Word: talker
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...Weak, vain, pushing, curious, garrulous" - as Macaulay described him-Boswell nevertheless produced the most vivid and exhaustive biographical portrait in literature. Modern biographers have before them a daunting monument, the quotable Johnson of old age, living in picturesque squalor, holding forth on any topic. He was "the greatest talker in the history of the English language," Bate claims. And how simple it would have been just to elaborate on that legend: the proud writer dining behind a screen because he was ashamed of his tattered clothes; the compulsive walker in the streets of London who had to touch each lamppost...
...clock of a sleepy August morning at Dartmouth. The central green, scene of continuous softball games throughout the day, is still quiet. But in 122 Silsby Hall, a short, wiry professor -with a dapper little mustache and the florid gestures of a born talker-is holding forth with enthusiasm. "I remember how frightened I was when I was first given access to Henry James' papers," he says. "They were in a basement room in Harvard's Widener Library-four tables piled high with boxes, each box containing 250 to 500 letters, plus trunks full of notebooks that...
...autocratic talker, Edel zigzags from topic to topic, trailing half-spoken sentences in his wake. He sugars his more serious discussion-on the role of psychology in biography, methods of research, and narrative forms-with anecdotes culled from his past. An interest in the psychological novel, and in James as its exponent, led Edel to Paris in the 1920s. There, while a doctoral candidate at the Sorbonne, he encountered James Joyce. "Joyce once sat beside me at a reading, but his impassive face put me off," recalls Edel. "What could I say anyway?" he shrugs. " 'Mr. Joyce, I really...
...personality, Terkel's national prominence came through three books crammed with transcripts of other people's conversations: Division Street: America, Hard Times and Working. The subjects changed with each book, but Terkel's theme did not: I hear America speaking. All the while the most provocative talker was a rumpled man with floppy white hair and an omnipresent cigar-the one who was asking the questions, and listening...
Blye also shares the conviction with his thriller counterparts that he is a shrewd listener and talker. With poor people, a strong stomach counts. Says he: "I've had to drink coffee out of cracked cups with roach wings floating around inside." But if Blye sits at their tables, they shed their mistrust. With the more affluent, a smooth line of backchat comes in handy...