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Biography

    Biography Editor's Picks

    • What is a Biography?

      Whether it's a tell-all Kitty Kelley book about a famous living celebrity or a more scholarly work about a dead American president, reading biographies can be both fun and educational. Biographies, written or filmed, give us insight into the lives of famous people. Sometimes, they give us a glimpse of the lives of not-so-famous people... more »

    • How Does a Personal Biography Tell a Life Story?

      Unlike an autiobiography, which is written in first person, a biography is written in third person narrative. The writer must choose a person to become the subject of his biography. Usually, a writer is inspired by his subject. more »

    • How to Write an Official Military Biography

      Military histories reach back nearly as far as civilization itself. Resources such as Smithsonian Institute, Military History and Public Broadcasting Station (PBS) provide detailed information on military engagements and the leaders who directed those combat operations. With the permission of the military leader you want to write a... more »

    • Writing a Personal Biography

      A personal biography can be short, in the case of a description for a resume, or longer, in the case of a personal statement to go with a business proposal or even a biographical book about your life. There is a definite process to writing a personal biography that will give your reader an accurate snapshot of your life while keeping... more »

    • How to Write a Great Biography

      The most important step in writing a great biography is to find an interesting, unique subject. Whether the person you choose to profile is alive or deceased, they need to be someone that many people can relate to, inspire, or entertain. In order to craft a novel that your readers can't put down, choose a subject who has led an... more »

    Biography Articles

    • How Does a Biography Work?

      A biography is a published, nonfiction description of another person's life, usually in a written form, such as a book, but could be depicted in... more »

    • About Personal Biography

      Personal biography, also called autobiography, is a genre of literature where people tell the stories of their lives in the first person, often... more »

    • How to Write a Biography

      A well-written biography is a detailed story of someone’s life written in an entertaining way by someone else . All of the good times, the... more »

    • How to Write an Actor's Biography

      A bio is an excellent opportunity for an actor to showcase his achievements and to allow his audience to get to know him. As a result, bios are an... more »

    • How to Write Your Own Artist Biography

      Scanning newspapers, back pages of magazines or online for a commission is a daunting task for an artist, whether the focus is art, music or... more »

    Wikipedia

    Biography

    A biography is a description or account of someones life and the times, which is usually published in the form of a book or an essay, or in some other form, such as a film. An autobiography (auto meaning "self," giving "self-biography") is a biography of a persons life written or told by that same person. A biography is more than a list of impersonal facts (education, work, relationships, and death), it also portrays the subjects experience of those events. Unlike a profile or curriculum vitae (résumé), a biography presents the subjects story, highlighting various aspects of his or her life, including intimate details of experiences, and may include an analysis of the subjects personality.

    A work is biographical if it covers all of a persons life. As such, biographical works are usually non-fiction, but fiction can also be used to portray a persons life. One in-depth form of biographical coverage is called legacy writing. Together, all biographical works form the genre known as biography, in literature, film, and other forms of media.

    Classical forms

    A biography is real. Ancient Greeks developed the biographical tradition which we have inherited, although until the 5th century AD, when the word biographia first appears, in Damascius Life of Isodorus, biographical pieces were called simply "lives" (βιοι: "bioi"). It is quite likely that the Greeks were drawing on a pre-existing eastern tradition; certainly Herodotus Histories contains more detailed biographical information on Persian kings and subjects than on anyone else, implying he had a Persian source for it..

    The earliest surviving pieces which we would identify as biographical are Isocrates Life of Evagoras and Xenophons Life of Agesilaos, both from the fifth century BC. Both identified themselves as encomia, or works of praise, and that biography was regarded as a discrete entity from historiography is evidenced by the fact that Xenophon treated King Agesilaos of Sparta twice read more at » http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biography

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