The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was Keep per WP:SNOW (non-admin closure). Clear consensus discusses that the subject has had non-trivial coverage in reliable sources, asserting notability. WilliamH (talk) 19:17, 30 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Myron Sharaf (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) (delete) – (View log)

Fails WP:BIO. ScienceApologist (talk) 21:20, 25 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

• Keep, Notable biographer of Wilhelm Reich. ≈ jossi ≈ (talk) 22:39, 25 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

  And what makes him notable as opposed to any other biographer? ScienceApologist (talk) 22:42, 25 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Read Wilhelm_Reich: He is the biographer :) Cited 27 times in that article. ≈ jossi ≈ (talk) 23:01, 25 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

So is every biographer of a notable person notable by default? Are there any secondary sources about this person? Has anybody written about him beyond cursory mention? Can we source anything from his professional or private life that is notable enough for inclusion besides the fact that he wrote Wilhelm Reich's biography? ScienceApologist (talk) 23:23, 25 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

• Keep, Wikipedia is a better encyclopedia with it than without it. Why are we now destroying the encyclopedia in blind allegiance to what someone wrote in some notability guide? "Notability" should be replaced with "usefulness". WAS 4.250 (talk) 02:29, 26 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]
• Keep. ScienceApologist asks a legitimate question, "is every biographer of a notable person notable by default?" My answer is: not every biographer, but if the biography is a significant one (so that some readers might want to know about the author) and if we can provide enough reliably sourced information to benefit those readers, then the biographer is notable. JamesMLane t c 03:39, 26 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

• Keep, clearly notable without clumsy inherent-notabilty-of-biographers-of-notable-persons bungee cords. A book reviewed in the NYT will have been reviewed elsewhere, and in 150+ Google Books results, some citations but others in sufficient depth analyzing Sharaf's own motives and limitations as an observer. --Dhartung | Talk 03:45, 26 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]
• Keep per Dhartung. The g-books results demonstrate wide mention and citation of this biography. Biographers aren't notable by writing a biography of a notable person, but he's notable as an author. JeremyMcCracken (talk) (contribs) 19:55, 26 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

• Keep deletion not necessary. Chimeric Glider (talk) 21:45, 26 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]
• Keep New York Times obit. Zagalejo^^^ 21:52, 26 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]
• Keep per jossi. -- Levine2112 ^discuss 23:10, 26 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]
• Note: This debate has been included in the list of Authors-related deletion discussions. -- Fabrictramp (talk) 22:26, 26 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

• Note For some reason editors who are participating in Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/James V. Downton are also participating here. Since the subjects appear unrelated it seems like it's due to the involvement of one or more editors. I hope that each article is judged on its own merits. ·:· Will Beback ·:· 02:10, 27 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

• Keep. Jossi and Dhartung made good points. Also I checked google scholar and saw something like 10 pages of results. One is a book Jung and Reich: The Body As Shadow by John P. Conger that cites or quotes Sharaf on around 8 pages. Another is a review of Sharaf's Riech bio that appears in the Psychoanalitic Review where they wrote: Myron Sharaf's Fury on Earth is far and away the finest book both on Reich's work and his life. It is a work of scholarship that may well, until the Reich Archives are finally opened, remain definitive on the subject. That's notability - non-trivial coverage in a scholarly journal. --Tikilounge (talk) 08:18, 27 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

• Keep. I see no reason to delete this. Sharaf wrote a definitive and notable biography of a notable thinker. SlimVirgin ^talk|edits 19:08, 27 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.