Authors at the reception (left to right): Deborah Solomon, David Michaelis, James Atlas, John Patrick Diggins, Mark Stevens, Nancy Milford, Michael Anderson, David Nasaw, Sam Roberts, Will Swift, Deirdre Bair, Robert Caro, Rachel Brownstein, Stacy Schiff. Both Caro and Schiff have received the Pulitzer Prize.

Shelby White and David Nasaw

Photos: A. Poyo

David Nasaw, President William Kelly and Nancy Milford

The Graduate Center hosted a reception to celebrate the establishment of the Leon Levy Center for Biography on Tuesday, February 26 in the Skylight Room. Over a dozen distinguished biographers attended, including winners of the Pulitzer Prize, as well as luminaries from the worlds of publishing and journalism. The Center will examine the practice and methodologies of biography, and will serve as a hub for writers, scholars, students, and readers of the genre.

Comments were offered by President William P. Kelly; author, collector, and philanthropist Shelby White, trustee of the Leon Levy Foundation, which is funding the center with a $3.7 million gift; Nancy Milford, the Center's Executive Director and Senior Biographer; and David Nasaw (History), the Center's Faculty Co-Director.

Nasaw introduced the eminent biographers among the guests—Deborah Solomon, David Michaelis, James Atlas, John Patrick Diggins, Mark Stevens, Nancy Milford, Michael Anderson, David Nasaw, Sam Roberts, Will Swift, Deirdre Bair, Robert Caro, Rachel Brownstein, and Stacy Schiff. The biographical subjects of this group include figures as diverse as Samuel Beckett, Carl Jung, Robert Moses, Lyndon Johnson, Montgomery Clift, Diane Arbus, Vera Nabokov, and Jackson Pollock.

The Center will foster discussion about the nature of biography and its legitimacy as a scholarly pursuit, and will initiate a dialogue between scholars and noted biographers working outside the academy. Plans include a lecture and a conference that will bring compelling forums about biography to the general public, as well as support for Biography Fellows, Dissertation Fellows, and Graduate Student Fellows.