More on Robert Caro's research & writing methods

Posted by Paul Korm
Apr 21, 2019 at 01:27 PM

Some years ago a topic here discussed the biographer Robert Caro’s outline for his “The Years of Lyndon Johnson”.

https://www.outlinersoftware.com/topics/viewt/3934

Caro recently (April 2019) released a book discussing his experiences and methods, including research, interviews, note taking, outlining, writing and editing. After engaging in extensive research on a topic or event in a subject’s life, Caro proceeds to his writing phase.

CARO: I can’t start writing a book until I’ve thought it through and can see it whole in my mind. So before I start writing, I boil the book down to three paragraphs, or two, or one—that’s when it comes into view. That process might take weeks. And then I turn those paragraphs into an outline of the whole book. That’s what you see up here on my wall now—twenty-seven typewritten pages. That’s the fifth volume. Then, with the whole book in mind, I go chapter by chapter. I sit down at the typewriter and type an outline of that chapter, let’s say if it’s a long chapter, seven pages—it’s really the chapter in brief, without any of the supporting evidence. Then, each chapter gets a notebook, which I fill with all the materials I want to use—quotations and facts pulled from all of the research I’ve done.

Caro, Robert A.. Working (p. 197). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.

“Working” is an interesting read for anyone looking to understand Caro’s methods.