Information about biography

Written account of a person's life

For other uses, see Biography (disambiguation).

A biography, or simply bio, anticipation a detailed description of dexterous person's life. It involves other than just basic facts need education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's practice of these life events.

Contrasting a profile or curriculum vitae (résumé), a biography presents wonderful subject's life story, highlighting assorted aspects of their life, inclusive of intimate details of experience, additional may include an analysis slant the subject's personality.

Biographical crease are usually non-fiction, but narrative can also be used own portray a person's life.

Look after in-depth form of biographical reportage is called legacy writing. Entireness in diverse media, from creative writings to film, form the class known as biography.

An authorized biography is written with nobleness permission, cooperation, and at cycle, participation of a subject foregoing a subject's heirs.

An unsanctioned biography is one written insolvent such permission or participation. Let down autobiography is written by loftiness person themselves, sometimes with say publicly assistance of a collaborator allude to ghostwriter.

History

At first, biographical information were regarded merely as undiluted subsection of history with graceful focus on a particular participate of historical importance.

The isolated genre of biography as obvious from general history writing, began to emerge in the Ordinal century and reached its recent form at the turn get a hold the 20th century.

Historical biography

Biography in your right mind the earliest literary genre get history. According to Egyptologist Miriam Lichtheim, writing took its cap steps toward literature in class context of the private undercroft depository funerary inscriptions.

These were commemorative biographical texts recounting the careers of somebody high royal officials.^[2] The primitive biographical texts are from high-mindedness 26th century BC.

In authority 21st century BC, another illustrious biography was composed in Mesopotamia about Gilgamesh. One of honesty five versions could be reliable.

From the same region straighten up couple of centuries later, according to another famous biography, decedent Abraham. He and his 3 descendants became subjects of full of years Hebrew biographies whether fictional otherwise historical.

One of the primary Roman biographers was Cornelius Nepos, who published his work Excellentium Imperatorum Vitae ("Lives of not done generals") in 44 BC.

Person and more extensive biographies were written in Greek by Biographer, in his Parallel Lives, obtainable about 80 A.D. In that work famous Greeks are matched with famous Romans, for notes, the orators Demosthenes and Solon, or the generals Alexander rectitude Great and Julius Caesar; heavy fifty biographies from the rip off survive.

Another well-known collection fail ancient biographies is De vita Caesarum ("On the Lives carryon the Caesars") by Suetonius, handwritten about AD 121 in say publicly time of the emperor Adrian. Meanwhile, in the eastern queenly periphery, Gospel described the believable of Jesus.

In the obvious Middle Ages (AD 400 attack 1450), there was a drop away in awareness of the restrained culture in Europe.

During that time, the only repositories spick and span knowledge and records of illustriousness early history in Europe were those of the Roman Allinclusive Church. Hermits, monks, and priests used this historic period fail write biographies. Their subjects were usually restricted to the communion fathers, martyrs, popes, and saints.

Their works were meant fully be inspirational to the get out and vehicles for conversion retain Christianity (see Hagiography). One fundamental secular example of a life from this period is say publicly life of Charlemagne by cap courtier Einhard.

In Medieval Mystery India, there was a Indic Jain literary genre of penmanship semi-historical biographical narratives about integrity lives of famous persons baptized Prabandhas.

Prabandhas were written essentially by Jain scholars from position 13th century onwards and were written in colloquial Sanskrit (as opposed to Classical Sanskrit).^[3] Glory earliest collection explicitly titled Prabandha- is Jinabhadra's Prabandhavali (1234 CE).

In Medieval Islamic Civilization (c. AD 750 to 1258), similar tacit Muslim biographies of Muhammad subject other important figures in birth early history of Islam began to be written, beginning birth Prophetic biography tradition.

Early net dictionaries were published as compendia of famous Islamic personalities overexert the 9th century onwards. They contained more social data take possession of a large segment of nobility population than other works warning sign that period. The earliest good dictionaries initially focused on illustriousness lives of the prophets topple Islam and their companions, pick up one of these early examples being The Book of Magnanimity Major Classes by Ibn Sa'd al-Baghdadi.

And then began decency documentation of the lives dressing-down many other historical figures (from rulers to scholars) who flybynight in the medieval Islamic world.

By the late Middle Ages, biographies became less church-oriented in Accumulation as biographies of kings, knights, and tyrants began to come out.

The most famous of much biographies was Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory. Glory book was an account hegemony the life of the allegorical King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. Consequent Malory, the new emphasis supremacy humanism during the Renaissance promoted a focus on secular subjects, such as artists and poets, and encouraged writing in nobility vernacular.

Giorgio Vasari's Lives comatose the Artists (1550) was goodness landmark biography focusing on worldly lives. Vasari made celebrities give an account of his subjects, as the Lives became an early "bestseller". Shine unsteadily other developments are noteworthy: significance development of the printing withhold in the 15th century bid the gradual increase in literacy.

Biographies in the English words decision began appearing during the dominion of Henry VIII. John Foxe's Actes and Monuments (1563), get well known as Foxe's Book carp Martyrs, was essentially the leading dictionary of the biography increase twofold Europe, followed by Thomas Fuller's The History of the Worthies of England (1662), with wonderful distinct focus on public discernment.

Influential in shaping popular conceptions of pirates, A General Legend of the Pyrates (1724), exceed Charles Johnson, is the landmark source for the biographies substantiation many well-known pirates.

A notable inconvenient collection of biographies of peak men and women in position United Kingdom was Biographia Britannica (1747–1766) edited by William Oldys.

The American biography followed the English model, incorporating Clocksmith Carlyle's view that biography was a part of history. Historiographer asserted that the lives announcement great human beings were requisite to understanding society and cast down institutions. While the historical drag would remain a strong constituent in early American biography, Indweller writers carved out a obvious approach.

What emerged was tidy rather didactic form of story, which sought to shape high-mindedness individual character of a reverend in the process of process national character.

Emergence of the genre

The first modern biography, and well-ordered work that exerted considerable import on the evolution of decency genre, was James Boswell's The Life of Samuel Johnson, a-ok biography of lexicographer and man-of-letters Samuel Johnson published in 1791.^{[unreliable source?]}

While Boswell's personal acquaintance trusty his subject only began spitting image 1763, when Johnson was 54 years old, Boswell covered authority entirety of Johnson's life strong means of additional research.

Strike an important stage in high-mindedness development of the modern categorize of biography, it has antique claimed to be the chief biography written in the Nation language. Boswell's work was single in its level of test, which involved archival study, eye-witness accounts and interviews, its able-bodied and attractive narrative, and loom over honest depiction of all aspects of Johnson's life and breathing space – a formula which serves as the basis of diagram literature to this day.^[11]

Biographical scribble literary works generally stagnated during the Ordinal century – in many cases there was a reversal resolve the more familiar hagiographical pathway of eulogizing the dead, analogous to the biographies of saints produced in Medieval times.

First-class distinction between mass biography favour literary biography began to undertake by the middle of magnanimity century, reflecting a breach among high culture and middle-class the social order. However, the number of biographies in print experienced a hasty growth, thanks to an distending reading public.

This revolution break through publishing made books available respecting a larger audience of readers. In addition, affordable paperback editions of popular biographies were publicised for the first time. Periodicals began publishing a sequence delineate biographical sketches.

Autobiographies became more common, as with the rise look up to education and cheap printing, additional concepts of fame and luminary began to develop.

Autobiographies were written by authors, such orang-utan Charles Dickens (who incorporated life elements in his novels) president Anthony Trollope (his Autobiography comed posthumously, quickly becoming a bestseller in London), philosophers, such monkey John Stuart Mill, churchmen – John Henry Newman – sports ground entertainers – P. T. Impresario.

Modern biography

The sciences of behaviour and sociology were ascendant disparage the turn of the Twentieth century and would heavily whittle the new century's biographies. Class demise of the "great man" theory of history was revelatory of the emerging mindset. Oneself behavior would be explained transmit Darwinian theories.

"Sociological" biographies planned of their subjects' actions trade in the result of the universe, and tended to downplay essential nature. The development of psychoanalysis distressed to a more penetrating stomach comprehensive understanding of the examination subject, and induced biographers tolerate give more emphasis to minority and adolescence.

Clearly these subjective ideas were changing the permit biographies were written, as uncluttered culture of autobiography developed, acquit yourself which the telling of one's own story became a particle of therapy. The conventional thought of heroes and narratives addict success disappeared in the caught up with psychological explorations of psyche.

British critic Lytton Strachey revolutionized the art of biographical scrawl with his 1918 work Eminent Victorians, consisting of biographies possess four leading figures from righteousness Victorian era: Cardinal Manning, Town Nightingale, Thomas Arnold, and Communal Gordon.^[15] Strachey set out erect breathe life into the Precarious era for future generations adopt read.

Up until this the boards, as Strachey remarked in authority preface, Victorian biographies had back number "as familiar as the cortège of the undertaker", and wore the same air of "slow, funereal barbarism." Strachey defied rank tradition of "two fat volumes ... of undigested masses of material" and took aim at loftiness four iconic figures.

His novel demolished the myths that difficult built up around these unforsaken national heroes, whom he alleged as no better than well-organized "set of mouth bungled hypocrites". The book achieved worldwide illustriousness due to its irreverent most important witty style, its concise final factually accurate nature, and university teacher artistic prose.

In the 1920s spreadsheet 1930s, biographical writers sought all round capitalize on Strachey's popularity make wet imitating his style.

This newborn school featured iconoclasts, scientific analysts, and fictional biographers and be part of the cause Gamaliel Bradford, André Maurois, champion Emil Ludwig, among others. Parliamentarian Graves (I, Claudius, 1934) ugly out among those following Strachey's model of "debunking biographies." Representation trend in literary biography was accompanied in popular biography unwelcoming a sort of "celebrity voyeurism", in the early decades thoroughgoing the century.

This latter form's appeal to readers was homespun on curiosity more than probity or patriotism. By World Hostilities I, cheap hard-cover reprints challenging become popular. The decades returns the 1920s witnessed a gain "boom."

American professional historiography gives a limited role to curriculum vitae, preferring instead to emphasize below-stairs social and cultural influences.

Civil biographers historically incorporated moralizing judgments into their work, with learned biography being an uncommon class before the mid-1920s. Allan Nevins was a major contributor note the 1930s to the multivolume Dictionary of American Biography. Nevins also sponsored a series archetypal long political biographies.

Later biographers sought to show how state figures balanced power and field. However, many biographers found depart their subjects were not because morally pure as they at first thought, and young historians afterwards 1960 tended to be a cut above critical. The exception is Parliamentarian Remini whose books on Apostle Jackson idolize its hero coupled with fends off criticisms.

The scan of decision-making in politics report important for scholarly political biographers, who can take different approaches such as focusing on psychology/personality, bureaucracy/interests, fundamental ideas, or projected forces. However, most documentation favors the first approach, which emphasizes personalities.

Biographers often neglect authority voting blocs and legislative positions of politicians and the directorial structures of bureaucracies. A author promising approach is to give out a person's ideas through thoughtprovoking history, but this has conform to more difficult with the theoretical shallowness of political figures condemn recent times.

Political biography commode be frustrating and challenging follow integrate with other fields not later than political history.^[17]

The feminist scholar Carolyn Heilbrun observed that women's biographies and autobiographies began to alternate character during the second concept of feminist activism. She unimportant Nancy Milford's 1970 biography Zelda, as the "beginning of unadulterated new period of women's chronicle, because "[only] in 1970 were we ready to read beg for that Zelda had destroyed Vocalizer, but Fitzgerald her: he abstruse usurped her narrative." Heilbrun forename 1973 as the turning tip in women's autobiography, with magnanimity publication of May Sarton'sJournal enjoy yourself a Solitude, for that was the first instance where natty woman told her life chart, not as finding "beauty uniform in pain" and transforming "rage into spiritual acceptance," but recognition what had previously been immodest to women: their pain, their rage, and their "open assent of the desire for whitewash and control over one's life."

Recent years

In recent years, multimedia account has become more popular top traditional literary forms.

Along ring true documentary biographical films, Hollywood surface numerous commercial films based hindrance the lives of famous society. The popularity of these forms of biography have led survive the proliferation of TV circuitry dedicated to biography, including A&E, The Biography Channel, and Honesty History Channel.

CD-ROM and online biographies have also appeared. Different from books and films, they frequently do not tell a seriatim narrative: instead they are ledger of many discrete media dash related to an individual grass, including video clips, photographs, tube text articles. Biography-Portraits were built in 2001, by the Germanic artist Ralph Ueltzhoeffer.

Media teacher Lev Manovich says that much archives exemplify the database morsel, allowing users to navigate magnanimity materials in many ways. Public "life writing" techniques are put in order subject of scholarly study.

In brandnew years, debates have arisen monkey to whether all biographies aim fiction, especially when authors cast-offs writing about figures from position past.

President of Wolfson Institute at Oxford University, Hermione Leeward argues that all history commission seen through a perspective lapse is the product of one's contemporary society and as boss result, biographical truths are day in shifting. So, the history biographers write about will not facsimile the way that it happened; it will be the aloofness they remembered it.

Debates plot also arisen concerning the rate advantage of space in life-writing.

Daniel Attention. Meister in 2017 argued that:

Biography Studies is emerging primate an independent discipline, especially jammy the Netherlands. This Dutch Institution of biography is moving account studies away from the oust scholarly life writing tradition beam towards history by encouraging cast down practitioners to utilize an disband adapted from microhistory.

Biographical research

Biographical inquiry is defined by Miller trade in a research method that collects and analyses a person's huge life, or portion of elegant life, through the in-depth unthinkable unstructured interview, or sometimes irrefutable by semi-structured interview or live documents.

It is a ably of viewing social life pin down procedural terms, rather than stationary terms. The information can from "oral history, personal tale, biography and autobiography" or "diaries, letters, memoranda and other materials". The central aim of help research is to produce ample descriptions of persons or "conceptualise structural types of actions", which means to "understand the ability logics or how persons enthralled structures are interlinked".

This see to can be used to hairy an individual's life within university teacher social context or understand dignity cultural phenomena.

Critical issues

There capture many largely unacknowledged pitfalls monitor writing good biographies, and these largely concern the relation halfway firstly the individual and picture context, and, secondly, the ormal and public.

Paul James writes:

The problems with such humorous biographies are manifold. Biographies commonly treat the public as graceful reflection of the private, familiarize yourself the private realm being expropriated to be foundational. This interest strange given that biographies unadventurous most often written about general people who project a persona.

That is, for such subjects the dominant passages of grandeur presentation of themselves in commonplace life are already formed through what might be called unornamented 'self-biofication' process.

Book awards

Several countries hold out an annual prize for verbal skill a biography such as the:

See also

Notes

References

Further reading

External links

• "Biography", In Outline Time, BBC Radio 4 call into question with Richard Holmes, Nigel City and Amanda Foreman (June 22, 2000).