An autobiography, from the Greek autos, 'self', bios, 'life' and graphein, 'write', is a biography written by the subject or composed conjointly with a collaborative writer (styled "as told to" or "with"). Benjamin Franklin ( April 17 1790 was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America. Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly A biography (from the Greek words bíos (βίος meaning "life" and gráphein (γράφειν meaning "to write" is an account The term was first used by the poet Robert Southey in 1809 in the English periodical Quarterly Review, but the form goes back to antiquity. Robert Southey ( August 12, 1774 &ndash March 21, 1843) was an English Poet of the Romantic school one The Quarterly Review, a literary and political periodical founded in March 1809 by the well known London publishing house John Murray. Biographers generally rely on a wide variety of documents and viewpoints; an autobiography however may be based entirely on the writer's memory. Closely associated with autobiography (and sometimes difficult to precisely distinguish from it) is the form of memoir. for other uses see Memoir (disambiguation As a literary Genre, a memoir (from the French: mémoire
See List of autobiographies and Category:Autobiography for examples. The following is a list of notable autobiographies: By date Augustine of Hippo, Confessions, 397 Peter
Contents |
Nature of autobiography
The classical period: Apologia, oration, confession
In antiquity such works were typically entitled apologia, implying as much self-justification as self-documentation. John Henry Newman's autobiography (first published in 1864) is entitled Apologia Pro Vita Sua in reference to this tradition. Family John Henry Newman was born in London and was the eldest son of John Newman (d
The pagan rhetor Libanius (c. Paganism (from Latin paganus, meaning "country dweller rustic" is a word used to refer to various religions and religious beliefs from across the world Rhetoric has had many definitions no simple definition can do it justice Libanius ( Greek: Λιβάνιος, Libanios; ca 314-ca 394 was a Greek-speaking teacher of rhetoric of the later Roman Empire, an educated 314-394) framed his life memoir (Oration I begun in 374) as one of his orations, not of a public kind, but of a literary kind that could be read aloud in privacy.
Augustine (354-430) applied the title Confessions to his autobiographical work, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau used the same title in the 18th century, initiating the chain of confessional and sometimes racy and highly self-critical, autobiographies of the Romantic era and beyond. Confessions ( Latin: Confessiones) is the name of an Autobiographical work consisting of 13 books by St Romanticism is a complex artistic literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Western Europe, and gained strength during the
In the spirit of Augustine's Confessions is the 11th-century Historia Calamitatum of Peter Abelard, outstanding as an autobiographical document of its period. Historia Calamitatum (A history of my calamities also known as Abaelardi ad Amicum Suum Consolatoria is an autobiographical work in Latin by Peter Abelard
Early autobiographies
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). The Renaissance (from French Renaissance, meaning "rebirth" Italian: Rinascimento, from re- "again" and nascere Benvenuto Cellini Italian ( or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 63 million people as a First language, primarily in Italy. 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'. [1] These criteria for autobiography generally persisted until recent times, and most serious autobiographies of the next three hundred years conformed to them.
Another autobiography of the period is De vita propria, by the Italian physician and astrologer Gerolamo Cardano (1574).
The earliest known autobiography in English is the early 15th-century Booke of Margery Kempe, describing among other things her pilgrimage to the Holy Land and visit to Rome. Margery Kempe (c 1373 &ndash after 1438 is known for writing The Book of Margery Kempe, a work considered by some to be the first Autobiography in the English The Holy Land ( Arabic: الأرض المقدسة al-Arḍ ul-Muqaddasah;Ancient Aramaic: ארעא קדישא Ar'a Qaddisha; Hebrew: ארץ_הקודש Rome ( Roma ˈroma Roma is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city with more than 2 The book remained in manuscript and was not published until 1936.
Notable English autobiographies of the seventeenth century include those of Lord Herbert of Cherbury (1643, published 1764) and John Bunyan (Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, (1666)). Edward Herbert 1st Baron Herbert of Cherbury ( March 3, 1583 &ndash August 20, 1648) was a British soldier Diplomat John Bunyan (28 November 1628 &ndash 31 August 1688 a Christian writer and Preacher, was born at Harrowden (one mile south-east of Bedford
Memoir
A memoir is slightly different in character from an autobiography. for other uses see Memoir (disambiguation As a literary Genre, a memoir (from the French: mémoire While an autobiography typically focuses on the "life and times" of the writer, a memoir has a narrower, more intimate focus on his or her own memories, feelings and emotions. Memoirs have often been written by politicians or military leaders as a way to record and publish an account of their public exploits. The English Civil War (1642-1651) provoked a number of examples of this genre, including works by Sir Edmund Ludlow and Sir John Reresby. The English Civil War (1642-1651 was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists. Edmund Ludlow (c 1617 &ndash 1692 was an English parliamentarian, best known for his involvement in the execution of Charles I, and for his Sir John Reresby 2nd Baronet ( April 14 1634 – May 12 1689) was a seventeenth century English politician author and gentleman French examples from the same period include the memoirs of Cardinal de Retz (1614-1679) and the Duc de Saint-Simon (1675-1755). Jean François Paul de Gondi cardinal de Retz ( September 29, 1613 – August 24, 1679) was a French churchman writer of memoirs and agitator Louis de Rouvroy duc de Saint-Simon ( January 16, 1675 &ndash March 2, 1755) French soldier Diplomatist and writer
18th and 19th centuries
Notable 18th-century autobiographies in English include those of Edward Gibbon and Benjamin Franklin. Edward Gibbon ( April 27, 1737 January 16, 1794) was an English historian and Member of Parliament. Benjamin Franklin ( April 17 1790 was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America. Following the trend of Romanticism, which greatly emphasised the role and the nature of the individual, and in the footsteps of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Confessions, a more intimate form of autobiography, exploring the subject's emotions, came into fashion. Romanticism is a complex artistic literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Western Europe, and gained strength during the Confessions is an autobiographical book by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. An English example is William Hazlitt's Liber Amoris (1823), a painful examination of the writer's love-life. William Hazlitt ( 10 April 1778 &ndash 18 September 1830) was an English Writer remembered for his humanistic Essays and
With the rise of education, cheap newspapers and cheap printing, 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 politicians (e. Anthony Trollope (April 24 1815 – December 6 1882 became one of the most successful prolific and respected English Novelists of the Victorian era. g. Henry Brooks Adams), philosophers (e. Henry Brooks Adams ( February 16 1838 &ndash March 27 1918) was an American Novelist, Journalist, Historian g. John Stuart Mill), churchmen such as Cardinal Newman, and entertainers such as P. T. Barnum. John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 &ndash 8 May 1873 British Philosopher, political economist, civil servant and Member of Parliament, was an influential Family John Henry Newman was born in London and was the eldest son of John Newman (d Phineas Taylor Barnum (July 5 1810 &ndash April 7 1891 was an American Showman remembered for Hoaxes and for founding the Circus that became the 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.
Versions of the autobiography form
Diary
Diaries were originally written for personal reference, but the successful publication of the diaries of the English 17th-century civil servant and bon viveur Samuel Pepys in 1825 (transcribed from his manuscript in shorthand) drew attention to the possibilities of the diary as a form of autobiography in its own right. For other uses of the term 'diary' see Diary (disambiguation. See also Bureaucrat The term civil service has two distinct meanings Branch of governmental service in which individuals are hired on the basis Samuel Pepys, FRS (23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703 was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament, who is now most famous for From the 20th century onwards, diary publication became a popular vehicle for politicians seeking vindication. Notable British examples have included the diaries of Richard Crossman and Tony Benn. Richard Howard Stafford Crossman, known as Dick Crossman, ( 15 December 1907 &ndash 5 April 1974 was a British Labour Party Anthony "Tony" Neil Wedgwood Benn (born 3 April 1925 formerly 2nd Viscount Stansgate, is a British Socialist Politician.
Autobiographies as critiques of totalitarianism
Victims and opponents of totalitarian regimes have been able to present striking critiques of these regimes by autobiographical accounts of their oppression. Amongst the most renowned of such works are the writings of Primo Levi, one of many personal accounts of the Shoah. Primo Michele Levi ( July 31, 1919 &ndash April 11, 1987) was a Jewish Italian Chemist, Holocaust survivor The Holocaust (from the Greek el ''ὁλόκαυστον'' (el-Latn holókauston holos, "completely" and kaustos, "burnt" also known as Similarly, there are many works detailing atrocities and malevolence of Communist regimes (e. Communism is a Socioeconomic structure that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless Society based g. Nadezhda Mandelstam's Hope against Hope). Nadezhda Yakovlevna Mandelstam (Надежда Яковлевна Мандельштам née Hazin 31 October, 1899 &mdash 29 December, 1980
Sensationalist and celebrity 'autobiographies'
From the seventeenth century onwards, "scandalous memoirs" by supposed libertines, serving a public taste for titillation, have been frequently published. Typically pseudonymous, they were (and are) largely works of fiction written by ghostwriters. A pseudonym is a fictitious alternative to a person's legal name (see Alias) Ghostwriters (aka Rob Hirst & the Ghostwriters and sometimes referred to as Ghosties by fans are an Australian rock band formed in Sydney in 1990 principally A well-known example is Daniel Defoe's 'fictional autobiography' (see below) Moll Flanders. Daniel Defoe (1659/1661 — April 24, 1731 was an English Writer, Journalist, and Pamphleteer, who gained enduring fame for The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders (commonly known as simply "Moll Flanders") is a Novel written by
So-called "autobiographies", generally written by a ghostwriter, are routinely published on the lives of modern professional athletes and media celebrities—and to a lesser extent about politicians. A ghostwriter is a professional Writer who is paid to write books articles stories reports or other content which are officially credited to another person Some celebrities, such as Naomi Campbell, admit to not having read their "autobiographies. Naomi Campbell (born 22 May 1970 is an English model, Singer, Author, Actress, and Fashion designer. "
Autobiographies of the non-famous
By the 1940s, the American James Thurber was able to write of Cellini's strictures of fame and age for autobiographers, 'Nowadays, nobody who has a typewriter pays any attention to the old master's quaint rules'. James Grover Thurber ( December 8, 1894 &ndash November 2, 1961) was an American Humorist and Cartoonist.
Until recent years, few people without some genuine claim to fame wrote or published autobiographies for the general public. But with the critical and commercial success in the United States of such memoirs as Angela's Ashes and The Color of Water more and more people have been encouraged to try their hand at this genre. Angela’s Ashes is a Memoir by Irish author Frank McCourt, and tells the story of his childhood in Brooklyn and Ireland The Color of Water A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother is the autobiography of James McBride; it is also a memoir for his mother This trend has also encouraged fake autobiographies, particularly those associated with 'misery lit' , where the writer has allegedly suffered from dysfunctional family, social problems or political repression. Fake Memoirs is a category of Literary forgery in which a wholly or partially fabricated autobiography memoir or journal of an individual is presented as fact Misery lit ( mis lit, misery memoirs, misery porn) is a term ostensibly coined by ''The Bookseller'' magazine The genre Works in the genre A dysfunctional family is a Family in which Conflict, misbehavior and even Abuse on the part of individual members of the family occur continually leading Political repression is the Persecution of an individual or group for political reasons particularly for the purpose of restricting or preventing their ability to take part
Fictional autobiography
The term "fictional autobiography" has been coined to define novels about a fictional character written as though the character were writing their own biography, of which Defoe's Moll Flanders, mentioned above, is an early example. Dickens's David Copperfield is a classic, and J. D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye a well-known modern example, of fictional autobiography. David Copperfield or The Personal History Adventures Experience and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger of Blunderstone Rookery (which he never meant to publish Jerome David "J D" Salinger (born January 1 1919 (ˈsælɨndʒɚ is an American author best known for his 1951 Novel The Catcher in the Rye The Catcher in the Rye is a Novel by J D Salinger. First published in the United States in 1951 the novel has been a frequently Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre is another example of fictional autobiography, as noted on the front page of the original version. Charlotte Brontë (ˈbrɒnti (21 April 1816 &ndash 31 March 1855 was a British Novelist, the eldest of the three famous Brontë sisters whose Novels Jane Eyre (dʒeɪn ɛə by Charlotte Brontë, published by Smith Elder & Company of London in 1847, is one of the most influential and The term may also apply to works of fiction purporting to be autobiographies of real characters, e. g. Stephen Marlowe's The Death and Life of Miguel de Cervantes (1996). Stephen Marlowe (born Milton Lesser, 7 August 1928 in Brooklyn NY died 22 February 2008, in Williamsburg Virginia) was Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra ( in modern Spanish; September 29, 1547 &ndash April 22, 1616) was a Spanish Novelist
Notes
- ^ Benvenuto Cellini, tr. George Bull, The Autobiography, London 1966 p. 15
References
- Autobiography in Encyclopaedia Britannica, (1963 edition). The Encyclopædia Britannica is a general English-language encyclopaedia published by Encyclopædia Britannica Inc
Books about autobiography
- Barros, Carolyn A. "Autobiography: Narrative of Transformation". Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. 1998.
- Buckley, Jerome Hamilton. "The Turning Key: Autobiography and the Subjective Impulse Since 1800". Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984.
- Lejeune, Philippe, On autobiography, Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, 1988.
- Olney, James: "Memory & Narrative: The Weave of Life-Writing". Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1998.
- Pascal, Roy. "Design and Truth in Autobiography". Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1960.
See also
- Category:Autobiographies
- Alphabiography
- Autobiographical songs
- Autobiographical novel
- Autobiographical comics
- Biography
- Diary
- Fake memoirs
- Family history
- Historical document
- List of autobiographies
- memoir
Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic