Biography
bi·og·ra·phy, noun.
an account of someone's life written by someone else.
Biography, as a literary genre, traces its roots back to antiquity. The earliest known biographies can be found in ancient Greece, where works like those by Xenophon on Agesilaus II or, more notably, Plutarch's Parallel Lives, which juxtaposed Greek and Roman figures, set the foundation. However, these works were more about public deeds and moral lessons than intimate personal details.
The genre evolved significantly through the Middle Ages with hagiographies, which were biographies of saints focusing on their spiritual journeys and miracles, often serving religious purposes. The Renaissance marked a shift towards secular biographies with figures like Giorgio Vasari, whose Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects (1550) is considered one of the first art histories, blending biography with critique and celebration of human achievement.
Modern biography, emphasizing the whole life and personal intricacies, began to take shape in the 18th century with Samuel Johnson's Life of Mr Richard Savage (1744), where he introduced the concept of examining the subject's character through their own writings and actions. The 19th and 20th centuries saw a boom in biographical writing, influenced by a growing public interest in the lives of both the famous and the infamous.
Have a Gander at a few Well-Known Practitioners:
- Plutarch - Known for Parallel Lives, his work has influenced countless biographers.
- James Boswell - His Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) is often cited as the greatest biography in the English language for its in-depth personal depiction.
- Lytton Strachey - His Eminent Victorians (1918) challenged the hagiographic tradition with a more critical, sometimes satirical, approach.
- Robert Caro - Famous for his monumental biographies on Robert Moses and Lyndon B. Johnson, exemplifying exhaustive research and narrative depth.
- Ron Chernow - His biographies, such as Alexander Hamilton and Grant, have had significant cultural impacts, including inspiring the Broadway musical "Hamilton."
Take a Dive into the Sub-Genres of Biography:
- Autobiography - Written by the subject themselves, providing a first-person narrative. Check out: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, where Franklin reflects on his life and principles.
- Memoir - A subset of autobiography, focusing on a particular aspect or period of the author's life rather than the whole. Check out: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou, which centers on her childhood and adolescence.
- Hagiography - Historically religious, focusing on saints' lives, now extends to secular figures viewed through an adulatory lens. Check out: The Life of Saint Francis by St. Bonaventure.
- Psychobiography - Uses psychological theories to analyze the subject's life. Check out: Erik Erikson's Young Man Luther: A Study in Psychoanalysis and History.
- Intellectual Biography - Focuses on the development of the subject's ideas or contributions to their field. Check out: Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson.
- Group Biography - Examines a group of people connected by a common theme or era. Check out: The Metaphysical Club by Louis Menand, exploring the intellectual history of pragmatism.
- Pathography - Concentrates on the subject's illness or personal struggles, often from a medical or psychological perspective. Check out: An Unquiet Mind by Kay Redfield Jamison, detailing her experience with bipolar disorder.
- Fictionalized Biography - Blends fact with fiction for narrative purposes, often when historical records are sparse. Check out: The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone, about Michelangelo.
Biography as a genre continues to evolve, adapting to new forms of storytelling, media, and an ever-growing interest in personal narratives, reflecting both the diversity of human experience and the continuous quest to understand it.
