Definition
The story of a person's life written by him- or herself. Autobiographical writing embraces a number of forms including memoirs, diaries, and letters, but the form proper usually involves the interaction of character and external event over a substantial span of a person's life.
The model of future autobiographies is the Confessions of Saint Augustine (ca. CE 400), a passionate and intellectually powerful account of his life, culminating in his conversion to Christianity. Among the notable autobiographies of the Renaissance were Benvenuto Cellini's colorful story of his life and times, and Saint Theresa of Avila's intense and moving rendering of a life devoted to God. Outstanding 18th-century examples of the form include Jean Jacques Rousseau's Confessions (1766–70), paradoxically candid and self-justifying, and Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography (1771; 1784–85; 1788), a model of clear, unpretentious prose. In the 19th century Cardinal Newman's Apologia Pro Vita Sua (1864), one of the century's finest examples of English prose, and John Stuart Mill's Autobiography (1873), with its classic account of a youthful emotional breakdown, are outstanding. The 20th century has seen a proliferation of autobiographies of the "tell all" variety by celebrities of every type. Among more serious examples of the form are Sean O'Casey's, written in the third person, and Simone de Beauvoir's five-volume account of her life. In the United States, undoubtedly the most significant autobiography of the post-war period has been The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965), written by Alex Haley and based upon taped interviews with the American civil rights leader.
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