For a book in a series of biographies, I got this book expecting just that. Instead I found out only a little about one of my favorite authors, instead being overloaded with critical analysis. Many times Mikkelsen simply judges part of Cooper's work as good or bad with little explanation as to her judgements. Some of her analysis was good and the summaries of Cooper's works were useful, but I believe she did a bit too much analysis. Many times she read into scenes ideas that I did not think Cooper intended, often subjecting the writings to various critical approaches with little regard as to what Ms. Cooper meant when she wrote those scenes. It was just like my high school English classes - overanalyzation (sp?) without any thought of what the writer originally meant or what the average reader will get out of it. Less analysis and more biographical information would have been more pleasing to me.