In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Joshua Kendall chats with Gabriella about the choices he made while writing The Man Who Made Lists, his biography of Peter Mark Roget, the eighteenth-century polymath who created the legendary Roget’s Thesaurus.
Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:
- Why Joshua felt compelled to write The Man Who Made Lists.
- The meaning behind the book’s title.
- Why Joshua decided to open the biography with a tragic scene involving Peter Roget.
- How Joshua crafted a deeply nuanced portrait of Roget’s that conveys his complicated personality, relationships and behaviour.
- How Joshua navigated the complexities of portraying mental illness.
- Why Joshua began each chapter with an exhaustive list of synonyms.
- Joshua’s research strategy given Roget lived two centuries ago.
- How Joshua corroborated the fragmentary evidence he discovered in the archives.
- How Joshua reconstructed scenes from Roget’s life that overflow with accurate historical details of famous people, events and settings.
- The literary devices Joshua borrowed from novelists to create a captivating narrative.
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