This Long Pursuit

January 9, 2017
Holmes’s (The Age of Wonder) concluding entry in the trilogy begun with Footsteps and Sidetracks is part memoir, part biography, and part deep reflection about his own creative process as a biographer. The book is divided into three sections: “Confessions” opens with Holmes’s recollections of his travels in the footsteps of poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge and continues on to his interest in the women scientists and scientific inventions of Coleridge’s time, thoughts about memory and forgetting, and fascination with hot-air balloon rides. “Restorations” offers chapter-length biographies of five pre-20th-century women writers whom, aside from Mary Wollstonecraft, are largely forgotten, accompanied by Holmes’s thoughts about earlier biographies of these subjects. “Afterlives” revisits selected episodes from the lives of John Keats, Percy Shelley, Thomas Lawrence, Coleridge, and William Blake, and considers how they, too, have been portrayed by biographers. Throughout, Holmes explores the art of biography and how biographers construct their sometimes conflicting stories about their subjects’ lives. “Biography,” Holmes writes, “is not merely a mode of historical enquiry. It is an act of imaginative faith.” His effort is largely successful, though the book is slow-paced as he meanders from subject to subject. This elegantly written, curl-up-by-the-fire read will satisfy Holmes’s prior fans and introduce new readers to his works and ideas.

Starred review from January 1, 2017
The third in the author's series of riveting titles about the histories, activities, duties, and effects of biographers.Holmes (Falling Upwards: How We Took to the Air, 2013, etc.), who has written major biographies of Shelley, Coleridge, and others, has published previously on his current themes (Footsteps and Sidetracks), and his new volume brings together thoroughly rewritten pieces that had earlier incarnations as speeches, essays, and various ruminations. Early on he reiterates his fundamental belief that biographers must pursue their quarry: follow their footsteps and explore their sidetracks. Holmes proceeds to do so again here in sections that revisit the lives of the celebrated (Wollstonecraft, Shelley--both Mary and Percy Bysshe--Coleridge, Keats, Blake), but he also reacquaints us with some lesser-known notables like Margaret Cavendish, Isabelle de Tuyll, and Mary Somerville. The author's focus remains sharp throughout, as he sketches his individuals' lives, discusses the published biographies of them (from the earliest to the latest), and reveals his theories and beliefs about the writing of biography, beliefs that he has used to develop graduate courses in biography. Holmes proves to be a generous critic of the work of his predecessors and contemporaries--the word "superb" appears more than once--and he evinces awe when he considers what some early biographers experienced and endured to complete their work. In a few chapters, the author revises what we have previously thought about Coleridge's early lectures and about the importance of Shelley's drowning. Most impressive, though, are Holmes' erudition--is there a relevant text he has not read or a significant site he has not visited?--and his clear, sharply focused prose. Throughout, he manifests the patience and the persistence to do right by his subjects. Unparalleled research, transparent prose, and wide eyes can serve as a model for other biographers--indeed, for all other writers.

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February 15, 2017
Holmes is a consummate biographer. Unquenchably inquisitive, and intellectually and imaginatively adventurous in his pursuit of knowledge, both of the archival kind and the sensuous sort acquired by travel and immersion in his subjects' worlds, Holmes also takes endless pleasure in language and storytelling. His many biographies about writers and scientists, including Falling Upwards (2013), have garnered major awards, and he is also an ebullient advocate for the art of biography, which he describes as a handshake across time, . . . across beliefs, across disciplines, across genders, and across ways of life. In his latest harvest from his nearly 200 working notebooks, Holmes tells vivid and stirring tales from the front, sharing his passion for his calling and his techniques, and tracking the evolution of the genre as he revisits the Romantic poets he has long studied, including Coleridge, Shelley, and Keats. The most exciting and incisive portraits are of such standout women of the Romantic era as Margaret Cavendish, Mary Somerville, and Madame de Stael. Holmes' factual rigor, expert analysis, grand empathy, and vivacious eloquence make this a delight.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

November 1, 2016

Having thrilled us with award-winning biographies of Shelley, Coleridge, and Johnson, plus the best-selling The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science, Holmes returns to the poets and scientists of the Romantic era to investigate his passion for reconstructing others' lives. Along the way, he ponders the very idea of biography, showing that each era tells the stories of its most significant figures its own way.

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2017

"My God, how does one write biography?" Virginia Woolf asked. For over four decades, Holmes (Shelley; Dr. Johnson & Mr. Savage) has been answering this question elegantly and informatively. This book forms a trilogy with Footsteps (1985) and Sidetracks (2000) as attempts at intellectual autobiography. All the chapters here began as lectures, articles, or introductions, and they cover a wide range of topics. The text opens with an explanation of how Holmes came to write The Age of Wonder (2008) about science in England between 1768 and 1831. This discussion is followed by his description of a course in life writing he taught. Many of the chapters provide thumbnail biographies, including those of Margaret Cavendish, Isabelle de Tuyll (who captivated both James Boswell and Benjamin Constant), and popular science writer Mary Somerville. Holmes is particularly eager to emphasize women's contributions to various fields. He also explores the role of biography in shaping--and sometimes misshaping--perceptions about an individual. VERDICT An accessible account of the biographer's craft as well as a delightful portrait gallery of fascinating figures. [See Prepub Alert, 10/3/16.]--Joseph Rosenblum, Univ. of North Carolina, Greensboro

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.