Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Authors’ Challenges When Writing Historical Biographies




Charlotte Johnson serves as a co-CEO and trustee of the Otto Bremer Trust, a grantmaking entity in the Upper Midwest that was formerly known as the Otto Bremer Foundation. In her spare time, Charlotte Johnson pursues a multitude of hobbies, including reading nonfiction.

Some academics doubt that biographers can adequately take into account the wider historical context of the personages about which they write. Yet, good biographers seldom discuss such personages without reference to their impact on the age in which they lived—and vice versa.

The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography emphasizes the importance of readers learning about both of these aspects of biographies, which means that biographers must be careful about how they portray their subjects.

This raises the question of whether biographers can separate their emotions from their subjects. Some authors choose to write about people they admire, whereas others opt to discuss those they detest.

In this regard, biographers may feel a connection to their subject by digesting all of the information they can find, including documents, personal letters, and other data that reveal pertinent or shocking details. In doing so, they must take care to reflect details accurately, making sure not to let their emotions affect their writing, particularly about someone who has affected the course of history.

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