In this issue of Electra, the ‘Subject’ section focuses on the age-old and forever renewed question of the relationship between the life of authors (writers, artists, philosophers, etc.) and their work, a problem that also arises outside of the specifically ‘authorial’ realm, implicating public figures, especially those who hold political roles and responsibilities. Their private lives have increasingly become an object of media interest, often with the complicity or active collaboration of those implicated.