(E) THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY, BIOGRAPHY, MEMOIRS ~ Literary Hunt

(E) The Autobiography, Biography, and Memoirs

What do you mean by Autobiography?

It is the life-history of an individual which is written by himself. It is a very difficult task than the writing of biography because a judicious and dispassionate self-assessment is more difficult than certainly the assessment of someone else. An autobiography of a person is never a complete history of his life because it has to be written before his death. Dr. Johnson, however, preferred Autobiography to Biography, since every man's life is best known to himself. An autobiography is the product of first-hand knowledge and experience of one's own life and own times. R.L. Stevenson says, "There is no truer sort of writing than what is to be found in autobiographies and certainly none more entertaining." The earliest autobiography found in European literature is St. Augustine's Confessions written in the fifth century. It becomes popular when Rousseau's 'Confessions' appeared towards the close of the 18th century. Now a large number of autobiographies have been written.

What do you mean by Biography?

The Oxford Dictionary defines Biography as"The history of the lives of individual men as a branch of literature. Dryden also defines it as "the history of particular men's lives." So, it is the life history of a person from his birth to death, judiciously highlighting his achievements as well as failings. It should be a faithful portrayal of the individual. In Biography, both virtues and vices must be brought out without exaggeration.
The Biography as a distinct literary genre first appeared in English in the 17th century in Izaac Walton's Lives written between 1640 to 1678. In the Lives, Walton wrote the biographies of John Donne, George Herbert, Richard Hooker, and some others. Later on, Dr. Johnson made it a popular literary form by his 'Lives of English Poets'. James Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson' in 1791 is considered one of the best biographies in the world.

What do you mean by the Memoirs?

The memoirs are generally based on diaries, letters or any other personal records or we can say it slightly different from the autobiography. In memoirs, the writer recollects his personal records or we can say or we can say it slightly different from the autobiography. In memoirs, the writer recollects his personal contacts with various people in his personal or professional life. So, it can be called parts of an Autobiography.

Some Important Autobiographies, Biographies, and Authors:

AUTOBIOGRAPHIES

Sn No'	First	Last
1	Samuel Pepys	Diary
2	St. Augustine	Confessions
3	Rousseau	Confessions
4	De Quincey	Opium-Eater
5	John Bunyan	Grace Abounding
6	W.H Davis	The Autobiography of a Super Tramp
7	William Wordsworth	Prelude(a poetical autobiography)
8	Osbert Sitwell	Left Hand, Right Hand

BIOGRAPHIES

Sn No'	First	Last
1	John Aubrey	Brief Lives(17th century)
2	Izaak Walton	Lives (Biographies of John Donne, George Herbert, and Richard Hooker)
3	Arthur Bryant	Lifes of Pepys
4	Lytton Strachey	Queen Victoria
5	Dr. Samuel Johnson	Lives of the English Poets (critical Biographies of fifty-two English poets)
6	James Boswell	Life of Samuel Johnson
7	S.T Coleridge	Biographia Literaria(critical biographies)
8	Walter Scott	Life of Napoleon
9	Thomas Moore	Life of Byron
10	John Lockhart	Life of Walter Scott
11	E.M Forster	LIfe of Dickens
12	Robert Southey	Life of Nelson
13	Life of Schiller; Life of John Sterling	the Bird
14	William Mason	Life of Gray
15	James Fraude	Life of Carlyle
16	Rosebury	Life of pit
17	H Morley	Life of Gladstone
18	G.M Trevelyan	Life of Macaulay
19	Winston Churchill	Life of Marlborough
20	David Cecil	The Stricken Deer(Life of Cowper)

THE LETTERS (THE MEMOIRS)

Sn No'	WRITERS
1	Charles Lamb
2	Lord Chesterfield
3	Thomas Gray
4	John Keats
5	William Cowper
6	Horace Walpole
7	Mahatama Gandhi
8	Jawaharlal Nehru

AUTOBIOGRAPHIES WITHOUT ANY DISTINGUISHING TITLES

Sn. No'	First
1	Sean O' Casey
2	John Stuart Mill
3	David Hume
4	Edward Gibbon
5	Henry Adams
6	Anthony Trollope

OBJECTIVE TYPES OF QUESTIONS

1. David Cecil has written a biography under the title The Stricken Deer. Whose life has he written in it?

(a) Life of Byron

(b) Life of Cowper

(d) Life of Young

2. The Prelude is the poetical autobiography of:

(a) Keats

(b) Southey

(c)Wordsworth

(d) Shelley

3. Who is the author of One Hundred Great Lives?

(a) Leonardo da Vinci

(b) David Daiches

(d) Phyllis Bentley

4. ......... wrote the Lives of English Poets?

(a) John Aubery

(b) John Lockhart

(c)Dr. Johnson

(d) William Mason

5. ........ is called to be the earliest writer of biographies in English?

(a) Dr. Johnson

(b) Jonh Aubrey

(d) James Boswell

6. Under what title did David Cecil write a biography 'The Stricken Deer'?

(a) Life of Nelson

(b) Life of Byron

(d) Life of Cowper

7. The Lives of John Donne, George Herbert, and Richard Hooker have been written in one volume by a biographer. Who is that biographer?

(a) Izaak Walton

(b) Arthur Bryant

(d) John Aubrey

8. 'With No Regrets' is the autobiography of:

(a) Indira Gandhi

(b) Krishna Hutheesing

(d) Sarojini Naidu

9. Who has written his autobiography under the title Third World?

(a) Samuel Pepys

(b) W.H. Davies

(d) A.J. Cronin

10. 'Grace Abounding' is the autobiography of :

(a) De Quincey

(b) Daniel Defoe

(d) Anthony Trollope

11. Jawaharlal Nehru wrote his famous letters to :

(a) Sarojini Naidu

(b) Vijay Laxmi Pandit

(d) Kamla Nehru

12. Who has written the life of Napoleon?

(a) Walter Scott

(b) John Aubrey

(d) Winston Churchill

13. Dr. Johnson unintentionally left out writing the. life of one important contemporary poet. Who is that poet?

(a) Collins

(b) Gray

(d) Goldsmith

14. 'My Experiment with Truth' is the autobiography of :

(a) Lala Lajpat Rai

(b) Subhash Chandra Bose

(d) Jawaharlal Nehru

15. Whose autobiography is titled 'Opium Eater'?

(a) De Quincey

(b) S.T. Coleridge

(d) Dr. Johnson

(E) THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY, BIOGRAPHY, MEMOIRS

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