Autobiography

Scope Note: Variants: Confessions (Autobiographies) // Egodocuments // Memoirs // Personal memoirs/ BT: Biographies. NT: Autobiographical comics // Autobiographical drama // Autobiographical films // Autobiographical poetry // Autobiographical television programs // Captivity narratives // Pirate captivity narratives // Slave narratives.

Definition (per LCSH web site): "An account of a person's life written by its subject, usually in the form of a continuous narrative of events considered by the author to be the most important or interesting, selected from those he or she is willing to reveal. Contemporary autobiographies of famous people are often written with the assistance of a ghost writer. An autobiography differs from a diary or journal in being written for others rather than for purely private reasons.

See also: confessions; confessions: An autobiography in which the author discloses personal feelings and private matters, usually with a spiritual, intellectual, or theoretical purpose; memoirs: A narrative of events or reminiscences based on the author's own observations or personal knowledge of the world in which he (or she) lived, including events witnessed, people known or observed, places visited, etc. The life need not have been historically significant but one that placed the writer in a position to observe firsthand significant events as they unfolded. Unlike a private diary or journal, memoirs are usually written for publication long after the occurrence of the events described and do not necessarily provide a day-to-day account.)"

For material that covers the writing methods for autobiographies, use Autobiography (Topical subject: sh85010050).

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