PRINCETON: Pulitzer winner explains her love of biography

By Dana Bernstein, Special to the Packet
   Pulitzer Prize-winning author Stacy Schiff spoke about her most recent book, “Cleopatra: A Life,” at Princeton University on Oct. 10.
   ”As subjects go, they really don’t get much bigger than Cleopatra. She’s part of that exclusive club of historical figures whose names we all recognize but about whom we know virtually nothing,” Ms. Ms. Schiff said to approximately 40 people in the Whig Hall Senate Chamber. “What we do know about her is twisted beyond all recognition.”
   Ms. Schiff explained that women are not often the subjects of biographical works.
   ”Normally, women are devilish and difficult to write about, they keep lousy records and their lives go undocumented. Cleopatra is an exception in that respect,” she said.
   Ms. Schiff decided to write about Cleopatra because she was startled by her own ignorance on the subject matter.
   ”Here’s a woman whom we think of as Egyptian but was in fact Greek, whom we remember as beautiful but was more notable for her charm and her intelligence than her appearance,” she said.
   Cleopatra’s family members were inclined to assassinate one another to gain power. The second of five siblings, Cleopatra ascended to the throne with her next youngest brother, but the two were soon engaged in a civil war.
   ”He would die in that contest, which left Cleopatra at [age] 22 with two surviving siblings. Caesar by that time had arrived on the scene, and he would exile the remaining sister,” Ms. Schiff said. “Within two years, Cleopatra would poison the remaining brother and later, as a favor to her, Mark Antony would arrange for the murder of the sister. In other words, none of Cleopatra’s siblings survives past the age of 20. She’s the only one to die on her own terms.”
   Cleopatra was a force to be reckoned with, according to Ms. Schiff. She studied with the best tutors of her time, immersing herself in the works of Homer, Escalus and Euripides. Additionally, she spoke nine languages and was the only woman in antiquity who ruled independently.
   ”Every bit of Egypt belonged to her, from the wheat fields to the oil presses to the crocodiles in the Nile itself. Every person in Egypt worked for her … the end result was a treasury unmatched by any other sovereign. She was hands-down the richest person, man or woman, in the Mediterranean,” Ms. Schiff said. “Her palace was the most sumptuous in existence, all onyx and ebony with gold fillings and gem-studded walls.”
   The biography was a New York Times Book Review’s “Top 10 Books of the Year,” one of Time magazine’s “Top Nonfiction Books” and one of The New Yorker’s “2010 Favorites.” It will be translated into 30 languages.
   Ms. Schiff is also the author of “Véra,” winner of the Pulitzer Prize; “Saint-Exupéry,” a Pulitzer Prize finalist; and “A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America.” Ms. Schiff explained that in biography writing, it is indispensable to be impartial.
   ”The art of biography comes in the ability to express doubt and uncertainty,” she said. “You have to be able to approach a temporary alter ego with the intimacy of a lover, the evenhandedness of a judge and the eye of a child.”
   Her ideal biographical subject?
   ”He/she would have lived after the advent of photography, been the star of his penmanship class at grade school, would have written in English that positively sings,” she said. “You want him/her to have had friends and confidantes with photographic memories who are still walking around but who have not already talked to the previous 15 biographers.”
   Ms. Schiff elaborated on what attracts her to her biographical subjects.
   ”You do things for them you do not do for your devoted spouse — as my husband has rather regularly pointed out to me — you drink their drinks, you visit their favorite museums, you walk their favorite walks, you read their favorite books, you adopt their grudges, you learn their languages,” she said. “Biographical subjects are partners you carry around with you for years on end.”