An intriguing and perhaps moderately divisive biography.

Wyatt-Brown's bio came in 1992, at the tail end of a decade-and-a-half of "Pym mania". The author had been rediscovered in 1977, died in 1980, had her complete works reissued in the UK and issued for the first time in the US, and been the subject of several critical and not-so-critical biographies.

The good: Wyatt-Brown's book skillfully merges Barbara's life and literature, whereas most of the books that came before focus on one or the other, to the annoyance no doubt of the novice reader. This is also impeccably researched, with a keen eye for dates and detail. Wyatt-Brown is also good on providing information not found in any earlier work, neat little moments that amplify understanding of the novels, as well as some less savoury examples, such as more negative sides of Pym's personality or psyche, and moments in her early drafts of beloved male characters being violent toward the heroine, and getting away with it!

The murky: Pym as an author often based her characters on real-life people and situations, so I enjoyed Wyatt-Brown's extensive attempts to decode that here. Some readers may feel that she exaggerates the linkage, refusing to let anything in Barbara's early or middle period novels be literary rather than biographical. Some readers may also be annoyed by Wyatt-Brown's clear fascination in how much (if any) sexual experience Pym obtained during her youth, although again I think this area of questioning is warranted, since her official autobiography and official biography are both deliberately vague despite making much of Pym's lifelong spinsterhood, and her decades-long yearning for certain men from her youth.

The annoying: I think because Wyatt-Brown is so focused on Barbara's psychology (this is a very American work) she is better at the early works than the latter. They better suit her viewpoint of Barbara as a damaged soul trying to repress her passion.
What bothered me was that the author seemed certain at times when she should be uncertain, and uncertain at times of clear certainty! For example, when noting Pym's sister Hilary's divorce during WWII, Wyatt-Brown says "according to a letter Pym wrote..." Surely it's a matter of historical record that Pym's sister was divorced; this could have been verified surely through public records, but also any Pym fan knows that Barbara and Hilary lived together for the rest of their lives. This on its own wouldn't be frustrating, but Wyatt-Brown feels no compunction about devoting a paragraph or more to bald assumptions about Pym's sexual habits and psychological troubles - all of which can only be speculation - without any attempt to justify her claims. It thus feels rather odd that she would be so cagey around factual matters!
I would also add to this list a mild annoyance with Wyatt-Brown's occasional superiority. She besmirches reviewers who don't appreciate Pym, or refers to those who give positive reviews as "more perceptive" or "the ones who noticed what Pym was doing". To me, this has the typical air of an American university PhD student, assuming a particular angle on an issue and then viewing the entire world through that lens regardless of the evidence. While I adore Pym's work from A to Z, there are certainly legitimate reasons why some over the decades have disregarded or even disdained either entire canon or just individual works. To be so snooty as to assume that a reviewer hasn't "got it" feels unnecessary in an otherwise clear-eyed biography.

All things considered, a neat addition to the collection, especially because of the extensive bibliography that helps lead the keen Pym fan further down the rabbit hole. ( )