B. L. Reid's reputation as a biographer and literary critic stands predominantly on the prodigious research for his two full-length biographies. Perhaps his most significant essay, the brief "Practical Biography" (1975; in Necessary Lives, 1990), has raised important issues regarding the grounds of biography and has encouraged readers to consider the fundamental differences between narrative history and biographical writing. Reid was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1969 for his first biography, The Man from New York: John Quinn and His Friends (1968). The Lives of Roger Casement (1976), his second full-length biography, was nominated for a National Book Award. Characteristic of both works are the careful selection and presentation of primary source material from an extensive body of research, and the conscientious effort to give priority to facts over interpretation.

Benjamin Lawrence Reid was born on 3 May 1918 in Louisville, Kentucky, to Isaac Errett Reid, a minister, and Margaret Lawrence Reid. When he was...