No Name [with Biographical Introduction]

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There are many largely unacknowledged pitfalls to writing good biographies, and these largely concern the relation between firstly the individual and the context, and, secondly, the private and public. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For other uses, see Biography disambiguation.

For the Wikipedia policy on biographies of living persons, see Wikipedia: Biographies of living persons. Biography portal Literature portal.

Introduction and commentary by David Cordingly. Conway Maritime Press The First Modern Biography". University of Mary Washington Libraries. Archived from the original on 11 November Retrieved 1 February The Man who Re-Invented Biography".

Retrieved 31 January The Art of Life: Institute of Arts and Ideas. Meister, "The biographical turn and the case for historical biography" History Compass Dec. Confronting Contradictions in Biographies of Nations and Peoples".

2. Aim for a friendly, casual tone

Biography and Culture in Nineteenth-Century America. University of North Carolina Press. Writing a Woman's Life. Journal of Historical Biography.

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A Very Short Introduction. The Language of New Media. In Miller, Robert L. The A—Z of Social Research: In Meri, Josef W. Rines, George Edwin, ed.

Autobiographical Occasions and Original Acts: University of Pennsylvania Press. Retrieved from " https: Biography genre Genres Non-fiction literature. Views Read View source View history. In other projects Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote. This page was last edited on 23 November , at By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Assembling a string of facts in chronological order does not constitute the life of a person; it only gives an outline of events.

The biographer who has known his subject in life enjoys the advantage of his own direct impressions, often fortified by what the subject has himself revealed in conversations, and of his having lived in the same era thus avoiding the pitfalls in depicting distant centuries.

7 Steps for Writing Your Portfolio’s Biography ‘About Me’ Page

Biographers of the 20th century have had at their disposal the psychological theories and practice of Sigmund Freud and of his followers and rivals. The extent to which these new biographical tools for the unlocking of personality have been employed and the results of their use have varied greatly. On the one hand, some biographers have deployed upon their pages the apparatus of psychological revelation—analysis of behaviour symbols, interpretation based on the Oedipus complex , detection of Jungian archetypal patterns of behaviour, and the like.

The biographer, particularly the biographer of a contemporary, is often confronted with an ethical problem: Since the inception of biographical criticism in the later 18th century, this somewhat arid—because unanswerable—question has dominated both literary and popular discussion of biographical literature. Upon the publication of the Life of Samuel Johnson , James Boswell was bitterly accused of slandering his celebrated subject.

Kennedy , created an even greater stir in the popular press. That course in the 20th century is sometimes complicated by the refusal of the custodians of the papers of important persons, particularly national political figures, to provide access to all the documents. Biography, while related to history in its search for facts and its responsibility to truth, is truly a branch of literature because it seeks to elicit from facts, by selection and design, the illusion of a life actually being lived. Within the bounds of given data, the biographer seeks to transform plain information into illumination.

If he invents or suppresses material in order to create an effect, he fails truth; if he is content to recount facts, he fails art. This tension, between the requirements of authenticity and the necessity for an imaginative ordering of materials to achieve lifelikeness, is perhaps best exemplified in the biographical problem of time.

On the one hand, the biographer seeks to portray the unfolding of a life with all its cross-currents of interests, changing emotional states, events; yet in order to avoid reproducing the confusion and clutter of actual daily existence, he must interrupt the flow of diurnal time and group his materials so as to reveal traits of personality, grand themes of experience, and the actions and attitudes leading to moments of high decision.

His achievement as a biographical artist will be measured, in great part, by his ability to suggest the sweep of chronology and yet to highlight the major patterns of behaviour that give a life its shape and meaning. Biographies are difficult to classify. It is easily recognizable that there are many kinds of lifewriting, but one kind can easily shade into another; no standard basis for classification has yet been developed. A fundamental division offers, however, a useful preliminary view: The biography that results from what might be called a vital relationship between the biographer and his subject often represents a conjunction of two main biographical forces: This kind of biography is, in one form or another, to be found in most of the cultures that preserve any kind of written biographical tradition, and it is commonly to be found in all ages from the earliest literatures to the present.

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In its first manifestations , it was often produced by, or based upon the recollections of, the disciples of a religious figure—such as the biographical fragments concerning Buddha, portions of the Old Testament , and the Christian gospels. Biography based on a living relationship has produced a wealth of masterpieces: Indeed, what is generally acknowledged as the greatest biography ever written belongs to this class: Biographies that are the result of research rather than firsthand knowledge present a rather bewildering array of forms.

First, however, there should be mentioned two special kinds of biographical activity. Since the late 18th century, the Western world—and, in the 20th century, the rest of the world as well—has produced increasing numbers of compilations of biographical facts concerning both the living and the dead. These collections stand apart from literature. The short life, however, is a genuine current in the mainstream of biographical literature and is represented in many ages and cultures. Excluding early quasi-biographical materials about religious or political figures, the short biography first appeared in China at about the end of the 2nd century bce , and two centuries later it was a fully developed literary form in the Roman Empire.

Historical

These works established a quite subtle mingling of character sketch with chronological narrative that has ever since been the dominant mark of this genre. Further classification of biographies compiled by research can be achieved by regarding the comparative objectivity of approach.

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For convenience, six categories, blending one into the other in infinite gradations and stretching from the most objective to the most subjective, can be employed. The author of such a work, avoiding all forms of interpretation except selection—for selection, even in the most comprehensive accumulation, is inevitable—seeks to unfold a life by presenting, usually in chronological order, the paper remains, the evidences, relating to that life.

This biographer takes no risks but, in turn, seldom wins much critical acclaim: During the 19th century, the Life of Milton: A History 10 vol. Nicolay and John Hay , offer representative samples. This second category, scholarly and critical, unlike the first, does offer a genuine presentation of a life. Yet such biography, though not taking great risks, does employ the arts of selection and arrangement.

The densest of these works, completely dominated by fact, have small appeal except to the specialist. Those written with the greatest skill and insight are in the first rank of modern life writing. The critical biography aims at evaluating the works as well as unfolding the life of its subject, either by interweaving the life in its consideration of the works or else by devoting separate chapters to the works.

Critical biography has had its share of failures: It has to its credit, however, such fine biographies as Arthur S. Link, Wilson 5 vol. Decide what works for you. Your biography should be descriptive, but not too long. Just go for job headings, dates, and a quick description of your work.

If you do a lot of commissions or commercial work, you may decide to simply list recent clients or projects. Including links to past work is a good way to let visitors find out more. Depending on the kind of work you do, client testimonials might be appropriate to include here as well. Are you a dog owner?

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