William Roscoe Thayer

“The most important work upon the making of modern Italy which has been published in English, and the most complete critical study of Cavour which has appeared in any language.” — A.L.A. Catalog 1926 “Mr Thayer is completely saturated with Cavour’s thought. . . . He has vividly reproduced the Italian spirit of the time (and) has followed with particular minuteness the intricacies of European diplomacy in which Cavour was the master mind from 1858 to 1861.’ Illustrations (chiefly portraits) and maps.” – Standard Catalog for Public Libraries : Biography Section (1927)

Surveys the literary form from antiquity to the present, examines the relation between life-writing and the other literary arts, and discusses the problems, opportunities, and tensions that determine the general dimensions of biography.