The Lives of the Greek Poets

Lefkowitz (emerita, humanities, Wellesley College) studies how biographers across history have attempted to reconstruct the lives of the ancient Greek poets. The author argues that in spite of the fact that the biographies are not historically accurate, these biographies still are important because they light on historical ideas about the Greek poets. With references to recent scholarship, this second edition provides a more sympathetic portrait of the ancient writers who created biographies of the Greek poets and seeks more information on the individual biographers. There is also more emphasis on how biographical traditions developed over time. The book was first published in 1981. It is distributed in the US by International Publishers Marketing. Annotation c2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)