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Ancient Times: 80 AD -
• Biographies have been said to be around since ancient civilization.
• They were used as a way to teach others including the younger generation about morals and history.
• Authors like Plutarch from this era also included information about the private lives of his subjects.
• Historians started to realize that the private life and influence was important and worth mentioning.
• In the Ancient Greeks, biographies and accounts of the lives of great Philosophers were made -
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Biographies concentrated on the emotional aspect of biographies; how to draw in the readers through various emotional techniques
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Claimed to be one of the "best biographies ever written in the English language", James Boswell's "Life of Samuel Johnson" is published.
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• Authors started to mention and elaborate on their subjects’ childhood life as well.
• This received more attention from society since it was more interesting.
• Biographers also started to reveal more of their subjects’ private lives including their sexual life, relationships, and personal issues. -
• Biographies began to become more focused on their subjects’ issues and flaws.
• “[…] subsequent biographers attempted to define the inner core of subjects lives, they focused ever more intently on relationships with parents and sexual partners” (Popkin, 3)
• Interest in the genre of biographies started to rapidly increase by society in the 1960’s.
• Ever since the 1970’s, the interest in biographies has been large and vast because of the many different catagories and types (like celebrities)
