Hermione Lee grew up in London and was educated at Oxford. She began her academic career as a lecturer in Williamsburg, Virginia (Instructor, 1970-1971) and at Liverpool University (Lecturer, 1971-1977). She taught at the University of York from 1977, where over twenty years she was Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Reader, and Professor of English Literature. From 1998-2008 she was the Goldsmiths' Chair of English Literature and Fellow of New College at the University of Oxford. In 2008 Lee was elected President of Wolfson College, University of Oxford. Lee is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Fellow of the British Academy and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and an Honorary Fellow of St Hilda's and St Cross Colleges, Oxford. She has Honorary Doctorates from Liverpool and York Universities. In 2003 she was made a Companion of the British Empire for Services to Literature. Her biography of Edith Wharton is available in paperback from Vintage. Order online via Vintage, Chatto & Windus, Alfred A. Knopf, Random House Canada, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com, or from a variety of quality independent booksellers through localbookshops.co.uk or Book Sense.

Hermione Lee on Michael Cunningham
'By Nightfall by Michael Cunningham - review.' The Guardian, 15 January 2011. From the Review: Peter Harris, an ordinary-sounding name for an unexceptional man, is the second-rate character at the heart of Michael Cunningham's less than first-rate novel. Cunningham's forte is the inner lives and mortal yearnings of urban dwellers (including Virginia Woolf/Mrs Dalloway in The Hours, and followers of Whitman in Specimen Days). But Harris is a more anxious, uncertain and patchy protagonist than the great writers whose souls Cunningham cunningly stole in previous novels. Read the full review on The Guardian website.
On Penelope Fitzgerald
Since her death ten years ago this month, Penelope Fitzgerald's reputation has grown steadily. Once dismissed as a minor lady writer, she is now recognised as one of the finest British novelists of the last century. Her biographer Hermione Lee has been granted access to her manuscripts, letters and, best of all, her library of books with their many personal annotations. Read the essay at The Guardian website.
Biography: A Very Short Introduction
Biography: A Very Short Introduction by Hermione Lee (2009, reprinted 2011) Oxford University Press ISBN13: 9780199533541 ISBN10: 0199533547 Paperback, 144 pages UK / Canada / US		Biography is one of the most popular, best-selling, and widely-read of literary genres. But why do certain people and historical events arouse so much interest? How can biographies be compared with history and works of fiction? Does a biography need to be true? Is it acceptable to omit or conceal things? Does the biographer need to personally know the subject? Must a biographer be subjective? In this Very Short Introduction Hermione Lee considers the cultural and historical background of different types of biographies, looking at the factors that affect biographers and whether there are different strategies, ethics, and principles required for writing about one person compared to another. She also considers contemporary biographical publications and considers what kind of 'lives' are the most popular and in demand. MeettheAuthor.co.uk: Watch this short video in which Hermione Lee discusses the subject and development of her new book Biography: A Very Short Introduction. (3:16)
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