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| Deirdre Bair, author of acclaimed biographies, dies at 84 | Deirdre Bair, author of acclaimed biographies, dies at 84 |
| (1 day later) | |
| Deirdre Bair, an acclaimed biographer whose career flourished after she boldly wrote a letter to reclusive playwright Samuel Beckett, who invited her to Paris to interview him, died April 17 at her home in New Haven, Conn. She was 84. | Deirdre Bair, an acclaimed biographer whose career flourished after she boldly wrote a letter to reclusive playwright Samuel Beckett, who invited her to Paris to interview him, died April 17 at her home in New Haven, Conn. She was 84. |
| She had a heart ailment, said her daughter, Katney Bair. | She had a heart ailment, said her daughter, Katney Bair. |
| Ms. Bair, who was completing her graduate studies in the early 1970s, called herself “an accidental biographer” and chose Beckett as a subject only because his name came early in the alphabet. Considered by many to be the greatest playwright of the 20th century, the Irish-born Beckett lived in Paris and was best known for his 1952 play “Waiting for Godot.” | Ms. Bair, who was completing her graduate studies in the early 1970s, called herself “an accidental biographer” and chose Beckett as a subject only because his name came early in the alphabet. Considered by many to be the greatest playwright of the 20th century, the Irish-born Beckett lived in Paris and was best known for his 1952 play “Waiting for Godot.” |
| Evasive and dismissive toward reporters, Beckett responded to Ms. Bair, writing, “My life is dull and without interest.” But he added, “If you come to Paris, I will see you.” | Evasive and dismissive toward reporters, Beckett responded to Ms. Bair, writing, “My life is dull and without interest.” But he added, “If you come to Paris, I will see you.” |
| She did just that, first meeting Beckett in 1971, two years after he had been awarded the Nobel Prize in literature. His first words, Ms. Bair later recalled, were, “So you are the one who is going to reveal me for the charlatan that I am.” | She did just that, first meeting Beckett in 1971, two years after he had been awarded the Nobel Prize in literature. His first words, Ms. Bair later recalled, were, “So you are the one who is going to reveal me for the charlatan that I am.” |
| At the time, she was a 36-year-old faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania who had never written a book. Beckett gave her his blessing, in a backhanded way. | |
| “I will neither help nor hinder you,” he said. “My friends and family will assist you and my enemies will find you soon enough.” | “I will neither help nor hinder you,” he said. “My friends and family will assist you and my enemies will find you soon enough.” |
| At one of their meetings at a Paris cafe, Ms. Bair pulled out a notebook, prompting Beckett to jump out of his seat. | At one of their meetings at a Paris cafe, Ms. Bair pulled out a notebook, prompting Beckett to jump out of his seat. |
| “No pencils. No paper,” he said, according to Ms. Bair’s 2019 memoir, “Parisian Lives.” “We are just having conversations. Just two friends talking. Don’t even think of a tape recorder.” | “No pencils. No paper,” he said, according to Ms. Bair’s 2019 memoir, “Parisian Lives.” “We are just having conversations. Just two friends talking. Don’t even think of a tape recorder.” |
| Thereafter, she rushed back from her interviews to write out Beckett’s comments as quickly as she could. | Thereafter, she rushed back from her interviews to write out Beckett’s comments as quickly as she could. |
| “I was ecstatic to think that all lights were green and all roads were open,” Ms. Bair wrote. “It wasn’t too long after that I came to understand why he cooperated so blithely: He did not take me seriously.” | “I was ecstatic to think that all lights were green and all roads were open,” Ms. Bair wrote. “It wasn’t too long after that I came to understand why he cooperated so blithely: He did not take me seriously.” |
| Beckett’s condescension wasn’t the only obstacle she faced. One male scholar said she would be doing “a great favor” if she would turn over her research to him to use in his book. | Beckett’s condescension wasn’t the only obstacle she faced. One male scholar said she would be doing “a great favor” if she would turn over her research to him to use in his book. |
| Ms. Bair’s agent wouldn’t return her calls, her first publisher went bankrupt and the second rejected her manuscript. When she traveled to Europe for research, she left a freezer full of food — and 15 homemade apple pies — at home for her husband and two children. | Ms. Bair’s agent wouldn’t return her calls, her first publisher went bankrupt and the second rejected her manuscript. When she traveled to Europe for research, she left a freezer full of food — and 15 homemade apple pies — at home for her husband and two children. |
| Her biography, which was published in 1978, was considered the most thorough study written on Beckett, who died in 1989. After the paperback edition appeared, it won the National Book Award, but the praise for Ms. Bair’s book was sometimes marked by incredulity. | |
| “Out of nowhere,” Newsweek critic Jack Kroll wrote, “this unknown English teacher at the University of Pennsylvania has produced what has to be the one indispensable book on Beckett.” | “Out of nowhere,” Newsweek critic Jack Kroll wrote, “this unknown English teacher at the University of Pennsylvania has produced what has to be the one indispensable book on Beckett.” |
| At least one journalist asked if Ms. Bair had slept with Beckett to gain access. Literary scholar Richard Ellmann, who had written a biography of Beckett’s mentor, James Joyce, mused in the New York Review of Books, “And what did she do to get Beckett to let her write his biography?” | At least one journalist asked if Ms. Bair had slept with Beckett to gain access. Literary scholar Richard Ellmann, who had written a biography of Beckett’s mentor, James Joyce, mused in the New York Review of Books, “And what did she do to get Beckett to let her write his biography?” |
| “I felt I had done something terrible,” she told Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald newspaper in 2005. “I couldn’t take it. I left New York and went to California. I walked along the beach and cried. For a month. | “I felt I had done something terrible,” she told Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald newspaper in 2005. “I couldn’t take it. I left New York and went to California. I walked along the beach and cried. For a month. |
| “Then one day I said to myself . . . ‘You wrote a good book, you hold up your head and you go back to New York and you be proud of it.’ ” | “Then one day I said to myself . . . ‘You wrote a good book, you hold up your head and you go back to New York and you be proud of it.’ ” |
| For her next book, Ms. Bair returned to Paris for interviews with Simone de Beauvoir, the author of “The Second Sex,” one of the key treatises underlying the feminist movement. | For her next book, Ms. Bair returned to Paris for interviews with Simone de Beauvoir, the author of “The Second Sex,” one of the key treatises underlying the feminist movement. |
| “She was largely responsible for creating the current feminist revolution that changed the lives of half the human race in most parts of the world,” Ms. Bair wrote in her biography of de Beauvoir, who had been at the center of French intellectual life since the 1930s and was the longtime partner of philosopher and author Jean-Paul Sartre. | “She was largely responsible for creating the current feminist revolution that changed the lives of half the human race in most parts of the world,” Ms. Bair wrote in her biography of de Beauvoir, who had been at the center of French intellectual life since the 1930s and was the longtime partner of philosopher and author Jean-Paul Sartre. |
| “When I started the book, I thought it was a relationship between two equals,” Ms. Bair told the Los Angeles Times in 1990. “As I wrote the book, I felt that I was like a balloon slowly deflating. The myth of the perfect couple turned out, in my mind, to be just that, a myth.” | “When I started the book, I thought it was a relationship between two equals,” Ms. Bair told the Los Angeles Times in 1990. “As I wrote the book, I felt that I was like a balloon slowly deflating. The myth of the perfect couple turned out, in my mind, to be just that, a myth.” |
| Ms. Bair concluded that, despite de Beauvoir’s groundbreaking feminist views, her relationship with Sartre left her in a subservient role — to the point of procuring younger female lovers for him. | Ms. Bair concluded that, despite de Beauvoir’s groundbreaking feminist views, her relationship with Sartre left her in a subservient role — to the point of procuring younger female lovers for him. |
| De Beauvoir’s deepest romantic feelings, Ms. Bair found, were for American novelist Nelson Algren, whose ring she never stopped wearing. In later years, de Beauvoir lived with a young female philosophy student, Sylvie Le Bon, eventually adopting her. She adamantly denied that they were in a lesbian relationship. | De Beauvoir’s deepest romantic feelings, Ms. Bair found, were for American novelist Nelson Algren, whose ring she never stopped wearing. In later years, de Beauvoir lived with a young female philosophy student, Sylvie Le Bon, eventually adopting her. She adamantly denied that they were in a lesbian relationship. |
| Ms. Bair’s biography appeared in 1990, four years after de Beauvoir died. Ms. Bair suspected that de Beauvoir would have been wounded by what she wrote, but as a serious biographer, she was bound to a higher standard. | Ms. Bair’s biography appeared in 1990, four years after de Beauvoir died. Ms. Bair suspected that de Beauvoir would have been wounded by what she wrote, but as a serious biographer, she was bound to a higher standard. |
| “You have to tell a good story, and you have to be a skillful enough writer to do that,” she told the Sydney Morning Herald. “But you also have to tell the exact truth.” | “You have to tell a good story, and you have to be a skillful enough writer to do that,” she told the Sydney Morning Herald. “But you also have to tell the exact truth.” |
| Deirdre Bartolotta was born June 21, 1935, in Pittsburgh and grew up in the western Pennsylvania town of Monongahela. Her father was a small-business owner, her mother a homemaker. | Deirdre Bartolotta was born June 21, 1935, in Pittsburgh and grew up in the western Pennsylvania town of Monongahela. Her father was a small-business owner, her mother a homemaker. |
| Ms. Bair graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1957, was married the same year and began working as a freelance writer and later for Newsweek magazine. Her early experiences in journalism prepared her for the treatment she received while writing about Beckett. | Ms. Bair graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1957, was married the same year and began working as a freelance writer and later for Newsweek magazine. Her early experiences in journalism prepared her for the treatment she received while writing about Beckett. |
| “I was always dealing with unpleasant behavior from men who, if they were not actual gropers or wannabe bed partners, took delight in slyly bombarding me with sexual innuendo,” she wrote in her 2019 memoir. | |
| She later studied comparative literature at Columbia University, receiving a master’s degree in 1968 and a doctorate in 1972. | She later studied comparative literature at Columbia University, receiving a master’s degree in 1968 and a doctorate in 1972. |
| After her books on Beckett and de Beauvoir, Ms. Bair published biographies of writer and sexual adventurer Anaïs Nin (1995), psychiatrist Carl Jung (2003), cartoonist Saul Steinberg (2012) and gangster Al Capone (2016) — for which Ms. Bair received the cooperation of Capone’s descendants, if she agreed not to identify them by name. | After her books on Beckett and de Beauvoir, Ms. Bair published biographies of writer and sexual adventurer Anaïs Nin (1995), psychiatrist Carl Jung (2003), cartoonist Saul Steinberg (2012) and gangster Al Capone (2016) — for which Ms. Bair received the cooperation of Capone’s descendants, if she agreed not to identify them by name. |
| Her 2019 memoir, “Parisian Lives,” garnered glowing reviews and was hailed by critic Heller McAlpin in the Wall Street Journal as “at once a record of triumph over the skepticism and sexism she encountered on her path from journalist to academic and biographer and a valuable lesson in the art of biography.” | Her 2019 memoir, “Parisian Lives,” garnered glowing reviews and was hailed by critic Heller McAlpin in the Wall Street Journal as “at once a record of triumph over the skepticism and sexism she encountered on her path from journalist to academic and biographer and a valuable lesson in the art of biography.” |
| In 2007, Ms. Bair published “Calling It Quits,” about couples who divorce after long marriages. She was later divorced from her husband of more than 40 years, museum administrator Lavon H. Bair. | In 2007, Ms. Bair published “Calling It Quits,” about couples who divorce after long marriages. She was later divorced from her husband of more than 40 years, museum administrator Lavon H. Bair. |
| Survivors include two children, Katney Bair and Vonn Scott Bair; a sister; a brother; and a granddaughter. | Survivors include two children, Katney Bair and Vonn Scott Bair; a sister; a brother; and a granddaughter. |
| Despite her success as a literary biographer, Ms. Bair did not have a successful academic career. After being turned down for tenure at the University of Pennsylvania, she quit the faculty and devoted herself to being a full-time researcher and writer. | Despite her success as a literary biographer, Ms. Bair did not have a successful academic career. After being turned down for tenure at the University of Pennsylvania, she quit the faculty and devoted herself to being a full-time researcher and writer. |
| “I never did know how to play academic politics,” she wrote in “Parisian Lives,” “and I realize how fortunate I have been to be free from them, and to have spent so many years doing work that I love.” | “I never did know how to play academic politics,” she wrote in “Parisian Lives,” “and I realize how fortunate I have been to be free from them, and to have spent so many years doing work that I love.” |
| Read more Washington Post obituaries | Read more Washington Post obituaries |
| Patricia Bosworth, author of revealing biographies and memoirs, dies at 86 of coronavirus | Patricia Bosworth, author of revealing biographies and memoirs, dies at 86 of coronavirus |
| Sylvia Jukes Morris, biographer of Edith Roosevelt and Clare Boothe Luce, dies at 84 | Sylvia Jukes Morris, biographer of Edith Roosevelt and Clare Boothe Luce, dies at 84 |
| William S. McFeely, author of Pulitzer-winning biography of Ulysses S. Grant, dies at 89 | William S. McFeely, author of Pulitzer-winning biography of Ulysses S. Grant, dies at 89 |
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