Carl Jung is dead. That everyone can agree on that point is a major milestone. Jung’s biographer and Jung’s heirs have been warring over a new look at the man. Traditionally, biographies are written, reviewed, and consigned to shelves after being read by those who find themselves interested. Additional readings may happen if another biographer uses the book as source material.
Though other publishers of the Jung biography have opted against inserting “corrections” into the book, the German publisher, a division of Random House, has weighed one potential lawsuit against another and decided to try to compromise.
Which leads us to our final question: in the world of biographies, how many generations removed constitute legal risk?
1 response so far ↓
Katharine Weber // Aug 3, 2005 at 6:18 pm
May I point out that in my 2003 novel The Little Women (FSG) the author is forced to permit family members to comment in the text of the book, and her responses appear as well, creating a running dialogue interleaved with the story? I never imagined that something like this could take place outside a novel.