1921 – February 4, 2006) was an American feminist writer and activist. A leading figure in the women's movement in the United States, her 1963 book ''The Feminine Mystique'' is often credited with sparking the se ...
. He also did one of the last interviews with actor
Christopher Reeve
Christopher D'Olier Reeve (September 25, 1952 – October 10, 2004) was an American actor, best known for playing the title character in the film ''Superman'' (1978) and three sequels.
Born in New York City and raised in Princeton, New Jersey, ...
. Shelden is married and the father of two daughters.
Literary biography
![George-orwell-BBC](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/George-orwell-BBC.jpg)
Shelden's first book, ''George Orwell: Ten Animal Farm Letters to His Agent, Leonard Moore'' (1984), was an edited collection drawn from letters between Orwell and
Moore
Moore may refer to:
People
* Moore (surname)
** List of people with surname Moore
* Moore Crosthwaite (1907–1989), a British diplomat and ambassador
* Moore Disney (1765–1846), a senior officer in the British Army
* Moore Powell (died c. 1573 ...
that Shelden found at the
Lilly Library
The Lilly Library, located on the campus of Indiana University (Bloomington), Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, is an important rare book and manuscript library in the United States. At its dedication on October 3, 1960, the library co ...
and was the first to publicize. In 1989 he published his literary history ''Friends of Promise: Cyril Connolly and the World of Horizon'', which covered the decade of the 1940s when ''Horizon'' was the most influential literary magazine in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
. The book was based on a large collection of Connolly's personal papers at the
University of Tulsa
The University of Tulsa (TU) is a private research university in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It has a historic affiliation with the Presbyterian Church and the campus architectural style is predominantly Collegiate Gothic. The school traces its origin to ...
, and on interviews with the magazine's former editors and assistants, including
Stephen Spender
Sir Stephen Harold Spender (28 February 1909 – 16 July 1995) was an English poet, novelist and essayist whose work concentrated on themes of social injustice and the class struggle. He was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry by the ...
.
Authorized by the George Orwell estate, Shelden's biography of Orwell was published in 1991 and was a finalist for the
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...
in Biography. Among other things, the book included the first detailed account of Orwell's controversial list of people whom he considered politically dishonest and unreliable in British society. However, Daphne Patai, in her 1984 book ''The Orwell Mystique: A Study in Male Ideology'', described and discussed this list, which she had come across in the Orwell Archive in London.
Shelden's biography of Graham Greene appeared in a UK edition in 1994 under the title ''Graham Greene; The Man Within''. In 1995 it was published in America, with revisions, as ''Graham Greene: The Enemy Within''. Its "despoiling" portrait of Greene as a driven and devious artist provoked heated debate on both sides of the Atlantic. In ''
The New York Review of Books
''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...
'' there was an especially spirited debate between Shelden and novelist
David Lodge on the question of Greene's
anti-Semitism
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
, with Shelden arguing that Greene's published remarks about Jews are "worse than anything in
T. S. Eliot or
Evelyn Waugh
Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (; 28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966) was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books; he was also a prolific journalist and book reviewer. His most famous works include the early satires ''Decli ...
", and Lodge countering that although Greene drew "on social and cultural prejudices and stereotypes concerning Jews which were common in English society before World War II . . . to label it as anti-Semitic ridicule is crudely reductive."
Shelden is the author of Graham Greene's entry in the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'').
In ''Mark Twain: Man in White'' (2010) Shelden wrote about the last four years of Twain's life (1906–1910), when the novelist began wearing his iconic white suit. The biography portrayed Twain as a vibrant figure who worked hard in old age to promote his image as a great popular entertainer, and to boost his reputation as a serious social critic and literary artist. Writing in Cleveland's ''The Plain Dealer'',
Mark Dawidziak
Mark Dawidziak (born September 7, 1956) is an American author and critic.
Early life
Dawidziak was born in Huntington, New York, on September 7, 1956. He is a graduate of Harborfields High School, class of 1974.
Journalism career
A journ ...
described ''Man in White'' as "the definitive work on this controversial period." The biography was chosen as one of the Best Books of 2010 by the ''Library Journal'', and as one of the Best Nonfiction Books of 2010 by the ''Christian Science Monitor''.
Shelden's ''Melville in Love'' tells the story of
Herman Melville
Herman Melville (Name change, born Melvill; August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American people, American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance (literature), American Renaissance period. Among his bes ...
's relationship with
Sarah Morewood
Sarah Morewood (1823–1863) was a poet and literary figure who developed a close relationship in the 1850s with her nearest neighbor in the Berkshires, the novelist Herman Melville. In 1983 Professor Michael Rogin of the University of Californi ...
in the 1850s, especially during the period when Melville was writing ''
Moby-Dick
''Moby-Dick; or, The Whale'' is an 1851 novel by American writer Herman Melville. The book is the sailor Ishmael (Moby-Dick), Ishmael's narrative of the obsessive quest of Captain Ahab, Ahab, captain of the whaler, whaling ship ''Pequod (Moby- ...
''. The ''Library Journal'' said of the book, "Shelden carefully and convincingly presents his evidence regarding Morewood’s influence, and how she inspired Melville to a greatness recognized by few of his peers." In ''The Kenyon Review'' Mark Dunbar wrote, "''Melville in Love'' is another masterwork by Shelden in the field of biography. Coupling diligent forensic scholarship with melodious narrative prose, he has discovered something new about an American author for whom the study of his life has turned into a minor industry of its own."
The annual review ''American Literary Scholarship'' (Duke University Press) said of Shelden's biographical skills: "Shelden possesses that rare gift of the truly talented biographer: he can sketch scenes so vividly that a reader seems to mingle with the subjects in their long-ago conversations."
Audio lectures
In 2011
Recorded Books
Recorded Books is an audiobook imprint of RBMedia, a publishing company with operations in countries globally. Recorded Books was formerly an independent audiobook company before being purchased and re-organized under RBMedia, where it is now an ...
released Shelden's ''The Lost Generation: American Writers in Paris in the 1920s''. This audio collection of lectures deals mainly with
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fic ...
and
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age—a term he popularize ...
, but also covers
Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Allegheny West neighborhood and raised in Oakland, California, Stein moved to Paris ...
,
Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...
,
T. S. Eliot, and many other authors. ''AudioFile'' magazine said that the “lectures evoke the bittersweet imagery, scents, and sensibilities of the literary history that graced the Right and Left Banks of Paris between the World Wars. Professor Shelden’s narration style is characterized by wry wit, passion, humor, and audible regret for having been born a few generations too late to have been part of 1920s Paris.”
Shelden presents the
Great Courses video lecture courses 'George Orwell - A Sage for All Seasons' and 'How Winston Churchill Changed the World', also available as audio only versions.
Winston Churchill biography
![Winston Churchill 1874 - 1965 Q113382](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/Winston_Churchill_1874_-_1965_Q113382.jpg)
''Publishers Weekly'' described Shelden's ''Young Titan: The Making of Winston Churchill'' as "a fluid and informative examination of the early career of one of modern Britain’s most outstanding political leaders." The biography "tracks
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...
’s coming-of-age from 1901, when he first entered Parliament, to 1915, when he resigned as
First Lord of the Admiralty
The First Lord of the Admiralty, or formally the Office of the First Lord of the Admiralty, was the political head of the English and later British Royal Navy. He was the government's senior adviser on all naval affairs, responsible for the di ...
following the
Gallipoli
The Gallipoli peninsula (; tr, Gelibolu Yarımadası; grc, Χερσόνησος της Καλλίπολης, ) is located in the southern part of East Thrace, the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles ...
fiasco, with much personal material included."
In December 2012
Tom Brokaw
Thomas John Brokaw (; born February 6, 1940) is an American retired network television journalist and author. He first served as the co-anchor of ''The Today Show'' from 1976 to 1981 with Jane Pauley, then as the anchor and managing editor of '' ...
wrote in the ''
Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'', "One tip for the New Year: Don't miss Michael Shelden's ''Young Titan'', an account of Churchill's early years. Churchill's life is the gift that keeps on giving."
Reviewing ''Young Titan'' in ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'',
Jonathan Yardley
Jonathan Yardley (born October 27, 1939) was the book critic at ''The Washington Post'' from 1981 to December 2014, and held the same post from 1978 to 1981 at the ''Washington Star''. In 1981, he received the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.
Back ...
called it a "perceptive and entertaining account," and observed that "the years about which Shelden writes have their own importance and their own color, and they tend to get lost in conventional Churchill biographies, particularly the overwrought ones (
William Manchester
William Raymond Manchester (April 1, 1922 – June 1, 2004) was an American author, biographer, and historian. He was the author of 18 books which have been translated into over 20 languages. He was awarded the National Humanities Medal and the ...
does come to mind) that zero in on the heroic World War II years."
Describing ''Young Titan'' as "enthralling,"
Geoffrey Wheatcroft
Geoffrey Albert Wheatcroft (born 23 December 1945) is a British journalist, author, and historian.
Early life and education
Wheatcroft is the son of Stephen Frederick Wheatcroft (1921–2016), OBE, and his first wife, Joyce (née Reed). He w ...
wrote in ''
Newsweek
''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...
'' that the book was "a vivid portrait of a young man on the make, as ambitious as he was gifted."
''The Guardian'' in Britain said that ''Young Titan'' "reads in places like a novel" and features "some wonderful characters and plenty of the bon mots we have grown to expect from Churchill."
Interviews with film notables
During his years as a features writer for ''
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was fo ...
'' of London, Shelden often wrote about films and interviewed many screen actors, including those active in the
Classical Hollywood cinema
Classical Hollywood cinema is a term used in film criticism to describe both a narrative and visual style of filmmaking which became characteristic of American cinema between the 1910s (rapidly after World War I) and the 1960s. It eventually be ...
, such as
Maureen O'Hara
Maureen O'Hara (; 17 August 1920 – 24 October 2015) was a native Irish and naturalized American actress and singer, who became successful in Cinema of the United States, Hollywood from the 1940s through to the 1960s. She was a natural ...
and
Richard Widmark
Richard Weedt Widmark (December 26, 1914March 24, 2008) was an American film, stage, and television actor and producer.
He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as the villainous Tommy Udo in his debut film, '' Kiss of Death'' (1947) ...
. His ''Telegraph'' interviews took place in many locations in Europe and North America. In Canada he interviewed
Sophia Loren
Sofia Costanza Brigida Villani Scicolone (; born 20 September 1934), known professionally as Sophia Loren ( , ), is an Italian actress. She was named by the American Film Institute as one of the greatest female stars of Classical Hollywood ci ...
. In Europe his interviews included visits on set with producer
Jerry Bruckheimer
Jerome Leon Bruckheimer (born September 21, 1943) is an American film and television Film producer, producer. He has been active in the genres of Action film, action, Drama film, drama, Fantasy film, fantasy, and Science fiction film, science fi ...
in London and director
Terry Gilliam
Terrence Vance Gilliam (; born 22 November 1940) is an American-born British filmmaker, comedian, animator, actor and former member of the Monty Python comedy troupe.
Gilliam has directed 13 feature films, including ''Time Bandits'' (1981), ''B ...
in Prague. Among those he interviewed in California were
Robert Duvall
Robert Selden Duvall (; born January 5, 1931) is an American actor and filmmaker. His career spans more than seven decades and he is considered one of the greatest American actors of all time. He is the recipient of an Academy Award, four Gold ...
and
John Cleese
John Marwood Cleese ( ; born 27 October 1939) is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. Emerging from the Cambridge Footlights in the 1960s, he first achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and ...
. In Chicago he interviewed
Gene Hackman
Eugene Allen Hackman (born January 30, 1930) is an American retired actor and former novelist. In a career that has spanned more than six decades, Hackman has won two Academy Awards, four Golden Globes, one Screen Actors Guild Award, two BAFTAs ...
, and in New York and Connecticut there were interviews with
Gene Wilder
Jerome Silberman (June 11, 1933 – August 29, 2016), known professionally as Gene Wilder, was an American actor, comedian, writer and filmmaker. He is known mainly for his comedic roles, but also for his portrayal of Willy Wonka in ''Willy Won ...
and
Isabella Rossellini
Isabella Fiorella Elettra Giovanna Rossellini (born 18 June 1952) is an Italian-American actress, author, philanthropist, and model. The daughter of the Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman and the Italian film director Roberto Rossellini, she is noted ...
.
His description of meeting
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Philip Seymour Hoffman (July 23, 1967 – February 2, 2014) was an American actor. Known for his distinctive supporting and character roles—typically lowlifes, eccentrics, underdogs, and misfits—he acted in many films and theatrical produ ...
at a diner in
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...
is memorable: "He arrived at the diner ahead of me and was waiting glumly in a booth when I came through the door, a woollen ski hat pulled low over his eyes, his burly figure hunched inside a rumpled nylon jacket. With his scruffy beard, glinting spectacles and thick locks of ginger hair erupting from the sides of his hat, he has the look of a mad computer hacker, just released on parole."
Bibliography
*''George Orwell: Ten Animal Farm Letters to His Agent, Leonard Moore'' (1984)
*''Friends of Promise: Cyril Connolly and the World of Horizon'' (UK edition:
Hamish Hamilton
Hamish Hamilton Limited was a British book publishing house, founded in 1931 eponymously by the half-Scot half-American Jamie Hamilton (''Hamish'' is the vocative form of the Gaelic Seumas eaning James ''James'' the English form – which was ...
, 1989) (US edition:
HarperCollins
HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...
, 1989)
*''Orwell: The Authorized Biography'' (UK edition:
Heinemann Heinemann may refer to:
* Heinemann (surname)
* Heinemann (publisher), a publishing company
* Heinemann Park, a.k.a. Pelican Stadium in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
See also
* Heineman
* Jamie Hyneman
James Franklin Hyneman (born Se ...
, 1991) (US edition:
HarperCollins
HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...
, 1991)
*''Graham Greene: The Man Within'' (UK edition:
Heinemann Heinemann may refer to:
* Heinemann (surname)
* Heinemann (publisher), a publishing company
* Heinemann Park, a.k.a. Pelican Stadium in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
See also
* Heineman
* Jamie Hyneman
James Franklin Hyneman (born Se ...
, 1994)
*''Graham Greene: The Enemy Within'' (US edition:
Random House
Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...
, 1995)
*''Mark Twain: Man in White, The Grand Adventure of His Final Years'' (
Random House
Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...
, 2010)
*''Young Titan: The Making of Winston Churchill'' (
Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publ ...
, 2013)
*''Melville in Love: The Secret Life of Herman Melville and the Muse of Moby-Dick''
Ecco/HarperCollins 2016)
References
External links
Simon & Schuster Page for Young Titan: The Making of Winston Churchill Random House Page for Mark Twain: Man in White Michael Shelden Author’s Page at Faber Michael Shelden Author’s Page at Methuen Michael Shelden Faculty Page at Indiana State UniversityMichael Shelden Home PageMichael Shelden Author's Page at HarperCollins
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shelden, Michael
1951 births
Living people
American biographers
Indiana University alumni