Autobiography

An autobiography (from the Greek, αὐτός-autos self + βίος-bios life + γράφειν-graphein to write) is a book about the life of a person, written by that person. The form of autobiography goes back to antiquity, when such works were typically entitled apologia, implying as much self-justification as self-documentation. Biographers generally rely on a wide variety of documents and viewpoints; an autobiography however may be based entirely on the writer's memory. The inability — or unwillingness — of the author to accurately recall memories has in certain cases resulted in misleading or incorrect i...more An autobiography (from the Greek, αὐτός-autos self + βίος-bios life + γράφειν-graphein to write) is a book about the life of a person, written by that person. The form of autobiography goes back to antiquity, when such works were typically entitled apologia, implying as much self-justification as self-documentation. Biographers generally rely on a wide variety of documents and viewpoints; an autobiography however may be based entirely on the writer's memory. The inability — or unwillingness — of the author to accurately recall memories has in certain cases resulted in misleading or incorrect information. Some sociologists and psychologists have noted that autobiography offers the author the ability to recreate history. One of the first great autobiographies of the Renaissance is that of the sculptor and goldsmith Benvenuto Cellini (1500–1571), written between 1556 and 1558, and entitled by him simply Vita (Italian: Life). He declares at the start: "No matter what sort he is, everyone who has to his credit what are or really seem great achievements, if he cares for truth and goodness, ought to write the story of his own life in his own hand; but no one should venture on such a splendid undertaking before he is over forty." These criteria for autobiography generally persisted until recent times, and most serious autobiographies of the next three hundred years conformed to them. But with the rise of education, cheap newspapers, and cheap printing in the 18th and 19th centuries, modern concepts of fame and celebrity began to develop, and the beneficiaries of this were not slow to cash in on this by producing autobiographies. It became the expectation rather than the exception that those in the public eye should write about themselves — not only writers such as Charles Dickens (who also incorporated autobiographical elements in his novels) and Anthony Trollope, but also politicians (e.g. Henry Brooks Adams), philosophers (e.g. John Stuart Mill), churchmen such as Cardinal Newman, and entertainers such as P. T. Barnum. Increasingly, in accordance with romantic taste, these accounts also began to deal, amongst other topics, with aspects of childhood and upbringing — far removed from the principles of "Cellinian" autobiography. Closely associated with autobiography (and sometimes difficult to precisely distinguish from it) is the form of memoir. However, an autobiography typically focuses on the "life and times" of the writer, while a memoir has a narrower, more intimate focus on his or her own memories, feelings and emotions.(less)

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Management Experience
by Brian E. Niskala (Goodreads Author)

Release date: Apr 25, 2013

Brian E. Niskala is a professional manager and author. He writes mainly horror and science fiction. This work is a collection of experiences and stori…more View Details »

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Quotes Tagged "Autobiography"

“Too young for Korea, too old for Vietnam.”
― Don DeLillo

3 people liked it

“I paint the way some people write their autobiography. The paintings, finished or not, are the pages of my journal, and as such they are valid. The future will choose the pages it prefers. It's not up to me to make the choice. I have the impression that the time is speading on past me more and more rapidly. I'm like a river that rolls on, dragging with it the trees that grow too close to its banks or dead calves one might have thrown into it or any kind of microbes that develop in it. I carry al...more ”
― Françoise Gilot, Life with Picasso

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