In his introduction to Novelists in Their Youth (1990) John William Halperin defends the importance of biography in an age when critical appraisal often turns away from social, historical, and biographical evidence toward such approaches as deconstructionism: "We live in the midst of our own historical moment, of course; our values, our thoughts, our prejudices, our perceptions, are products of that historical moment and of the accumulated wisdom of social history, as inevitably as they are products of our unique psyche. Whatever a person may choose to do, two of the reasons for that choice must always be found in the personality and in the moment." Halperin asserts that the role of the author must never be forgotten: "All fiction emerges from the consciousness of the writer and is therefore shaped in the way that consciousness perceives." What the author perceives and the way in which he arranges it...