海角大神

As an avid people watcher, I try to imagine the lives of those whose paths cross mine. I devour biographies with a similar desire to know the details of someone鈥檚 life: what shaped their thinking, how they became who they are, and especially how they overcame obstacles. I relish nonfiction books that take an unexpected tack on a well-known figure (see 鈥淏enjamin Franklin鈥檚 Last Bet,鈥� reviewed here).聽

Earlier this spring, I had an opportunity to chat with Megan Marshall, this year鈥檚 winner of the Biography International Organization Award for her body of work, which includes three biographies, all of extraordinary women. Her 2013 book, 鈥淢argaret Fuller: A New American Life,鈥� won the Pulitzer Prize. She spoke about the role of a biographer as 鈥渉elping readers bridge the gap between their experience and a life from the past.鈥澛�

Good biographies can serve as inspiration, giving readers a front-row seat on another person鈥檚 struggles. In the case of Fuller, a 19th-century journalist, feminist, and colleague of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 鈥渟he had a vision for herself that really didn鈥檛 exist [in society],鈥� Ms. Marshall says. 鈥淪he speaks to readers today because she ... developed this theory of 鈥榥o wholly masculine man, no purely feminine woman.鈥� They鈥檙e all sliding into each other. Nobody else was writing like that.鈥澛�

When readers see themselves and their times reflected in a biography, it can give them perspective, Ms. Marshall says. 鈥淭here is so much to be worried about and so much that seems hopeless. But if you go back and look at other times when there seemed to be no hope ... you鈥檒l see how people rose up anyway,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hat is one of the most important things a biographer can do.鈥�

She continues, 鈥淛ust seeing how people renewed their hope, what right do we have to give up when people in extremely dire situations used whatever tools were available to them to try to make a difference?鈥澛�

Readers may wonder how one person can change the trajectory of a society. Ms. Marshall explains the concept of a 鈥渢rim tab,鈥� a favorite idea of inventor Buckminster Fuller, who incidentally was a grandnephew of Margaret Fuller. 鈥淎 huge steamship or an airplane will have a trim tab, and just moving it the slightest bit can alter the direction,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 like to think that someone like Margaret Fuller or Buckminster Fuller could just make a little difference in the huge stream of life.

鈥淲e can take those messages of those who didn鈥檛 give up,鈥� she says. 鈥淎lternatively, you can learn from people who didn鈥檛 make it. Everyone is worthy of remembrance and ... every life is a gift. And what you do with that gift is up to you.鈥�