T O D A Y THE STORIES OF A LIFETIME: Lives 'R' us By Joyce Millman A&E's "Biography" is the People magazine of famous lives The Art of Life By Jay Parini A renowned biographer discusses the biographies that have inspired, enthralled and moved him most Parini's list The best literary biographies of the century The Salon List Our favorite bios of the year - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - T A B L E+T A L K Sir Isaiah Berlin is dead. How much poorer are we without him? Discuss it in the Books section of Table Talk. R E V I E W S LOVE IN A BLUE TIME By Hanif Kureishi (11/19/97) R E C E N T L Y The gospel according to Paul By Mark Hertsgaard (11/12/97) The Salon interview: Doris Lessing By Dwight Garner (11/11/97) The man who took sex out of the closet By Scott McLemee (11/05/97) Reckless genius By Galway Kinnell (11/03/97) Cents & sensibility By Gary Kamiya (10/31/97) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Browse the BOOKS ARCHIVE		SALON'S FAVORITE BIOGRAPHIES OF THE YEAR - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - "Louis Armstrong: An Extravagant Life," by Laurence Bergreen (Broadway) "Francis Bacon: Anatomy of an Enigma," by Michael Peppiatt (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) "The Creation of Dr. B: A Biography of Bruno Bettelheim," by Richard Pollak (S&S) "With Chatwin: Portrait of a Writer," by Susanna Clapp (Knopf) "Misfit: The Strange Life of Frederick Exley," by Jonathan Yardley (Random House) "Cary Grant: A Class Apart," by Graham McCann (Columbia University Press) "Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood," by Todd McCarthy (HarperCollins) "The Hitler of History," by John Lukacs (Knopf) "American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson," by Joseph J. Ellis (Knopf) "Alfred C. Kinsey: A Public/Private Life," by James H. Jones (Norton) "Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now," by Barry Miles (Henry Holt) "Pickford: The Woman Who Made Hollywood," by Eileen Whitfield (University Press of Kentucky) "Space is the Place: The Lives and Times of Sun Ra," by John F. Szwed (Pantheon) "Walt Whitman: A Gay Life," by Gary Schmidgall (Dutton) "Virginia Woolf," by Hermione Lee (Knopf) SALON | Nov. 19, 1997 What are your favorite biographies of the year? Share your recommendations in Table Talk.