James Joyce (Oxford Lives S)
Although several biographers have thrown themselves into the  breach since this magisterial book first appeared in 1959, none have  come close to matching the late Richard Ellmann's achievement. To be  fair, Ellmann does have some distinct advantages. For starters, there's  his deep mastery of the Irish milieu--demonstrated not only in this  volume but in his books on Yeats and Wilde. He's also an admirable  stylist himself--graceful, witty, and happily unintimidated by his  brilliant subjects. But in addition, Ellmann seems to have an uncanny  grasp on Joyce's personality: his reverence for the Irishman's literary  accomplishment is always balanced by a kind of bemused affection for  his faults. Whether Joyce is putting the finishing touches onUlysses, falling down  drunk in the streets of Trieste, or talking dirty to his future wife  via the postal service, Ellmann's account always shows us a geniusanda human being--a daunting enough task for a fiction writer,  let alone the poor, fact-fettered biographer.