Dr Christopher Wiley has co-edited, together with Dr Marleen Rensen (University of Amsterdam), a new volume entitled Transnational Perspectives on Artists’ Lives, published by Palgrave Macmillan and including chapters on artists from Europe, North America, Africa, and Australasia representing a range of arts disciplines.

The book’s international contributors include Sander Bax, Suzanne Bode, Tamar Hager, Maximiliano Jiménez, Jane McVeigh, Anna Menyhért, Manet van Montfrans, Samantha Niederman, Suze van der Poll, Josiane Ranguin, Maria Razumovskaya, Marleen Rensen, Marc Röntsch, Maryam Thirriard, and Christopher Wiley. The table of contents is available here.

This essay collection was developed from a 2018 conference held at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, at which Dr Wiley, an internationally acknowledged expert on musical biography, gave a Keynote lecture.

Dr Wiley’s chapter in the volume, ‘Ethel Smyth as the composer Edith Staines in E.F. Benson’s Dodo trilogy’ (abstract available here), discusses the depiction of the composer Ethel Smyth as a fictional character in E.F. Benson’s sensational book Dodo and its sequels Dodo Wonders and Dodo’s Daughter.

Dr Rensen and Dr Wiley also co-authored the editorial introduction, ‘Writing Artists’ Lives Across Nations and Cultures: Biography, Biofiction and Transnationality’, which considers issues raised by writing the lives of artists, as well as the significance of transnationality to biography.

This is the second volume that Dr Wiley has published with Palgrave Macmillan this year, the first being on researching and writing about contemporary art and artists.

For further information, and to purchase the book: https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030451998

Bibliographic citations

Wiley, Christopher. ‘Ethel Smyth as the composer Edith Staines in E.F. Benson’s Dodo trilogy’, in Marleen Rensen and Christopher Wiley eds. Transnational Perspectives on Artists’ Lives. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020, pp. 255–69. 

Rensen, Marleen and Christopher Wiley. ‘Writing Artists’ Lives Across Nations and Cultures: Biography, Biofiction and Transnationality’, in Marleen Rensen and Christopher Wiley eds. Transnational Perspectives on Artists’ Lives. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020, pp. 1–24. 

Rensen, Marleen and Christopher Wiley eds. Transnational Perspectives on Artists’ Lives. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020. pp. xv, 276. ISBN 978-3-030-45200-1, 978-3-030-45200-1 (eBook)

Full texts

The full text of Dr Wiley’s chapter is available here: https://www.academia.edu/65118145/Ethel_Smyth_as_the_composer_Edith_Staines_in_E_F_Bensons_Dodo_trilogy

And the full text of the co-authored editorial introduction may be downloaded here: https://www.academia.edu/65117588/Writing_Artists_Lives_Across_Nations_and_Cultures_Biography_Biofiction_and_Transnationality