NF The Dual Biography

[TallTallMan]

It appears that dual biograohies are in-vogue. For example, here are some recent CW or semi-CW related books:

Is this a fad?

 

[huskerblitz]

No, they have been around for awhile.

 

[TallTallMan]

No, they have been around for awhile.

But there's been A LOT more lately, I think.

 

[Josh The Lighthouse Guy]

It's not a fad. It's not even new. See
The Great Triumvirate, Team of Rivals (at least the first section), and Grant and Sherman: The Friendship That Won the Civil War for other examples.

Just because someone's name is mentioned in the subtitle doesn't mean the book is even really a biography. They're often simply the main characters of the history being covered. Gordon Rhea's books have Grant and Lee in the subtitles; Jeffrey William Hunt has Meade and Lee.

 

[Josh The Lighthouse Guy]

If there's a fad, it's mainstream history books subtitled "The Epic History of..."

The subtitle naming convention of "Noun, Another Noun, and Subject" or "A Tale of Verb, Another Verb, and Subject" is also popular these days but has been for awhile. At the very least I think "Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford Dictionary" really popularized that subtitle style en vogue and it's never stopped.

 

[Fairfield]

The excellent aspect of the multiple biographies is that they usually focus on some aspect that binds the subjects. The ones I've read are not true biographies in that they usually skim over a lifetime of events and concentrate on a specific time period. I have three that I often recommend highly:

• The Radical and the Republican by James Oakes (2007): the intellectual and political developments of Abraham Lincoln and Frederic Douglass--and the shifting impacts of each on the other.
• The Agitators by Doroth Wickenden (2021): the separate, but connected, political and moral careers of Frances Steward, Harriet Tubman and Martha Wright. Friends and allies, they struggled through the politics of abolition and women's rights.
• A Worse Place than Hell by John Matteson (2021). How many times have I recommended this book? If follows the lives & careers of 5 people (Louisa May Alcott, Arthur Fuller, Oliver Wendall Holmes, Jr., John Pelham and Walt Whitman) whose lives came together at the Battle of Fredericksburg).

In life, no one acts alone.

 

[TallTallMan]

It seems like H.W. Brands likes them.

 

[Jamieva]

I think to call them duel biographies is it accurate, for example the Lee and Jackson book. These are merely sub titles to give the book buyer a better understanding of what the book is about. It's more a marketing tool than a book writing device

 

[Nathan Stuart]

Don't believe the titles cited are pure dual biographies (based entirely on viewing the front cover designs).

Instead, these works seem to have a focus on Campaigns; the main participant characters mentioned are merely a component of the main subject for attention. (Thought the giveaway can be found in the relative differences in font sizes, and thereby emphases, shown on the respective covers seen here).

Personally, don't think a title wholly dedicated to a dual biography (of any two individuals) is generally a recipe that would work in successfully marketing a published work.