Romaine Brooks

When you write a book that is contextual and thematic does it still qualify as a biography? It is a question I am asking myself as I try to meld together some kind of grant proposal. I am very inept at this sort of exercise. I just write and I write well and I generally am able to publish what I write. Yet when it comes to putting together these proposals I feel a sixes and sevens. What to include–what not to include. Who is going to be reading this and what are they looking for.

Will her fascist sympathies interest readers? What kind of readers are we talking about. I suppose every writer asks themselves why am I doing this? How can I tell her story from as many points of view as I can and tell the larger story of a historical moment colored by two world wars, the Great depression, and radical changes in time and space. How do I position her as a lesbian feminist, expatriate artist living and working in Paris, Florence and New York. And, how do I answer the big question of why she stopped painting?