Greg's Picks: Top 10 Literary Biographies Now Streaming on IdahoPTV Passport

Megan Joyce

• Published on February 2, 2023 • Last modified on October 19, 2023 • Comments

Search the dictionary for “book nerd” and you might find IdahoPTV’s writer/editor Greg Likins. The former librarian and bookstore manager gets a bit swoon-y each time PBS airs a new biography about a famous author, especially when it means he learns something new or surprising about the writer’s life. Here are Greg’s picks and descriptions of his top 10 literary biographies currently streaming on Passport:

1. Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space

An influential author and key figure in the Harlem Renaissance, Zora Neale Hurston was also a trained anthropologist who collected folklore throughout the American South and the Caribbean — reclaiming, honoring and celebrating Black life on its own terms.

“I love the vibrant language of Zora Neale Hurston’s most famous novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. But I didn’t know about the important anthropological work she contributed toward challenging gender and racial stereotypes that were common even among anthropologists at the time. A fascinating life story!” - Greg

2. Author Anthony Doerr: Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference

Dialogue host Marcia Franklin talks in-depth with Idaho author Anthony Doerr about his newest book, Cloud Cuckoo Land, and the Netflix adaptation of All the Light We Cannot See, his 2014 novel that won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

“Not technically a biography, but paired with Franklin’s 2014 interview with Doerr, you can see his growth as a novelist and how his fascination with science and history influence his storytelling. You can find all of Franklin’s Conversations from the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference here.” - Greg

3. Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir

American Masters presents the story of the author whose first novel, The Joy Luck Club, catapulted her to commercial and critical success. Tan opens up with remarkable frankness about the generational traumas her family faced and how this legacy continues to provide her an inexhaustible well of creative inspiration.

“Beyond struggling with her own traumas, Tan makes the difficult realization that her mother’s battle with mental illness was rooted in the Chinese tradition of concubinage. From this legacy, Tan has created life-affirming stories steeped in Asian cultures and the power of family bonds that have resonated with readers for decades.” - Greg

4. Hemingway

This three-part documentary from Ken Burns and Lynn Novick paints an intimate picture of the writer — who captured on paper the complexities of the human condition in spare and profound prose — while also penetrating the myth of Hemingway the man’s man, to reveal a deeply troubled and ultimately tragic figure.

“Although he was a world traveler whose stories were set in Cuba, Spain, Africa and elsewhere, Hemingway seemed to find personal solace in Idaho’s Wood River Valley. Idaho’s Hemingway, a companion piece produced by Idaho Experience, tells how Idaho influenced the writer’s life and work. Check them both out!” - Greg

5. Laura Ingalls Wilder: Prairie to Page

American Masters takes an unvarnished look at the unlikely author whose autobiographical fiction helped shape American ideas of the frontier and self-reliance. A Midwestern farm woman who published her first novel at age 65, Wilder transformed her frontier childhood into the best-selling “Little House” series.“The ‘unvarnished look’ has to do with modern backlash over Wilder’s portrayal of Native Americans, and also with an authorship controversy — it turns out the writer who celebrated self-reliance had a silent collaborator and possible ghostwriter in her daughter Rose. Still, it was great to learn more about the real Laura apart from the character portrayed in the books and TV series.” - Greg

6. A Writer’s Roots: Kurt Vonnegut’s Indianapolis

Explore Kurt Vonnegut’s hometown and visit the people and places that shaped him and his writing. Footage from key city landmarks, archival photos, and interviews with Vonnegut’s contemporaries and fans give a feel for how Indianapolis left its mark on the author and his characters.

“Vonnegut himself said, ‘All my jokes are Indianapolis. All my attitudes are Indianapolis. What people like about me is Indianapolis.’ This film puts that into context and shows how Vonnegut’s wry humor and measured humanism are products of his Indiana upbringing.” - Greg

7. American Oz

American Experience explores the life and times of author L. Frank Baum, the creator of one of the most beloved and enduring American classics, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Baum never lost his childlike sense of wonder and eventually crafted his observations into this magical tale of survival, adventure and self-discovery.

“It was reassuring in a way to learn that Baum failed at nearly every business pursuit he undertook until he created what is essentially the great American fairy tale: a timeless story of determination and perseverance against all odds. It only takes one great idea to be remembered as a success!” - Greg

8. Flannery

American Masters looks at the life of writer Flannery O’Connor, whose provocative fiction was unlike anything published before. A devout Catholic who collected peacocks and walked with crutches due to lupus, O’Connor’s illness, religion and experience as a Southerner informed her stories about outsiders, prophets and sinners seeking truth and redemption.

“I’ve always marveled at the Gothic, grotesque, and darkly hilarious turns in O’Connor’s stories like ‘A Good Man Is Hard to Find.’ To realize that she wrote most of it in the throes of a debilitating disease and in spite of criticism from her faith and cultural communities made me admire her even more. For more of her brilliance, check out Uncommon Grace: The Life of Flannery O’Connor on Passport.” - Greg

9. The Adventures of Saul Bellow

In this American Masters biography, examine Nobel Prize winner Saul Bellow's impact on American literature and how he navigated through issues of his time, including race, gender and the Jewish immigrant experience. Features interviews with Philip Roth, Salman Rushdie and others.

“It seemed to me that Saul Bellow’s writing had fallen largely out of fashion, so I was surprised to see this recent American Masters portrait. Bellow’s novels are full of that brash exuberance and optimism that made post-World War II American writing so exciting. This made me want to reread some of my favorites!” - Greg

10. Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am

Toni Morrison leads an assembly of her peers and critics on an exploration of the powerful themes she confronted throughout her literary career in this artful and intimate American Masters meditation that examines the life and work of the legendary storyteller.

“Morrison was the first Black woman to be awarded the Nobel prize in Literature, and I don’t think it’s possible to overstate her influence on contemporary writing. What a gift that in the final years of her life she was so intimately involved in the making of this film.” - Greg

Bonus: Mark Twain

In his time, Mark Twain was considered the funniest man on earth. Yet he was also an unflinching critic of human nature, using his humor to attack hypocrisy, greed and racism. In this series, Ken Burns has created an illuminating portrait of the man who is also one of the greatest writers in American history.

“Ken Burns has a knack for digging in deep and giving us comprehensive portraits of influential artists. I selected his newer Hemingway film for the main list, but his portrait of Mark Twain makes the case for Twain as the great chronicler of the American experience while living one of the great American lives.” - Greg

Bonus: Agatha And... Series

Three fictional “alternate histories” put what-if spins on real events from the life of mystery writer Agatha Christie. In Agatha and the Truth of Murder, Christie investigates the murder of Florence Nightingale’s goddaughter during the writer’s 11-day disappearance in 1926. In Agatha and the Curse of Ishtar, Christie travels to the deserts of Iraq for an archaeological dig, where she unravels a series of mysterious murders. In Agatha and the Midnight Murders, Christie is struggling with money and plans to sell a manuscript that kills off her famous detective Hercule Poirot.

“Not to be taken seriously as biography, but the what-if scenarios of these mysteries are a lot of fun to indulge in and then research later what was fact and what was fiction. For more factual takes on the life of the great crime writer, check out Agatha Christie’s England and Inside the Mind of Agatha Christie on Passport.” - Greg

IdahoPTV Passport is a member benefit that provides IdahoPTV donors extended on-demand access to a rich library of quality public television programs on your television with a number of streaming video devices as well as on your computer, tablet, and smartphone.

To learn more or sign up for Passport, visit idahoptv.org/passport.