biographies

When does getting close to your biographical subject become too close for the subject’s wife? Or husband, if that ever happens–you know–a 60 some year old female has her 30 some year old biographer fall for her?  Yeah, right, you hear about it all the time–an older woman who has power is simply irresistible to the opposite sex, even if in her 6th decade. Writing a bio for the opposite sex shouldn’t lead TO sex–how often does this happen? Have there been other examples of two collaborators finding their time spent together turning into something other than reminiscences on a page? All In: The Education of General David Petraeus is a first for me–I’ve not encountered this concept before. Unless I’m woefully uninformed and it happens all the time. But here’s my question–what exactly did Paula Broadwell write? Because she didn’t do the book alone–another name is on the dust jacket–Vernon Loeb. Who is Vernon Loeb?  I checked what other books he may have written, and seems as though he co-authored another bio–King’s Counsel with Jack O’Connell, O’Connell’s name in larger letters– about war and diplomacy in the Middle East.  So–Vernon is the ghostwriter? A ghostwriter for the ghostwriter?–no, Petraeus isn’t pretending to have written his autobiography, Ms. Broadwell is pretending to have written his bio? Why was she chosen to write the book to begin with–especially if she needed someone else to dot the i’s and cross the t’s for her? After writing the above, I found a news story that contends Mr. Loeb had no clue anything was going on between subject and pseudo biographer. at the time.

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