Biographer
/baɪˈɑːɡrəfər/noun
A person who writes an account of someone's life.
He is a well-known biographer working on his next book about a famous actor.
Often appears as...
- famous biographer
- noted biographer
Usage tips
Academic
noun
A person who writes an account of someone's life.
He is a well-known biographer working on his next book about a famous actor.
Often appears as...
- famous biographer
- noted biographer
Usage tips
Academic
Definition 1 of 1
Pro Tip 1/3Life Narrator
A biographer tells a person's life story, with details about their experiences, accomplishments, and character.
The biographer spent years researching the scientist's life to provide an accurate narrative.
Pro Tip 2/3Nonfiction Focus
Unlike a novelist, a biographer writes true accounts of real people's lives, not fictional stories.
The biographer cross-checked facts about the politician with historical records for accuracy.
Pro Tip 3/3In-Depth Research
Biographers often spend considerable time researching and interviewing to understand the subject deeply.
To capture the artist's essence, the biographer interviewed close friends and family.
Compare with
chroniclerhistorianmemoir
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Video examples
Paul Bloom: The origins...
as an amicable psychopath. But you could feel sympathy for the reaction he had when he was told that his favorite painting was actually a forgery. According to his biographer, "He looked as if for the first time he had discovered there was evil in the world."
Video examples
Rosalind Franklin: DNA's...
But thanks to Franklin's biographers, who investigated her life and interviewed many people close to her, we now know that that account is far from true, and her scientific contributions have been vastly underplayed. Let's hear the real story.
Video examples
Founding Father's Real...
kind of gives you an image of slavery that we don't think about after his death the realities of Washington's life become obscured by folklore legend replaces fact and countless biographers seek to romanticize his life and
Video examples
Paul Bloom: The origins...
as an amicable psychopath. But you could feel sympathy for the reaction he had when he was told that his favorite painting was actually a forgery. According to his biographer, "He looked as if for the first time he had discovered there was evil in the world."
Video examples
Rosalind Franklin: DNA's...
But thanks to Franklin's biographers, who investigated her life and interviewed many people close to her, we now know that that account is far from true, and her scientific contributions have been vastly underplayed. Let's hear the real story.
Video examples
Founding Father's Real...
kind of gives you an image of slavery that we don't think about after his death the realities of Washington's life become obscured by folklore legend replaces fact and countless biographers seek to romanticize his life and
Example 1 of 3
Quote examples
Jean Fritz
American Writer
As a biographer, I try to uncover the adventures and personalities behind each character I research. Once my character and I have reached an understanding, then I begin the detective work reading old books, old letters, old newspapers, and visiting the places where my subject lived. Often I turn up surprises, and of course, I pass them on.
Quote examples
A. N. Wilson
English Writer
Of all liars the most arrogant are biographers: those who would have us believe, having surveyed a few boxes full of letters, diaries, bank statements and photographs, that they can play at the recording angel and tell the whole truth about another human life.
Quote examples
Kitty Kelley
American Journalist
The authorized biographers - the ones hand-picked to write the sanitized version of a subject's life - sit up front with the swells while the unauthorized biographer who writes without access or approval gets elbowed to the back of the bus.
Quote examples
Virginia Woolf
British Author
Almost any biographer, if he respects facts, can give us much more than another fact to add to our collection. He can give us the creative fact; the fertile fact; the fact that suggests and engenders.
Quote examples
Nigel Hamilton
British Author
For the serious biographer, history and the life story of a real individual are inseparably intertwined. Get the facts wrong, or distort them, and the life story gets distorted: becomes fiction.
Quote examples
Michelle Dean
American Journalist
A good novelist pays attention to his characters. A good biographer pays attention to the documents before her. A good critic pays close attention to the thing she's brought to evaluate.
Quote examples
Paul Theroux
American Novelist
Everything is fiction. You only have your own life to work with in the way that a biographer only has the letters and journals to work with.
Quote examples
Stacy Schiff
American Author
Insofar as there is an anxiety of influence for a biographer, it may be that each new book is undertaken in reaction to the previous book.
Quote examples
Leon Edel
American Critic
The biographer who writes the life of his subject's self-concept passes through a fade into the inner house of life.
Quote examples
Michael Korda
English Novelist
Most biographers are apt to be discouraged by the sheer volume of papers left behind by their subject.
Quote examples
Jean Fritz
American Writer
As a biographer, I try to uncover the adventures and personalities behind each character I research. Once my character and I have reached an understanding, then I begin the detective work reading old books, old letters, old newspapers, and visiting the places where my subject lived. Often I turn up surprises, and of course, I pass them on.
Quote examples
A. N. Wilson
English Writer
Of all liars the most arrogant are biographers: those who would have us believe, having surveyed a few boxes full of letters, diaries, bank statements and photographs, that they can play at the recording angel and tell the whole truth about another human life.
Quote examples
Kitty Kelley
American Journalist
The authorized biographers - the ones hand-picked to write the sanitized version of a subject's life - sit up front with the swells while the unauthorized biographer who writes without access or approval gets elbowed to the back of the bus.
Quote examples
Virginia Woolf
British Author
Almost any biographer, if he respects facts, can give us much more than another fact to add to our collection. He can give us the creative fact; the fertile fact; the fact that suggests and engenders.
Quote examples
Nigel Hamilton
British Author
For the serious biographer, history and the life story of a real individual are inseparably intertwined. Get the facts wrong, or distort them, and the life story gets distorted: becomes fiction.
Quote examples
Michelle Dean
American Journalist
A good novelist pays attention to his characters. A good biographer pays attention to the documents before her. A good critic pays close attention to the thing she's brought to evaluate.
Quote examples
Paul Theroux
American Novelist
Everything is fiction. You only have your own life to work with in the way that a biographer only has the letters and journals to work with.
Quote examples
Stacy Schiff
American Author
Insofar as there is an anxiety of influence for a biographer, it may be that each new book is undertaken in reaction to the previous book.
Quote examples
Leon Edel
American Critic
The biographer who writes the life of his subject's self-concept passes through a fade into the inner house of life.
Quote examples
Michael Korda
English Novelist
Most biographers are apt to be discouraged by the sheer volume of papers left behind by their subject.
Example 1 of 10
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