Biographer Jean Strouse offers an inside look at the creative process and investigative craft behind her acclaimed work.

From navigating dispersed archives to uncovering unexpected sources in maps, newspapers, and manuscripts, Jean Strouse explores the role of serendipity, creativity, and persistence in shaping great biographies. Her books include Morgan: American Financier, the definitive portrait of Gilded Age titan J. Pierpont Morgan, and, most recently, Family Romance: John Singer Sargent and the Wertheimers.

Strouse speaks with Mia Bruner, reference librarian at The New York Public Library.

Presented in partnership with the Biographers International Organization (BIO).

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ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Jean Strouse is the author of Morgan: American Financier and Alice James: A Biography, which won the Bancroft Prize in American History and Diplomacy. Her essays and reviews have appeared in The New York Times, Architectural Digest, Newsweek, and other publications. Strouse has been President of the Society of American Historians, a consultant (oral historian) to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and a Fellow of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. She served as the Sue Ann and John Weinberg Director of the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at The New York Public Library from 2003 to 2017. She lives in New York City.

Mia Bruner is a research librarian at The New York Public Library and founding organizer of the Prison Library Support Network. Her work aims to activate library collections as sites for connection, collective dialogue, and building power. Her recent writing, along with articles about her organizing, can be found in Library Journal, the Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies, DttP: Documents to the People, and PEN.org.

READ JEAN STROUSE:

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Courtesy Jean Strouse
Courtesy Mia Bruner