Two dip pens beside red and black ink bottles above a blank pale-blue card, with drops of red ink nearby.

Original artwork, not a still

Catherine Drinker Bowen

In writing biography, fact and fiction shouldn't be mixed. And if they are, the fiction parts should be printed in red ink, the fact parts in black ink.

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

This is a plea for honesty in life-writing: don't blend invented material with documented fact, and if you must, mark the made-up parts in red and the true parts in black. It's a witty way of demanding readers can always tell which is which.

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