About Autobiographies

Autobiographies are biographies in which the author is also the subject. In autobiographies, the writer tells his or her own life story. Instead of hiring an outside writer, the subject of the biography will offer his or her own account from a more personal perspective. In some cases, the author/subject will collaborate with a professional ghostwriter to ensure readability and enhance the general quality of the biography.

The Facts

The word autobiography comes from the Greek root words "autos, bios, and graphein." These words mean "self, life, to write." All together, the word biography means that it is a life story written by the self who is the subject of the story. People have been writing autobiographies for some time, but the word "autobiography" is only a couple of centuries old. The expression was first used in 1809 by Robert Southey. Southey was a poet who coined the term for use in an English periodical entitled "Quarterly Review."

Misconceptions

Many people may think the terms "autobiography" and "memoir" are interchangeable. In fact, they have very distinctly separate meanings. Autobiographies typically deal with a much larger scale, while memoirs usually have a narrower focus. An autobiography tends to focus on the entire life story of the subject. A memoir, however, has a focus on the feelings, memories, and emotions of the author. Typically, these are feelings and memories rooted in a particular time period.

Benefits

A definite benefit of the autobiography is that it is the least removed of all writing styles from the subject. Instead of an outside writer trying to piece the story together, autobiographies are stories told from the direct perspective of the subject. This allows for a much more personal and introspective account that might better show the inner workings of the subject's psyche than a traditional autobiography. Because they are usually so much more personal, they can often be a much more telling and compelling read than other biographies.

Risk Factors

In traditional biographies, the author can research different sources to get the story of a subject. In an autobiography, the author is the subject. Therefore, the author might be writing strictly based on his or her own memory. While this may be a very accurate and personal account, it only offers one perspective. While the autobiography may be truthful according to the memory of the writer, it may be the case that other sources are able to find inconsistencies from other points of view.

Significance

Autobiographies are significant because they are a chance for the author to tell his or her own story according to a personal perspective. They allow the author to be honest and give a life-long account of who they are and what they want to share with the world.