literary biography meaning in english

What Is Biography? Definition, Usage, and Literary Examples

Biography definition.

A  biography  (BYE-og-ruh-fee) is a written account of one person’s life authored by another person. A biography includes all pertinent details from the subject’s life, typically arranged in a chronological order. The word  biography  stems from the Latin  biographia , which succinctly explains the word’s definition:  bios  = “life” +  graphia  = “write.”

Since the advent of the written word, historical writings have offered information about real people, but it wasn’t until the 18th century that biographies evolved into a separate literary genre.  Autobiographies  and memoirs fall under the broader biography genre, but they are distinct literary forms due to one key factor: the subjects themselves write these works. Biographies are popular source materials for documentaries, television shows, and motion pictures.

The History of Biographies

The biography form has its roots in Ancient Rome and Greece. In 44 BCE, Roman writer Cornelius Nepos published  Excellentium Imperatorum Vitae  ( Lives of the Generals ), one of the earliest recorded biographies. In 80 CE, Greek writer Plutarch released  Parallel Lives , a sweeping work consisting of 48 biographies of famous men. In 121 CE, Roman historian Suetonius wrote  De vita Caesarum  ( On the Lives of the Caesars ), a series of 12 biographies detailing the lives of Julius Caesar and the first 11 emperors of the Roman Empire. These were among the most widely read biographies of their time, and at least portions of them have survived intact over the millennia.

During the Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic Church had a notable influence on biographies. Historical, political, and cultural biographies fell out of favor. Biographies of religious figures—including saints, popes, and church founders—replaced them. One notable exception was Italian painter/architect Giorgio Vasari’s 1550 biography,  The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects , which was immensely popular. In fact, it is one of the first examples of a bestselling book.

Still, it wasn’t until the 18th century that authors began to abandon multiple subjects in a single work and instead focus their research and writing on one subject. Scholars consider James Boswell’s 1791  The Life of Samuel Johnson  to be the first modern biography. From here, biographies were established as a distinct literary genre, separate from more general historical writing.

As understanding of psychology and sociology grew in the 19th and early 20th centuries, biographies further evolved, offering up even more comprehensive pictures of their subjects. Authors who played major roles in this contemporary approach to biographing include Lytton Strachey, Gamaliel Bradford, and Robert Graves.

Types of Biographies

While all biographical works chronicle the lives of real people, writers can present the information in several different ways.

• Popular biographies are life histories written for a general readership.  The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks  by Rebecca Skloot and  Into the Wild  by Jon Krakauer are two popular examples.
• Critical biographies discuss the relationship between the subject’s life and the work they produced or were involved in; for example,  The Billionaire Who Wasn’t: How Chuck Feeney Secretly Made and Gave Away a Fortune  by Conor O’Clery and  Unpresidented: A Biography of Donald Trump  by Martha Brockenbrough.
• Historical biographies put greater understanding on how the subject’s life and contributions affected or were affected by the times in which they lived; see  John Adams  by David McCullough and  Catherine the Great  by Peter K. Massie.
• Literary biographies concentrate almost exclusively on writers and artists, blending a conventional  narrative  of the historical facts of the subject’s life with an exploration of how these facts impacted their creative output. Some examples include  Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay  by Nancy Milford and  Jackson Pollock: An American Saga  by Gregory White Smith and Steven Naifeh.
• Reference biographies are more scholarly writings, usually written by multiple authors and covering multiple lives around a single topic. They verify facts, provide background details, and contribute supplemental information resources, like bibliographies, glossaries, and historical documents; for example,  Black Americans in Congress, 1870-2007  and the  Dictionary of Canadian Biography .
• Fictional biographies, or biographical novels, like  The Other Boleyn Girl  by Philippa Gregory, incorporate creative license into the retelling of a real person’s story by taking on the structure and freedoms of a novel. The term can also describe novels in which authors give an abundance of background information on their characters, to the extent that the novel reads more like a biography than fiction. An example of this is George R.R. Martin’s  Fire and Blood , a novel detailing the history of a royal family from his popular  A Song of Ice and Fire

Biographies and Filmed Entertainment

Movie makers and television creators frequently produce biographical stories, either as dramatized productions based on real people or as nonfiction accounts.

Documentary

This genre is a nonfictional movie or television show that uses historical records to tell the story of a subject. The subject might be a one person or a group of people, or it might be a certain topic or theme. To present a biography in a visually compelling way, documentaries utilize archival footage, recreations, and interviews with subjects, scholars, experts, and others associated with the subject.

Famous film documentaries include  Grey Gardens,  a biography of two of Jacqueline Kennedy’s once-wealthy cousins, who, at the time of filming, lived in squalor in a condemned mansion in the Hamptons; and  I Am Not Your Negro , a biography of the life and legacy of pioneering American author James Baldwin.

Television documentary series tell one story over the course of several episodes, like  The Jinx :  The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst , a biography of the real estate heir and alleged serial killer that focused on his suspected crimes. There are many nonfiction television shows that use a documentary format, but subjects typically change from one episode to the next, such as A&E’s  Biography  and PBS’s  POV .

These films are biographical motion pictures, written by screenwriters and performed by actors. They often employ a certain amount of creative liberty in their interpretation of a real life. This is largely done to maintain a feasible runtime; capturing all of the pivotal moments of a subject’s life in a 90- or 120-minute movie is all but impossible. So, filmmakers might choose to add, eliminate, or combine key events and characters, or they may focus primarily on one or only a few aspects of the subject’s life. Some popular examples:  Coal Miner’s Daughter , a biography of country music legend Loretta Lynn;  Malcom X , a biopic centered on the civil rights leader of the same name; and  The King’s Speech , a dramatization of Prince Albert’s efforts to overcome a stutter and ascend the English throne.

Semi-fictionalized account

This approach takes a real-life event and interprets or expands it in ways that stray beyond what actually happened. This is done for entertainment and to build the story so it fits the filmmaker’s vision or evolves into a longer form, such as a multi-season television show. These accounts sometimes come with the disclaimer that they are “inspired by true events.” Examples of semi-fictionalized accounts are the TV series  Orange Is the New Black ,  Masters of Sex , and  Mozart of the Jungle —each of which stem from at least one biographical element, but showrunners expounded upon to provide many seasons of entertainment.

The Functions of Biography

Biographies inform readers about the life of a notable person. They are a way to introduce readers to the work’s subject—the historical details, the subject’s motivations and psychological underpinnings, and their environment and the impact they had, both in the short and long term.

Because the author is somewhat removed from their subject, they can offer a more omniscient, third-person narrative account. This vantage point allows the author to put certain events into a larger context; compare and contrast events, people, and behaviors predominant in the subject’s life; and delve into psychological and sociological themes of which the subject may not have been aware.

Also, a writer structures a biography to make the life of the subject interesting and readable. Most biographers want to entertain as well as inform, so they typically use a traditional  plot  structure—an introduction,  conflict , rising of tension, a climax, a resolution, and an ending—to give the life story a narrative shape. While the ebb and flow of life is a normal day-to-day rhythm, it doesn’t necessarily make for entertaining reading. The job of the writer, then, becomes one of shaping the life to fit the elements of a good plot.

Writers Known for Biographies

Many modern writers have dedicated much of their careers to biographies, such as:

• Kitty Kelley, author of  Jackie Oh! An Intimate Biography; His Way: The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra ; and  The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty
• Antonia Fraser, author of  Mary Queen of Scots ;  Cromwell; Our Chief of Men ; and  The Gunpowder Plot: Terror and Faith in 1605
• David McCullough, author of  The Path Between the Seas; Truman ; and  John Adams
• Andrew Morton, author of  Diana: Her True Story in Her Own Words; Madonna ; and  Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography
• Alison Weir, author of  The Six Wives of Henry VIII; Eleanor of Aquitaine: By the Wrath of God; Queen of England ; and  Katherine Swynford: The Story of John of Gaunt and His Scandalous Duchess

Examples of Biographies

1. James Boswell,  The Life of Samuel Johnson

The biography that ushered in the modern era of true-life writing,  The Life of Samuel Johnson  covered the entirety of its subject’s life, from his birth to his status as England’s preeminent writer to his death. Boswell was a personal acquaintance of Johnson, so he was able to draw on voluminous amounts of personal conversations the two shared.

What also sets this biography apart is, because Boswell was a contemporary of Johnson, readers see Johnson in the context of his own time. He wasn’t some fabled figure that a biographer was writing about centuries later; he was someone to whom the author had access, and Boswell could see the real-world influence his subject had on life in the here and now.

2. Sylvia Nasar,  A Beautiful Mind

Nasar’s 1998 Pulitzer Prize-nominated biography of mathematician John Nash introduced legions of readers to Nash’s remarkable life and genius. The book opens with Nash’s childhood and follows him through his education, career, personal life, and struggles with schizophrenia. It ends with his acceptance of the 1994 Nobel Prize for Economics. In addition to a Pulitzer nomination,  A Beautiful Mind  won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography, was a  New York Times  bestseller, and provided the basis for the Academy Award-winning 2001 film of the same name.

3. Catherine Clinton,  Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom

Clinton’s biography of the abolitionist icon is a large-scale epic that chronicles Tubman’s singular life. It starts at her birth in the 1820s as the slave Araminta Ross, continuing through her journey to freedom; her pivotal role in the Underground Railroad; her Moses-like persona; and her death in 1913.

Because Tubman could not read or write, she left behind no letters, diaries, or other personal papers in her own hand and voice. Clinton reconstructed Tubman’s history entirely through other source material, and historians often cite this work as the quintessential biography of Tubman’s life.

4. Megan Mayhew Bergman,  Almost Famous Women

Almost Famous Women  is not a biography in the strictest sense of the word; it is a fictional interpretation of real-life women. Each short story revolves around a woman from history with close ties to fame, such as movie star Marlene Dietrich, Standard Oil heiress Marion “Joe” Carstairs, aviatrix Beryl Markham, Oscar Wilde’s niece Dolly, and Lord Byron’s daughter Allegra. Mayhew Bergman imagines these colorful women in equally colorful episodes that put them in a new light—a light that perhaps offers them the honor and homage that history denied them.

Further Resources on Biography

Newsweek  compiled their picks for the  75 Best Biographies of All Time .

The Open Education Database has a list of  75 Biographies to Read Before You Die .

Goodreads put together a list of readers’  best biography selections .

If you’re looking to write biographies,  Infoplease  has instructions for writing shorter pieces, while  The Writer   has practical advice for writing manuscript-length bios.

Ranker  collected  a comprehensive list of famous biographers .

Related Terms

• Autobiography
• Short Story

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Imagine what it would be like to experience someone else's life. To relive the life of someone who has accomplished things or has experiences that stand out as unique and exciting. To know the secrets behind someone else's success, their motivations, feelings, struggles and failures. Well, that is exactly what a biography allows its readers to do. By reading a biography, readers get to experience someone else's life from birth to death. This article looks at the meaning of biography, its different formats and features, and a few notable examples to add to your reading list. 

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Imagine what it would be like to experience someone else's life. To relive the life of someone who has accomplished things or has experiences that stand out as unique and exciting. To know the secrets behind someone else's success, their motivations, feelings, struggles and failures. Well, that is exactly what a biography allows its readers to do. By reading a biography, readers get to experience someone else's life from birth to death. This article looks at the meaning of biography, its different formats and features, and a few notable examples to add to your reading list.

Biography meaning

The word 'biography' is a combination of the Greek words 'bios', which means 'life', and ' graphia', which refers to 'writing'. Simply stated, this means that a biography is a written account of someone else's life.

Biography: a detailed written account of a real person's life authored by a different person.

The subject of the biography, that is, the person whose life the biography is describing could be a historical figure, a celebrity, a politician, an athlete or even an ordinary person with a life full of stories worth telling.

A biography is a factual recording of a person's life from their birth to death (or the time that the biography is being written). It contains detailed descriptions of the person's childhood, education, relationships, career and any other key touchstone moments that defined that person's life. Hence, a biography is a non-fictiona l form of writing.

Non-fiction : Literature that is based on real-life events and facts, rather than imagination.

The first-ever biographies can be traced back to Ancient Greece and Rome, where people celebrated gods as well as notable men by writing about their personalities and life's accomplishments. Plutarch's Parallel Lives , published about 80 A.D, is the earliest ever recorded biographic work written solely about humans. In this work, Greeks are paired with Romans and are held up against each other and compared, with one being a good example to follow whilst the other's life serves as a cautionary tale

A biography is a written account of a person's life written by someone else. In this case, the subject, that is, the person the biography is written about is NOT the author or the narrator of the biography. Usually, the author and narrator of a biography, also known as the biographer, is someone who takes a great deal of interest in the subject's life.

A biography is usually written in a third-person narrative voice. This distance from the subject and their experiences allow the biographer to view the subject's experiences in the larger context of their life by comparing them to other experiences or analysing the impact of certain experiences on the subject's personality and life.

Now that we know what a biography is, what is an autobiography? The hint lies in the word 'auto', which is a Greek word meaning 'self'. That's right! An autobiography is a self-written biography.

Autobiography: a written account of a person's life, written by the person themselves.

In an autobiography, the subject of the biography and the author are the same person. Hence, an autobiography is usually when the author is narrating their own life story, in the way they experienced it themselves. They are written in first-person perspective.

Here is a table summarising the difference between a biography and an autobiography:

Features of a biography

Although every biography is different in the sense that its content is unique to the life of its subject, all biographies have several building blocks.

The success of a biography is largely dependent on its subject.

While choosing a subject, biographers must consider why this person's story would be of interest to the reader. Perhaps this person was extremely successful, or perhaps they discovered something new? Maybe they've had experiences that are unique or faced struggles and conquered them in a way that is inspiring and motivational. Biographies are all about making the mundane and everyday sound interesting and new.

While reading a biography, readers should get the sense that they are reliving the life of their subject. This requires a great deal of detail and accuracy from the biographer, who must gather enough information on their subject to paint a complete picture of their life.

Biographers most often use primary sources such as interviews with the subject and their family and friends to provide first-hand accounts of the subject's life. However, in cases where the subject is dead, the biographer may use their diary, memoirs, or even secondary sources such as news stories and articles about them.

• Key background information

The most essential part of research for a biographer is gathering all the key background information about their subject. This includes the following factual details about their subject:

• The date and place of their birth
• Their family history
• Their language, culture and traditions
• Key stages in their education and career
• Knowledge and history about the various settings in the biography- the subject's birthplace, home, school, office etc.
• Relationships with other people (and relevant details about these people)

Most biographies begin with a description of the subject's early life, which includes their childhood and early education, their upbringing, stories about their parents and siblings and their familial traditions and values. This is because the early developmental stages of a subject's life usually play a significant role in shaping later events in their life, their personality and worldview.

• Professional life

Just as important as it is to share the subject's early life, biographers place special emphasis on their subject's career. This is because this is the part where the subject's contribution to the world is discussed. This could serve as a major inspiration for people who are building a career in the same field, as readers could gain insight into the subject's motivations, secrets, successes and losses throughout their professional journey.

Typically, biographies follow a chronological order where they begin with the subject's birth and end with either their death or the present time. However, flashbacks are often used to show connectivity between the subject's early experiences and adulthood.

A biographer is not only responsible for presenting a factual recording of events in their subject's life but is also responsible for adding life to these moments by elaborating on the person's experiences and intimate thoughts and feelings during these moments. The best biographers are able to recreate their subject's life in the way that that person lived it.

Oftentimes, the biographer even provides their own opinions on the events they are detailing in the biography, perhaps to explain how these moments were significant to the subject and should be of significance to the reader.

Usually, a biography carries with it an important life lesson that it imparts to its reader. Biographies, where the subject has encountered several hardships, may advise the reader on how to overcome adversity and deal with failure. Biographies of successes can teach the reader how to achieve their goals and may become a source of inspiration and motivation for them.

Biography format

While all biographies work to present the life of real people, biographers can follow different formats while writing them. A few important ones have been discussed below.

• Modern biography

A modern or ' standard' biography details the life span of someone who is still alive or who passed away very recently. Usually, it is done with the permission of the subject or their family.

Journalist Kitty Kelley published His Way (1983), a highly detailed biography on the American singer and actor Frank Sinatra. However, this biography was unauthorised by Sinatra, who tried to stop its publication but failed. The biography consists of government documents, wiretaps, and interviews with Sinatra's colleagues, family and friends and was considered extremely revealing and controversial.

• Historical biography

Historical biographies are written on historical figures who have passed away and seek to highlight their life and contributions during the time in which they were alive. Sometimes they provide a look into the personal lives of famous historical figures or even shine the spotlight on people who were not recognised for their contributions.

Alexander Hamilton (2004) by Ron Chernow is a famous example of a historical biography written about Alexander Hamilton, one of the revolutionary founding fathers of the United States. The biography details Hamilton's contribution to America's birth by painting him as a patriot who made countless sacrifices to lay the foundations of a prosperous and powerful country.

In fact, no immigrant in American history has ever made a larger contribution than Alexander Hamilton.

- Ron Chernow

• Critical biography

Critical biographies usually tend not to focus as much on the personality or personal life of their subjects but are centred around their professional work, which is evaluated and discussed in the biography. In case matters where the subject's personal life has intervened in their work, these are then addressed as inspirations or motivations behind their work. These biographies usually contain less description and storytelling from the biographer. Instead, the biographer's skill is required in selecting, labelling, and arranging all the work created by their subject.

In 1948, Doughlas Southall Freeman won his second Pulitzer Prize for publishing the most comprehensive biography of George Washington (1948-57). The entire biographic series consists of seven well-researched volumes, each containing objective facts on George Washington's entire life span.

As discussed before, this is a self-written biography where the author narrates stories from their own life. The autobiographer is the subject and the author of the biography.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969) is the first edition of a seven-volume autobiographical series written by Maya Angelou . It details her early life in Arkansas and her traumatic childhood, where she was subjected to sexual assault and racism. The autobiography then takes us through each of her multiple careers as a poet, teacher, actress, director, dancer, and activist and the injustices and prejudices she faces along the way as a black woman in America.

Fig. 2 - Maya Angelou, the author of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969)

Yes, you heard that right! There are some instances where writers incorporate fictional devices in biographies to create biographies that are more entertaining rather than informative. W riters of this style may weave in imagined conversations, characters and events in their biographies. Sometimes, writers may even base an entire biography on a fictional character!

Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald (2013) is a fictionalised biography where writer Theresa Anne Fowler imagines the life of Zelda Fitzgerald and F. Scott Fitzgerald from the perspective of Zelda herself and details the glamourous yet turbulent married life of the couple that defined the Jazz Age (1920s) .

Biography examples

Biographies can seem extremely tedious and uninteresting to those who enjoy fictional writing. However, here are a few notable examples of biographies that employ creative storytelling techniques to both inspire and entertain their readers.

• Steve Jobs (2011) by Walter Isaacson

This is one of the most classic examples of a well-researched and written biography. This biography by renowned biographer Walter Isaacson is based on more than 40 interviews over two years with Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple, alongside other first-hand accounts provided by Jobs' family, friends, colleagues and even competitors. The biography takes readers through Jobs' creative journey and passion for technology and provides inspiring lessons on entrepreneurship, innovation, leadership and success.

• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2010) by Rebecca Skloot

This biography is the story of Henrietta Lacks, a poor black woman whose cells were taken for medical research in 1951 without her consent. Lacks' cervical cancer cells were later discovered to be an immortal cell line that could be used to study the effects of poisons, drugs, hormones and viruses on cancer cells without human trials.

This biography honours Henrietta's contribution to science and serves as an example of how literary works can start a discussion on ethical issues regarding race and class in medical research.

Christopher Johnson McCandless disappeared in 1922 while hitchhiking in Alaska. Later, his dead body was found in an abandoned bus on the same hiking trail with no obvious cause of death. So a year later, biographer Jon Krakauer retraced McCandless' steps by going through anecdotes from his journal and pictures in his camera to hypothesise what led McCandless to undertake such a dangerous journey that ultimately resulted in death. Through the course of the biography, Krakauer realises the many parallels between McCandless' personality and childhood experiences and his own. The biography discusses the struggles of finding oneself whilst being accepted into society.

Biography - Key takeaways

A biography is a detailed written account of a real person's life authored by a different person.

A biography is a written account of someone's life by someone else, whereas an autobiography is a self-written account of one's own life story.

• Fictional biography
• Into the Wild (1996) by Jon Krakauer
• Alexander Hamilton (2004) by Ron Cherno
• Fig. 1 - Public domain: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Plutarch%27s_Lives.jpg
• Fig. 2 - Public Domain: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Angelou_at_Clinton_inauguration_(cropped_2).jpg
• Fig. 3 - Public domain: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Steve_Jobs_and_Macintosh_computer,_January_1984,_by_Bernard_Gotfryd-_border_cropped.jpg

Frequently Asked Questions about Biography

--> what is a biography.

A biography is a detailed written account of a real person's life authored by a different person.

--> What is in a biography?

A biography usually contains factual recordings of a person's life from their birth to death (or the time that the biography is being written). It contains detailed descriptions of the person's childhood, education, relationships, career and any other key touchstone moments that defined that person's life. 

--> What are the features of a biography?

These are the features that make a biography: 

--> Examples of biographies?

A few notable examples of biographies are: 

• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks  (2010) by Rebecca Skloot
• Alexander Hamilton  (2004) by Ron Chernow

--> What is the difference between an autobiography and a biography?

A biography is a written account of someone's life by someone else, whereas an autobiography is a self-written account of one's own life story.

Test your knowledge with multiple choice flashcards

The subject of the biography is also the author of the biography. True or False?

Which type of biography is centred around the subject's professional work?

Which type of biography includes fictional elements?

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What is a biography?

What is the difference between an autobiography and a biography?

Is a biography fictional or non-fictional writing?

Non-fictional 

What is the typical structure of a biography?

Typically, biographies follow a chronological order where they begin with the subject's birth and end with either their death or the present time

What is a historical biography?

Historical biographies are written on historical figures who have passed away and seek to highlight their life and contributions during the time in which they were alive.  

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Definition of Biography A biography is genuinely an account or particular description about the existence of a person. It entails primary facts, along with childhood, education, career, relationships, family, and death. Biography is a literary genre that portrays the reports of most of these occasions occurring inside the existence of someone, commonly in a chronological order. Unlike a resume or profile, a biography presents a lifestyles story of a subject, highlighting one of a kind components of his of her life. A individual who writes biographies, is known as as a “biographer.” Types of Biography There are three styles of biography: Autobiography An autobiography tells the tale of someone’s own existence. While that individual writes his own account, she or he may additionally take guidance from a ghostwriter or collaborator. Biography A biography narrates the existence tale of someone, as written with the aid of another man or woman or writer. It is in addition divided into five categories: Popular biography Historical biography Literary biography Reference biography Fictional biography Memoir This is a more focused writing than an autobiography or a biography. In a memoir, a creator narrates the info of a particular occasion or situation that happened in his or her lifetime. Examples of Biography in Literature Example #1: Shakespeare: A Life (By Park Honan) This biography is the maximum accurate, up-to-date, and entire narrative ever written approximately the existence of William Shakespeare. Park Honan has used wealthy and fresh data approximately Shakespeare that allows you to change the perceptions of readers for the playwright, and his function as a poet and actor. This e book absolutely differs from other biographies that imagine unique roles for him, commenting on his sexual relationships and colorful intrigues. Though precise psychological theories and imaginitive reforms about the well-known playwright might be amusing, in fact, they damage the credibility of the sources. Therefore, many attempts were made to recognise about Shakespeare, however this one is a completely unique instance. Example #2: Arthur Miller: Attention Must Be Paid (By James Campbell) This biography is written in the shape of a drama, presented in only two acts. In the first act, the author indicates the well-known dramatist, Arthur Miller, in his early success, having the love of the maximum beloved lady in the world, and resisting tyranny. However, inside the second act of this biography, the author indicates that the hero was badly assaulted and ridiculed through a rowdy mob called critics, who are expelled from the conventional theater. He ends his book with rhetorical information associated with a revitalization within the fortunes of the playwright. Example #3: The Life of Samuel Johnson (By James Boswell) This biography is frequently hyped as a perfect example of cutting-edge biography, and all-time exceptional instance in the English language. This masterpiece of James Boswell has included the complete existence of the ever present literary author Samuel Johnson, with whom Boswell turned into well-acquainted. The unique satisfactory of this book is that it suggests Johnson as a taking walks highbrow amongst us. Example #4: The Bronte Myth (By­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ Lucasta Miller) Emily, Anne, and Charlotte Bronte had been very well-known and eminent writers within the history of English literature. Many rumors and gossips have been associated with them once they reached the peaks in their careers and received amazing popularity of writing the maximum popular novels of the nineteenth century. In their biography, Lucasta Miller chunks the myths related to these younger enigmatic women. This is a best example of a biography. Example #5: Why this World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector (By­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ Benjamin Moser) After perusing his personal personal manuscripts and writings, this modernist author, Benjamin Moser, has explored the mystique surrounding Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector. This is one of Moser’s biographies, which comes a little towards finding her real nuances. All those readers who are going to examine her myriad of works for the first time could locate this biography interesting, and her existence as lovely and tragic, but riveting. Function of Biography The function of writing biographies is to provide information concerning the life of a person or a component in an interesting but informative manner. By the stop of a biography, readers feel like they're well-familiar with the subject. Biographies are regularly non-fictional, however many biographers also use novel-like format, due to the fact a tale line could be greater pleasing with the inclusion of sturdy exposition, rising conflict, after which climax. Besides, the most inspirational existence testimonies could motivate and put confidence into the readers.

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The Art of Literary Biography

Joseph Cowen Professor of English Literature

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Is literary biography so widely read for popular, ‘prurient’ reasons, or for ‘reputable’ intellectual reasons? Is it of interest only in so far as it illuminates a writer's work? How much can we know about a life, such as Shakespeare's, where the documentation is so scanty? In this revealing new work seventeen leading critics and professional biographers discuss a broad range of issues, including the relationships between biography and autobiography, the problems genre poses, and the literary biographer at work, together with authors, such as Woolf, D. H. Lawrence, Huxley, Conrad, and Rochester.

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Top 10 literary biographies

From Shakespeare to Shelley, Edith Wharton to VS Naipaul … literature’s greats have biographies to match

T he idea of writing about authors is, for me, irresistible, and I’ve just published my seventh. It was about Gore Vidal and I have often recalled Vidal’s wise suggestion (made 30 years ago) that I should write about major figures, as important lives make for Important Lives.

Needless to say, anyone involved in this business becomes a student of Great Lives, and I’ve spent decades reading and rereading my favourite examples in the genre. The beginning of literary biography for anyone is probably Boswell’s classic life of Samuel Johnson (1791), an entertaining portrait of the inimitable sage, or such Victorian treasures as Elizabeth Gaskell’s astute life of Charlotte Brontë (1857) or John Forster’s intimate biography of Charles Dickens (1874), his close friend. The 20th century saw many fine literary biographies emerging on both sides of the Atlantic, but it also produced numerous heavy and boring tomes: on the American side Mark Schorer’s staggeringly detailed life of Sinclair Lewis from 1961 or Joseph Blotner’s anaesthetising life of William Faulkner from 1974; on the British, Norman Sherry’s tedious three-volume life of Graham Greene, finished in 1991.

It is such a huge field that I have narrowed my 10 favourites down to the era after the second world war.

1. Henry James by Leon Edel (Five volumes: 1953 to 1972) I’ve read these at least five times, slowly. Savouring each morsel. Although there are famously reductive (pseudo-Freudian) elements, the scholarship is impressive, the alertness to James’s shifting sensibility superb. It’s beautifully written, too. No later biographer of James can ignore this monument to the art of biography.

2. James Joyce by Richard Ellmann (1959) One of the best modern examples of literary biography, with its artfully chosen detail and narrative arc combining with a close reading of major texts.

3. Edith Wharton : A Biography by RWB Lewis (1975) Full of scholarship and astute readings, with a fine general sense of the times as well. It’s a good place to begin, but Hermione Lee’s brilliantly written biography in 2007 was a necessary compliment, challenging the somewhat stodgy view that Lewis put forward, revealing her complex sexuality and originality as a writer.

4. The Life of Langston Hughes by Arnold Rampersad (two volumes: 1986, 1988) Rampersad summons the rich world of the Harlem Renaissance and reveals the depth of African-American literary consciousness in this remarkable biography.

5. Shelley: The Pursuit by Richard Holmes (1974) A startling, elegantly written, example of artistic biography. Holmes utterly revised our sense of this key Romantic poet, taking us into his political thoughts and activities, exploring his poetry in fresh ways.

6. Dickens by Peter Ackroyd (1990) This is among my favorite books. I’ve read it again and again, as Ackroyd is himself a writer of Dickensian vitality – the biographer and subject are so well matched here.

7. Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare by Stephen Greenblatt (2004). A vast shelf of biographies of the Bard exists, but this is the book I would take with me to a desert island along with Shakespeare’s plays. It has energy and a great deal of unassertive yet far-reaching scholarship.

8. Tolstoy by A N Wilson (1989) Wilson writes so well, and he brings a blazing critical intelligence to bear as well as novelistic skills in assembling a great life of a great writer. I love this book.

9. The Imperfect Life of T S Eliot by Lyndall Gordon (1998) This brings together Eliot’s Early Years – a truly groundbreaking book – and Eliot’s New Life. We see Eliot in all of his alienated grandeur here, a deeply strange man, prejudiced, terrified of women, and yet massively gifted as a poet and critic. The very recent biography of young Eliot by Robert Crawford deepens our vision of Eliot and should be read beside Gordon’s work.

10. The World Is What It Is by Patrick French (2009) This biography of V S Naipaul, is wildly entertaining as well as informative. There is a kind of unwavering clarity and honest here. The complex genius if Naipaul is fully exposed. It’s a model of its kind.

• Jay Parini’s Every Time a Friend Succeeds Something Inside Me Dies: The Life of Gore Vidal is published by Little, Brown at £25 and is available from the Guardian bookshop at £20.
• Biography books
• Henry James
• James Joyce
• Edith Wharton
• Langston Hughes
• Charles Dickens

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Using Library of Congress Subject Headings to Find Biographies in BobCat

Biographies are classified and sorted by author's name, dates of birth and death, and the term Biography. Here are some examples:

• Baldwin, James, 1924-1987 -- Biography
• Behn, Aphra, 1640-1689 -- Biography
• Whitman, Walt, 1819-1892 -- Biography

Library Databases with Biographies of Writers

• American National Biography (ANB) This link opens in a new window American National Biography (ANB) contains biographical essays and topical articles on the lives of noteworthy deceased Americans to the present. More information less... There are specially selected collections covering American Indian Heritage, Asian Pacific American Heritage, Black History, Hispanic Heritage, Women's History.
• Biography in Context This link opens in a new window Online biographical reference database in the fields of literature, science, business, entertainment, politics, sports, history, current events and the arts.Biographical information on over one million people throughout history, around the world.
• Biography Reference Bank This link opens in a new window Current Biography contains biographical information on approximately half a million people, from antiquity to the present. Dates of coverage: Ancient Times to present.
• Dictionary of Irish Biography This link opens in a new window The Dictionary of Irish Biography, a collaborative project between Cambridge University Press and the Royal Irish Academy, contains over 9,000 signed biographical articles which describe and assess the careers of subjects in all fields of endeavor, including politics, law, religion, literature, journalism, architecture, painting, music, the stage, science, medicine, engineering, entertainment and sport.
• Literature Online (LION) This link opens in a new window Literature Online includes full text of literary works in English from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. It also includes the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature, together with biographic and bibliographic reference materials for each author. More information less... A fully searchable library of more than 350,000 works of English and American poetry, drama and prose. LION is the single most extensive and wide-ranging online collection of English and American literature.Resources included in this resource are: Bibliographies Biographies Columbia Companion to the 20th Century American Short Story Columbia Dictionary of Modern European Literature Columbia Dictionary of Modern Literary and Cultural Criticism Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms Encyclopedia of African Literature Encyclopedia of American Poetry: The Nineteenth Century Encyclopedia of Latin American and Caribbean Literature, 1900-2003 Encyclopedia of Linguistics (2 vols.) Encyclopedia of the Novel Handbook of African American Literature New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics Oxford Companion to Irish Literature Penguin Classics Introductions Routledge Encyclopedia of Narrative Theory Routledge Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English (2nd Edition)
• Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new window Literature Resource Center offers biographical and other background information for research on literary topics, authors, and their works. Its coverage includes all genres and disciplines, all time periods, and all regions of the world. Literature Resource Center's content comes from the Dictionary of Literary Biography, Contemporary Authors, Contemporary Literary Criticism, and more, including full text of selected poems, plays, and short stories.
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography This link opens in a new window It is a collection of more than 56,600 specially written biographies, which describe the lives of people who shaped the history of the British Isles and beyond.
• Twayne's Author Series This link opens in a new window Twayne’s Authors Series offers in-depth introductions to the lives and works of writers, the history and influence of literary movements, and the development of literary genres. The online version of Twayne's Authors Series includes content from six print series, including U.S. Authors, English Writers, and World Authors.

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Dictionary of Literary Biography Complete Online (Gale)

Dictionary of Literary Biography Complete Online (Gale) Provides full text access to biographical and critical essays on important literary figures from all eras, genres, and geographic areas. Many essays include manuscript pages, portraits, excerpts of criticism, bibliographies, and more. Electronic access extends back to 1978.

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Example sentences literary biography

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Definition of biography

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So You've Been Asked to Submit a Biography

In a library, the word biography refers both to a kind of book and to a section where books of that kind are found. Each biography tells the story of a real person's life. A biography may be about someone who lived long ago, recently, or even someone who is still living, though in the last case it must necessarily be incomplete. The term autobiography refers to a biography written by the person it's about. Autobiographies are of course also necessarily incomplete.

Sometimes biographies are significantly shorter than a book—something anyone who's been asked to submit a biography for, say, a conference or a community newsletter will be glad to know. Often the word in these contexts is shortened to bio , a term that can be both a synonym of biography and a term for what is actually a biographical sketch: a brief description of a person's life. These kinds of biographies—bios—vary, but many times they are only a few sentences long. Looking at bios that have been used in the same context can be a useful guide in determining what to put in your own.

Examples of biography in a Sentence

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'biography.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Late Greek biographia , from Greek bi- + -graphia -graphy

1665, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Dictionary Entries Near biography

biographize

Cite this Entry

“Biography.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/biography. Accessed 31 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

Kids definition of biography, more from merriam-webster on biography.

Nglish: Translation of biography for Spanish Speakers

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Meaning of biography in English

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• This biography offers a few glimpses of his life before he became famous .
• Her biography revealed that she was not as rich as everyone thought .
• The biography was a bit of a rush job .
• The biography is an attempt to uncover the inner man.
• The biography is woven from the many accounts which exist of things she did.
• exercise book
• novelistically
• young adult

biography | American Dictionary

• biographical

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null and void

having no legal force

Sitting on the fence (Newspaper idioms)

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