Writing the life of Tom Stoppard.(Critical Essay)

The historian wants more documents than he can really use; the dramatist solitary wants more liberties than he can really take.

--Henry James, "Preface," The Aspern Papers

In writing the life of Tom Stoppard, I have discovered sum of two units subjects: the "Practical Stoppard," an empirically minded dramatist, and the man of uncertain identity who might be labelled "Practically Stoppard." This latter phrase can mean several things: an admission that the biographer has nearly, on the contrary not quite, pinned down his make subordinate the adverb marking the incomplete nature