A Voyage Beyond the Text as Self: Remembering Miriam Fuchs Holzman

When I joined the Biography staff as coeditor in 2007, Miriam had been part of the editorial staff for thirteen years—as literary editor since 1994, as associate editor since 2000, and as coeditor since 2003. Prior to joining the team at the Center for Biographical Research (CBR), I had guest-edited with Laura E. Lyons a 2004 special issue on the testimonial uses of life writing. Miriam’s sureness and expertise as an editor and lifewriting scholar made that special issue a stronger one, and Miriam’s sharp intelligence was matched by her generosity and supportiveness. Part of the draw, then, of coming on board as coeditor was the opportunity to work closely with Miriam. I knew there was much I would learn from her, and in this I was not disappointed. What I did not expect, but value even more, is that I gained a friendship replete with intellectual companionship. Miriam was also fun—a teller of fascinating stories, and in all the best ways a sharer of snark and gossip, as well as delicious wine and food (none of it cooked by Miriam, who was as reluctant a cook as she was an enthusiast of the cooking of others). In working with Miriam, I came to appreciate her kindness and generosity, her carefully considered extravagances, her wicked sense of humor, her drollness, her drama, her sentimentality, her delight in small things (and for this reason, I took huge pleasure in gifting Miriam small animals made of porcelain, glass, and clay that I collected on my travels, knowing that they kept her company as she wrote), her intense curiosity, her impatience for ineptitude, her fierce loyalty, her lust for life, her tartness, her sweetness, and her optimism (a self-proclaimed pessimist, her optimism was one of her many carefully guarded secrets).

I mention these facets of Miriam as friend because I cannot separate my relationship from her as my coeditor from that of her as my mentor and friend. Miriam regularly signed off on her emails to me, “Your friend, me.” Despite her lightness of touch, I knew she meant this. Miriam brought to her friendships, as she brought to her work as an editor, a serious commitment that carried with it remarkable generosity. When it came to evaluating journal submissions, Miriam approached every essay with rigor and formidable intelligence. She did not take shortcuts in her responses, which were a combination of tough criticism (but only if warranted), often surprising insights (no detail, however seemingly insignificant, escaped Miriam), and precise praise (but only if warranted). For the most part, she kept her exasperation (mostly warranted) off the page, writing to even the most errant authors with collegiality and professionalism. Even for essays that fell outside the journal’s parameters, Miriam took the time to offer insights and suggestions for revision. She was especially attentive to work by young scholars, and her letters to them summarizing readers’ reports were carefully crafted forms of mentorship, another aspect of her brilliance as a teacher.

In addition to the day-to-day tasks of coediting, I worked with Miriam—and with editor and CBR director Craig Howes and senior editor Stanley Schab—in the shaping of special issues, including one in 2009 on “Translating Lives” that Miriam and I coedited. For this, we cowrote an introduction. I have seen the strongest of relationships be sorely tested through coauthorship and coediting, but with Miriam, perfectionist though she was, this experience was easy and pleasurable. She had a gift for taking firm hold of her own vision and ideas while leaving space for her collaborators, and, as a consummate listener and asker of questions, for making our ideas more fully realized. When essays were delayed due to authors experiencing illnesses or emergencies, Miriam’s default response was one of warmth and compassion as she reset deadlines and extended forms of support that, though focused on the writing before her, had everything to do with her concern for the writer.

One of the things I most appreciated about Miriam, both personally and professionally, was her ability...