--- Joseph Epstein, quoted by Jonathan Fig, Biographers Owe Their Readers the Full Truth, WSJ, July 12, 2024
Excerpt
Biographical subjects are like snakes; they are best handled dead.
This cautionary advice comes from the essayist Joseph Epstein, my friend and former professor. I thought of his words this week as I read the news concerning the late Nobel Prize-winning author Alice Munro, whose daughter published an essay saying that she had been sexually assaulted beginning at the age of nine by her stepfather and that her mother, upon learning of the abuse, chose to stay with her husband.
