On life writing Introduction Zarchary Leader Unravelling Shakespeares life James Shapiro A boy from Stratford 1769 1916 : Shakespearean biography and romantic nationalism Michael Dobson Romantic biography : conveying personality intimacy and authenticity in an age of ink on paper Willism St. Clair Prosopography and crowded attention in old and new media Alison Booth Writing real people Adam Foulds Rosamund and Revelstein : the discandying of a creators confection Janis Freedman Bellow From memory : literary encounters and life writing Hermione Lee Medieval life writing and the strange case of Margery Kempe of Lynn (c.1373 c.1440) Karen A. Winstead The materiality of early modern life writing : the case of Richard Stonley Alan Stewart The autobiographies of Benjamin Franklin Joyce E. Chaplin The worst thing I ever did : the contemporary confessional memoir Blake Morrison The rights to a life J. David Velleman Human 2.0 Life writing in the digital age Patrick Hayes Autobiography and psychoanalysis Laura Marcus The unstoried life Galen Strawson