The Role of Biography as a Literary Form

A S librarians you are likely to deal with biographies in several different ways. You select and order books representing this form of l i terature; you catalog and classify them; you recommend and lend them over the desk; you use biographies as reference tools for yielding detailed information when the occasion arises; and last —sometimes quite voluntarily—you even read them. T h e following remarks are concerned mainly with the content of biographies, the style and form in which they are writ ten, the approach of their authors. T h e subject will be treated more or less historically so as to show some of the changes that have developed in biographical wri t ing from the earliest times up to the present. Certain centuries will be handled in detail whenever marked characteristics in biographical style are evident. T h e r e will also be an attempt to evaluate and compare some outstanding examples of biographies that have stood the test of time, as well as a few of our own day that seem likely to prove of lasting merit. From this introduction it can be seen that the approach to the subject is to be f rom the point of view of the reader rather than that of the practicing librarian. I t is possible, however, that an investigation and