For thousands of years we have recorded real lives--the lives of others, and of ourselves. For what purpose and for whom has this universal and timeless pursuit endured? What obstacles have lain in the path of biographers in the past, and what continues to confound biographers today? Above all, how is it that biographies and autobiographies play such a contested, popular role in contemporary Western culture, from biopics to blogs, from memoir to docudrama? Award-winning biographer and teacher Nigel Hamilton addresses these questions in an incisive and vivid narrative that will appeal to students of human nature and self-representation across the arts and sciences. Tracing the remarkable and often ignored historical evolution of biography from the ancient world to the present, this brief and fascinating tour of the genre conveys the passionate quest to capture the lives of individuals and the many difficulties it has entailed through the centuries. From the Epic of Gilgamesh to American Splendor , from cuneiform to the Internet, from commemoration to deconstruction, from fiction to fact--by way of famous biographical artists such as Plutarch, Saint Augustine, Sir Walter Raleigh, Samuel Johnson, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Lord Byron, Sigmund Freud, Lytton Strachey, Abel Gance, Virginia Woolf, Leni Riefenstahl, Orson Welles, Julian Barnes, Ted Hughes, Frank McCourt, and many others--Nigel Hamilton's Biography: A Brief History will change the way you think about biography and real lives. “What a joy it was to read Nigel Hamilton's erudite Biography: A Brief History . As a practitioner of the art, I found his analysis on the merits of biography profound. Highly recommended!” ― Douglas Brinkley, author of The Unfinished Presidency: Jimmy Carter's Journey to the Nobel Peace Prize “Nigel Hamilton has written a delightful history of the fine art of biography through the ages. His insightful and provocative book reminds us that biography is the most tantalizing of historical narratives―and one uniquely suited to understanding the human condition.” ― Kai Bird, 2006 Pulitzer Prize winner for Biography, co-author with Martin J. Sherwin of American Prometheus: The Triumph & Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer “Nigel Hamilton tells the story of life writing in the West―from the first appearance of human figures in cave paintings to the latest biopic or blog―displaying throughout his longstanding love and advocacy for biography in all its many familiar and unfamiliar forms. This lively, emphatic history is what many biography enthusiasts have been waiting for.” ― Craig Howes, Director, Center for Biographical Research, University of Hawai'i “This zesty romp through millennia of biographical portraits comes from the pen of a master biographer. Hamilton's a friendly spectator to his own art, undaunted by its age, variety or the number and skill of the practitioners who've gone before him. Starting with the ancient Gilgamesh epic, he speeds us through the forms--writing, theater, painting and film--in which biographers have portrayed and interpreted individual lives. No shrinking violet, he wrestles with every major figure who's tried a hand at biography or criticized biographers' work. While his own strong convictions are clear, he's fair in his assessment of others and the ideal referee. No one will fail to find his brief, interpretive history of life stories compelling. It's hard to think of a better introduction to one of the most popular genres of literature and art today.” ― Publishers Weekly “This compact and informative book offers an insightful overview of the history of biography...In time, public and private reputations were challenged in biography, hypocrisy exposed, character and motives analyzed, and sexuality in all of its manifestations revealed. Biographers continued with inquiry and research, biopics came into being, and the multiplicity of biographical outlets was everywhere. Hamilton has given readers a thought-provoking look at biography in its various forms; a fascinating and handy reference book for anyone wishing to know more about the history and art of biography.” ― Robert Kelly , Library Journal “Who would imagine Nigel Hamilton's compact, erudite book about the history and practice of biography--called Biography: A Brief History --could be so wide-ranging and provocative? From prehistoric cave drawings (the animals are fully drawn while the hunters are stick figures) to today's films (the author himself won an award for a documentary based on his biography of Field Marshal Montgomery), Mr. Hamilton moves briskly through the centuries, highlighting how the depiction and recording of individual lives has changed from early oral sagas and cuneiform writing to Internet blogs. In essence, the author provides a short course on past societies viewed through their individuals, plus insights into the nature of individuality at certain periods in human history...Mr. Hamilton, a distinguished an