As the historian Barbara Caine maintains, a “group biography [...] takes as its primary subject the relationships between a group of people: their importance for each other, whether emotional or intellectual ...” (Biography and History, 61). Caine argues, biographies “link life stories with wider historical processes” and can be used “to illustrate particular historical developments or patterns” (61). Moreover, “biographies of groups of friends and of networks allow for the sustained analysis of how people are linked to each other and of the importance of the changing nature of those links over time” (61). While they offer insights into the interrelatedness of a group, collective biographies bring with them unique challenges, which the panelists will delve into. The presentations represent voices of diverse populations, beginning with an eighteenth century literary club, a group of people associated with Flannery O’Connor, and Jewish-Austrian classmates.

In her talk Judith Hawley will discuss her work on a collective biography of the Scriblerus Club from eighteenth-century England, when the country was very “clubbable.” Numerous real clubs existed and fictional ones were celebrated in highly sociable publications such as the Tatler and Spectator. One club that stands out is a group of friends often referred to as The Scriblerus Club. They comprised some well-known and less well-known writers and public figures: Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, John Gay, Thomas Parnell, Dr John Arbuthnot and Robert Harley. The existence and influence was assumed and celebrated by a number of Harvard scholars in the 1930s (Robert J Allen, George Sherburn, Lester M. Beattie). Brean Hammond 1988 refers to a Scriblerian satire as a mode. But the existence of the club was challenged by Ashley Marshall 2008. And she has a point. In what sense can they be called a club if there are no records of formal meetings after 1714 and if their principal publication was not published until 1741? However, Hawley has uncovered evidence not only that they did continue to collaborate and publish works but that they considered themselves and were treated by others as allies and even a collective.

Questions to be explore include:

• How can we write about occasional collaborations rather than a continuous existence?
• Should a biography only focus on the times when the writers came together?
• If so, does that give their collaborations undue prominence, downplaying solo work and other relationships?

In 2016, Katheryn Krotzer Laborde began work on a book of essays about the life of Southern midcentury writer Flannery O’Connor. Three or four days into her research at Emory, Laborde tired of reading letters and turned to a file she had requested but didn't think she would ever get to, a file that contained five palm-sized address books. With that, the book of essays gave way to the book she saw in those small, ink-stained, scribble-scrabbled pages: Flannery O'Connor's Manhattan (Fordham University Press, 2024). The book divided itself quite neatly into two distinct sections: the first covered, as the title suggests, O'Connor's time in and visits to New York City. But it was the subject of the second section that brought about not only the most challenges but the most excitement: the people and places O'Connor knew in Manhattan. Of the 92 people who emerged from 143 Manhattan address entries, some were public figures whose names are still recognized, some were once-known but now-forgotten writers, and some were non-famous folk that O’Connor apparently met along the way. Her presentation will cover the challenges Laborde encountered in organization, research, and matters of biographical balance.

In her talk, Jacqueline Vansant turns her attention to a group of classmates, who at the age of 15 or 16 were expelled from their Viennese Gymnasium in March 1938 because they were Jewish. As a means of staying in touch they kept up a group correspondence for 15 years, which crossed three continents. Their letters serve as the basis for the collective biography Vansant is working on. The variety of experiences of the youth expressed in the letters captures the impact of the historical processes and developments on their lives and their sense of self. The collective biography will pursue a comparative examination of “the historical developments and patterns” as well as “link life stories with wider historical processes.” In her talk, Vansant will sketch various possibilities for organizing biography and delve more deeply into the the importance of writing for the youths as they move from refugee, to migrant, to citizen.