It wouldn't be entirely unfair--or necessarily a criticism--to call this anthology "Biography Lite." Not that the authors or protagonists of the 85 books it covers are by any stretch of the imagination lightweights. Such distinguished scholars as David Herbert Donald and Nell Irwin Painter share space with respected popular historians like David McCullough and Doris Kearns Goodwin; those profiled include no fewer than 23 American presidents (from George Washington to Bill Clinton), such intellectual heavyweights as Albert Einstein, and capitalist titans on the order of John D. Rockefeller. Since the material is drawn from interviews the writers gave on the popular C-SPAN series Booknotes, however, it unsurprisingly tends to be "brief and anecdotal," as Lamb (the show's host) puts it in his introduction. Still, the anecdotes are often hilarious. Readers learn that Rockefeller chewed each bite of food 10 times and that British prime minister Margaret Thatcher saved the leftovers from state dinners and served them at home, and the interviewees do a commendable job of summing up their subjects' significance in very few words. Like the television program, Booknotes: Life Stories cheerfully promotes in a pleasantly populist manner worthy books you might actually get around to reading someday. --Wendy Smith


From School Library Journal
YA-A collection of 8- to 10-page articles based on interviews with the biographers of famous men and women for the C-SPAN cable television program Booknotes. They describe Americans from the founding fathers to Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich as if they were old family friends, warts and all. Although most of the biographers are scholars, the tone is light and conversational. These writers know many intimate details of their subjects' lives and the interviews provide colorful and well-rounded portraits. These historians also offer insight into what made these men and women great. Richard Norton Smith feels that George Washington was able to hold the country together and the egos of the founding fathers in check because he was a great psychologist. David Herbert Donald emphasizes that for Abraham Lincoln there was no possibility of breaking up the Union. He would brook no discussion of how many young boys must lose their lives to save the country. Readers will feel that they know each one of these individuals as a person, not just as a picture from a history book.Jane Drabkin, Chinn Park Regional Library, Prince William, VA Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Lamb, host of C-SPAN's Booknotes, has compiled an anthology of interviews focusing on the lives of 75 prominent people from the 1700s to the present. The result is chatty and informal though sometimes slightly disjointed when topics switch abruptly in response to a question. This chattiness is, however, part of the charm. As only one example, there is the story of Sam Houston, who beat up an Ohio congressman on Pennsylvania Avenue, inspiring President Jackson's comment that "he wished he had more Houstons to cudgel the brains of Congress." With only ten women featured, an admittedly heavy emphasis on presidents, and a definite bias toward Americans or American connections, this is not a source for research. Nonetheless, its interesting snippets of information will be appreciated in public libraries and may well encourage readers to look for longer biographies.AKatherine K. Koenig, Ellis Sch., PittsburghCopyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


The Los Angeles Times Sunday Book Review, Marc Pachter
The experience of reading this chatty collection of edited interviews is like eavesdropping on a group of biographers talking frankly about what it's like to try to hunt the truth in a life and what they think of the quarry they have trapped in their sights.


From Kirkus Reviews
The successor to Booknotes: Writers and Their Stories from C-SPANs Author Interviews (1997) is more unified and satisfying. Scouring ten years of interviews from his C-SPAN program, Lamb has assembled a collection of subjects spanning three centuries and two continents. While the emphasis falls on US statesmen and public figures (Will Rogers, Thomas Edison), international names like Marcel Proust and F.A. Hayek also appear, as well as a young heroin addict named Rosa Lee Cunningham. The focus on one genre unifies the work neatly, and insights into the subjects and biographers keep the work surprising. For example, Susan B. Anthony was a youthful beauty; Rutherford B. Hayes is an underappreciated president who prefigured the Progressive era; Calvin Coolidge was a fine writer, even in the opinion of Mencken. Common threads among the biographers are many. One is time invested: several years is not uncommon. Another is intimacy with the subject. The result for some, like Walter Isaacson (on Henry Kissinger), is equivocation: praise for Kissinger's ``ability to understand linkages in foreign policy,'' but criticism of his shortsightedness in not grasping the power of ``the openness and the values of our [democratic] system.'' For others there is a fearful closeness. Sylvia Jukes Morris dreamed for months of her subject Clare Boothe Luce, with one dream making Luce a stripper in a vaudeville show, ready to expose herself as Morris was exposing her in the biography. But many left their books with increased respect for their subject. ``I think I would have loved him,'' said Denis Bryan of Albert Einstein. Concluded David McCullough of Harry S. Truman, ``I would not only vote for him, I'd go out and work hard to see that he was elected. . . . He accomplished things.'' Everyone in the booksubjects and biographersaccomplished things, and their endeavors make this book appealing. (Author tour,) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Review
"Reads like a collection of conversational essays by ninety-nine of the best of American biographers."
--USA Today

"The experience of reading this chatty collection of edited interviews is like eavesdropping on a group of biographers talking frankly about what it's like to try to hunt the truth in a life and what they think of the quarry they have trapped in their sights."
--LA Times Sunday Book Review

"All the entries are short enough for quick reads, though the whole is rather like a bag of chips--just try to get by with only one."
--Denver Post


Review
"Reads like a collection of conversational essays by ninety-nine of the best of American biographers."
--USA Today

"The experience of reading this chatty collection of edited interviews is like eavesdropping on a group of biographers talking frankly about what it's like to try to hunt the truth in a life and what they think of the quarry they have trapped in their sights."
--LA Times Sunday Book Review

"All the entries are short enough for quick reads, though the whole is rather like a bag of chips--just try to get by with only one."
--Denver Post


Book Description
Conversations with the most admired biographers of our time on the people who have forged our contemporary landscape

C-SPAN founder Brian Lamb invites readers into a virtual conversation -- via the art of biography -- with the legends and luminaries who have helped define America. This informal dictionary of biography peers into the personalities who have left a mark on our world -- a Who's Who of American history, and the next best thing to chatting directly with the likes of Abraham Lincoln, Walt Whitman, Susan B. Anthony, Eleanor Roosevelt, J. Edgar Hoover, Elijah Muhammad, Amelia Earhart, Katharine Graham, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., Frank McCourt, Bill Clinton, and many others.

Based on C-SPAN's popular weekly Booknotes program, this absorbing collection of life stories presents illuminating profiles and often surprising details from our favorite biographers. Booknotes follows the evolution of American history chronologically, and covers the lives of writers and thinkers, inventors and scientists, politicians and soldiers. Lamb reacquaints us with the great figures of our times, in an engaging conversation about America.


From the Inside Flap
Conversations with the most admired biographers of our time on the people who have forged our contemporary landscape

C-SPAN founder Brian Lamb invites readers into a virtual conversation -- via the art of biography -- with the legends and luminaries who have helped define America. This informal dictionary of biography peers into the personalities who have left a mark on our world -- a Who's Who of American history, and the next best thing to chatting directly with the likes of Abraham Lincoln, Walt Whitman, Susan B. Anthony, Eleanor Roosevelt, J. Edgar Hoover, Elijah Muhammad, Amelia Earhart, Katharine Graham, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., Frank McCourt, Bill Clinton, and many others.

Based on C-SPAN's popular weekly Booknotes program, this absorbing collection of life stories presents illuminating profiles and often surprising details from our favorite biographers. Booknotes follows the evolution of American history chronologically, and covers the lives of writers and thinkers, inventors and scientists, politicians and soldiers. Lamb reacquaints us with the great figures of our times, in an engaging conversation about America.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Conversations with the most admired biographers of our time on the people who have forged our contemporary landscape

C-SPAN founder Brian Lamb invites readers into a virtual conversation — via the art of biography — with the legends and luminaries who have helped define America. This informal dictionary of biography peers into the personalities who have left a mark on our world — a Who's Who of American history, and the next best thing to chatting directly with the likes of Abraham Lincoln, Walt Whitman, Susan B. Anthony, Eleanor Roosevelt, J. Edgar Hoover, Elijah Muhammad, Amelia Earhart, Katharine Graham, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., Frank McCourt, Bill Clinton, and many others.

Based on C-SPAN's popular weekly Booknotes program, this absorbing collection of life stories presents illuminating profiles and often surprising details from our favorite biographers. Booknotes follows the evolution of American history chronologically, and covers the lives of writers and thinkers, inventors and scientists, politicians and soldiers. Lamb reacquaints us with the great figures of our times, in an engaging conversation about America.

FROM THE CRITICS

KLIATT

Brian Lamb, the C-SPAN wonder, has been interviewing authors on the Booknotes program for more than ten years now. Many have been biographers of people who "shaped America," and this is a compilation of condensed material from about 77 of those interviews. Each chapter, from George Washington to Anita Hill, is about three or four pages long and retains the flavor of a conversation about the subject. Essentials are here, but human-interest details that help the reader understand the essence of the person are prevalent. The book has been arranged by century, roughly chronologically, which helps us keep a certain perspective as to the development of American history, especially political history, by following along with the major players of each era. Lamb honors the biographers themselves, and the illustrations are of them rather than the famous people they wrote about. This is like an extremely readable biographical dictionary, with some gossip and expert interpretation thrown in. Therefore, it will appeal to anyone who enjoys trying to understand human nature, especially the nature of those who choose to lead and influence others. The sketches are such that any reader may be encouraged to find and read the biographies themselves. At the very least, these pages will spark an interest in American history and politics. KLIATT Codes: JSA—Recommended for junior and senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 1999, Random House/Three Rivers, 471p, illus, index, 98-41374, $16.95. Ages 13 to adult. Reviewer: Claire Rosser; September 2000 (Vol. 34 No. 5)

USA Today

Reads like a collection of conversational essays by ninety-nine of the best American biographers.

San Francisco Chronicle

Lamb has once again rendered a great service to the public.

Denver Post

All the entries are short enough for quick reads, though the whole is rather like a bag of chips–just try to get by with only one.

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