Established in 2007 through a generous gift from the Leon Levy Foundation, the Leon Levy Center for Biography at The Graduate Center, CUNY serves as a vibrant hub for writers, scholars, students, teachers, and readers of biography. It provides a dynamic space where ideas flourish and where the many dimensions of biographical work are actively explored and supported. Learn more.
Officers
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Kai Bird
Executive Director
Kai Bird co-authored with Martin J. Sherwin the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Knopf, 2005), which was made into a major motion picture by Christopher Nolan and won seven Academy Awards, including the Best Picture. He has also written biographies of John J. McCloy and McGeorge Bundy—and a memoir, Crossing Mandelbaum Gate: Coming of Age Between the Arabs and Israelis (Scribner, 2010). His book The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames appeared in 2014. His biography of Jimmy Carter, Outlier: the Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter , was published on June 15, 2021 by Crown Books.
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Thad Ziolkowski
Deputy Director
Thad Ziolkowski is the author of Our Son the Arson (What Books, 1996), a collection of poems, the memoir On a Wave (Grove/Atlantic, 2002), which was a finalist for the PEN/Martha Albrand Award in 2003, and Wichita (Europa, 2012), a novel. His most recent book, The Drop: How the Most Addictive Sport Can Help Us Understand Addiction and Recovery, was published by HarperCollins in 2021. His essays and reviews have appeared in The New York Times, Slate, Bookforum, Artforum, 4Columns, Galerie and Interview Magazine. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. He has a PhD in English Literature from Yale University.
Advisory Board
Marie Arana | Robert Caro | Benita Eisler | Gary Giddins | Hermione Lee | David Levering Lewis | Gail Levin | D.T. Max | Megan Marshall | Andrew Meier | Nancy Milford | David Nasaw | Pamela Newkirk | Stacy Schiff | Ileene Smith | Jeffrey Stewart | Annalyn Swan | Amanda Vaill | Simon Winchester | Brenda Wineapple
Get to know our Fellows
FAIR USE:
A Statement on Best Practices for Biographers
Perhaps a biographer’s worst nightmare is to be told by his publisher’s lawyers that he or she cannot quote from all those colorful diaries and letters and must instead rewrite his or her manuscript so as to only paraphrase or summarize these sources.
This happened to Ian Hamilton in 1986 when he was sued by the subject of his biography, J.D. Salinger. Random House compelled Hamilton to rewrite his book, taking out all the quotes. Salinger wasn’t satisfied with even the paraphrased use of his letters and sued Hamilton and his publisher. The courts eventually ruled in Salinger’s favor—a case that made very bad law for biographers and historians. Congress amended the copyright Act in 1992, explicitly allowing for a ‘fair use’ publication of unpublished works, such as diaries and letters. But ever since the Salinger case editors and publishers have been overly cautious in dealing with fair use cases. Over the years, the courts have in fact moved away from the draconian implications of the Salinger case.
Biographers International Organization, the New York University Biography Seminar and the Leon Levy Center for Biography have now adopted a statement on good practices for biographers dealing with ‘fair use’ issues. The statement was drafted by Carl Rollyson, Anne Heller, and Kai Bird in consultation with several legal scholars and lawyers representing a number of New York publishers.