death of the pick me author

A good biography conveys the illusion that the writer is like a clear lens through which the reader perceives the objective reality of the subject's life. There's really an art to that. It's a kind of selflessness. Sometimes the writer imposes too much, though. They want to tell you about their connection with the subject, and they want to tell you about how this project - the biography they're writing - fits in with their life's work and what they were trying to achieve in writing it. I think it spoils their book. I'm interested in the person they're writing about, and only in them - the writer - insofar as knowledge of them sheds further light on the subject. 

Of course there's an irony here, because the more they impose their self into the picture, the less they cast their self in a positive light. The more they illuminate the life of the subject, the more they actually shine a light on their self.