Lives on the Record reads Deirdre Bair’s biographies closely: the four literary lives — Samuel Beckett, Simone de Beauvoir, Anaïs Nin, Carl Jung — and the two that came later, Saul Steinberg and Al Capone. It also covers the people those books are about, because a biography is only half the story.
Who writes it
Olivia Murphy is the pen name of the reader who writes this site.
She has no connection to Deirdre Bair, her family, her estate or her publishers, and does not claim any. What she has is a reader’s interest in how a life gets written down, and a habit of checking things.
Everything here is compiled from published sources: the books themselves, contemporary reviews, obituaries, archives and public records. Dates, quotations and page references are verified before they appear. Where the record is thin or contradictory, this site says so rather than filling the gap with a good guess — which is, not coincidentally, the standard Bair set for herself.
How the pages are built
- Sources are named. If a claim comes from a review rather than from the book itself, the page says so.
- Gaps are stated, not filled. Where something is disputed or unrecorded, you will find a sentence saying exactly that.
- Criticism is included. Every book page carries the case against the book as well as the case for it.
- Corrections are welcome and are made quickly. If you find an error, please write.
Why this domain
deirdrebairauthor.com was Bair’s own author website, maintained by her publisher until shortly after her death in 2020, and then allowed to lapse. Rather than let the address go to an unrelated business, this site keeps it pointed at what it always pointed at: her work.
Contact
Corrections, questions and permissions: [email protected]
This site is not affiliated with Deirdre Bair, her family, her estate, or her publishers.