Biography in English Literature

Biography is a form of non-fictional literature, the subject of which is the life of an individual. In general, the form is considered to include auto-biography, in which the subject recounts his or her own history. Biography can be seen as a branch of history, because it depends on a selective ordering and interpretation of materials, written and orals, established through research and personal recollection. It can also be seen as a branch of imaginative literature in that it seeks to convey a sense of the individuality and significance of the subject through creative sympathetic insight.

The earliest biographical writing probably consisted of funeral speeches and inscriptions, usually praising the life and example of the deceased. Particular philosophical, religious, or political causes were often popularized by biographical means. Plato and Xenophon helped to vindicate Socrates by writing about his life as well as his teaching.

But the major developments of English biography came in the 18th century with Samuel Johnson’s critical lives of the English poets and James Boswell’s massive life of Johnson, which combines detailed records of conversation and behavior with considerable psychological insight. This provided the model for exhaustive, monumental 19th century biographies such as A.P. Stanley’s “Life of Arnold” and Lord Morley’s “Gladstone”.

But biographical writing can easily pass into fiction when rational reference or conjecture passes over into imaginative reconstruction or frank invention or when the subject itself is wholly or partly imaginary.