Brad Gooch is a professor of english at William Paterson University in New Jersey. His latest book is Flannery: A Life of Flannery O'Connor

Out There

From Gore Vidal to Tony Kushner, a new book traces the history of American gay writers as they emerged from the literary closet. Brad Gooch on how gossip became history.

His iconic paintings and outrageous behavior defined modern art, but Brad Gooch says that a new biography of Modigliani upends our view of him as mere drug-fueled myth.

A new biography by Michael Korda captures T. E. Lawrence’s epic life and his role in forming the modern Middle East. Brad Gooch on his strange life and legacy.

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the leader of the controversial Islamic center Park51, represents a liberal version of Islam, says biographer Brad Gooch, who shares his memories of a friendship with him going back a decade.

A new biography of famed British author Somerset Maugham explores his complicated love life and defends his literary genius. Brad Gooch salutes a life given meaning.

Brad Gooch on Raymond Carver’s messy, brutal life, groundbreaking fiction, and the controversy over his editor’s influence—all detailed in Carol Sklenicka’s definitive new biography.

The famed biographer of Flannery O’Connor and Frank O’Hara recommends five books, from the favorite novel of his youth (The Razor’s Edge) to the favorite novel of today’s teens (Twilight).

In an excerpt from the new biography of Flannery O’Connor, the famed author, stricken with illness, returns home and discovers that a good peacock is not hard to find.

To the pre-Harvey Milk generation, Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns defined the quiet cool of gay culture. Brad Gooch recalls the abstract expressions of their art, lives, and love.