A Portrait of the Artist as an Only Child

Of all the species of writing, Samuel Johnson once remarked, none “seems more worthy of cultivation than biography, since none can be more delightful, or more useful, none can more certainly enchain the heart by irresistible interest, or more widely diffuse instruction to every diversity of condition.” True of biography, it is truer of autobiography for, he added, “every man’s life may best be written by himself.”