I feel it incumbent on me to repost this.
Another writer comes to mind: Anaïs Nin. Totally self absorbed. There is nothing to be taken from her diaries or fiction.
Yes, Moby-Dick is semi autobiographical. I suppose Huckleberry Finn is too.
Think also: Thomas Wolfe.
Beginning writers are told to write about themselves. To draw upon their own experience.
Let’s take Anaïs Nin for the moment. Her works are all about herself and her love affairs. I believe that this is true of her fiction as well,
How about Henry Miller, Nin’s companion and admirer?
Walt Whitman?
Miller’s works are all about him and his adventures. Yet somehow he gets outside of himself. And the people he encounters are not just reflections of him.
As did Walt Whitman.
The persona (Whitman himself) is omnipresent in Leaves of Grass.
So we encounter Whitman and conclude, take away from it, that he had an interesting life and interesting experiences in nineteenth century America? And nothing more?
See my post:
..– posted by Roger W. Smith
November 7, 2026
Addendum , November 9, 2026
Thinking more about this, what I am trying to say is that irrespective of the fact that a lot of writing tends to be autobiographical, at least partially, if not straightforwardly, so. But that does not mean it has to be self absorbed, as I find Joan Didion’s writing to be.
Regarding “Goodbye to All That,” the reading of which was the original impetus for this post, I expected to learn something about what New York was like in the early and mid 60s; and found that any such content or description was completely absent.
I often bring my personal experiences into a piece when they show how some incident, experience, or person came into play and illuminate, illustrate what I am trying to convey.
A writer who often does this — skillfully, in my opinion — is the New York Times ‘s Maureen Dowd.
Consider George Orwell’s essay ” Such, Such Were The Joys” about the horrors of British boarding schools. It is based totally on Orwell’s experience, yet it goes much further in its implications and effect on the reader.