So I'm reading Joan: The Mysterious Life of the Heretic Who Became a Saint, by Donald Spoto. I promised Lynne I'd blog it, because she's been curious about Joan but doesn't have time to read a bio, because she already has a biography project of her own. So, for vicarious information on Joan of Arc, I'm your new source. I'm only 15 pages in, so all I know is that D'Arc is a strange nominative, since neither she nor her parents were from anyplace that would have given them a last name like D'Arc. If she had been named after her mother, as was traditional at the time, she would have been named Joan Romee, because her mother had made a pilgrimage to Rome. I love this kind of book because of info like this.
The other fun thing I learned in the first 15 pages of the book (if you count frontmatter) is the list of books this author has written. All biographies, twenty-one of them. A partial list includes Audrey Hepburn, Princess Diana, Elizabeth Taylor, Ingrid Bergman, James Dean, Marlene Dietrich (two books about her), Marilyn Monroe, Jackie Kennedy, and Jesus. Yes, that's right, two books about Marlene Dietrich, and a book called The Hidden Jesus: A New Life.
I find this man fascinating. More to come.
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