The story of a life can vastly differ depending on who tells it. It is really all about perspective, which is why when you read someone’s biography, the story of their life by a third party, versus their memoir, the story of their life told through their own perspective, it can seem like two different stories altogether.
Here, we get into the key differences between biographies and memoirs. We will highlight five public figures, varying from pop stars to princes, to first ladies, and writers, who have both written a memoir and had a biography written about them. Keep reading to check out more about these two different forms of non-fiction.
Biography vs. Memoir
Biographies are meant to be a full written account of someone’s life, from start to finish. It usually tells the facts like where they grew up, gives a brief background on their parents or childhood, and then follows them into adulthood, highlighting important relationships and career paths, and more. They are usually factual accounts corroborated from research, key sources, and maybe even from talking with the person themselves. The major difference between a memoir and a biography is that, beyond the occasional quote, the voice of the person the biography is about does not appear in a biographical book.
On the other hand, a memoir is a book a person writes about themselves. It is a firsthand account. It differs even from an autobiography because a memoir usually either focuses on a specific time period in that person’s life or revolves around a particular topic or narrative theme. A memoir is less factual and more reflective. It is an experience told by memory, how the author viewed the events as having taken place. Memoirs are also driven by a narrative voice and often read more like a story than an account of someone’s life.
Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex
Harry: A Biography of a Prince by Angela Levin
Prince Harry has been a public figure since the day of his birth. His life has been lived in the public eye, from the historic image of him as a young boy walking at his mother’s funeral, to the various scandalous headlines of his youth, to his controversial marriage that risked his place in the royal family. His life has been one that the public is fascinated with.
He has had various biographies written to document his life, including Harry: A Biography of a Prince by Angela Levin, a journalist who writes of her experiences getting to know the prince on various engagements. She focuses on the contrast of who he really is, in his personal life as well as what he brings to his royal roles and duties.
Spare by Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex
In recent years, Prince Harry decided to take back his incredibly public story by writing a memoir that told his story from his own perspective. Spare was an incredibly popular and shocking memoir upon its release. It tells of his happy, care-free childhood, the loss of his mother at a young age, his experience in the British Army, and meeting his wife, Meghan Markle.
Prince Harry brings us an emotional story of his struggles with having his life always in the spotlight. He tells his story with an honesty and insight that humanize this princely figure we have watched grow up in tabloids and on our screens.
Bob Dylan
Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan by Howard Sounes
Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan is a biography by Howard Sounes. Sounes uses rare and exclusive interviews and documents to give an extensive account of the life of legendary singer/songwriter Bob Dylan.
Through extensive research, Sounes uncovers many unknown elements to Dylan’s story, from his love life to health risks, and even inside accounts from Dylan’s process of creating beloved albums and songs, and life on the road as he went on tour. Sounes uses interviews from closest friends, family members, producers, musicians, and even girlfriends to truly highlight the influence that Dylan’s musical career has had on our culture, even today.
Chronicles: Volume One by Bob Dylan
In Chronicles: Volume One, we get to read the lyrical words of the famous songwriter himself. In his memoir, Bob Dylan takes us to New York City in 1961, into the heart of Dylan’s mysterious and magically musical life.
Dylan reflects and tells the many great stories that would form into iconic anthems. He brings an engaging and rhythmic account of the people he met who shaped him into who he has become, and the places that became important stops on his journey. It is a fun story, filled with all of Dylan’s witty and poetic writing that we have come to love in his songs.
Michelle Obama
Michelle Obama: A Life by Peter Slevin
In Michelle Obama: A Life, Peter Slevin paints a distinguished portrait of a hardworking woman. He goes back to her childhood, raised in a working-class family in Chicago, and details her journey to becoming the accomplished woman that she is.
Slevin highlights her growth through Princeton University, Harvard Law School, building a career, and building a life as a wife, mother, and partner to Barack Obama as he was on the road to becoming president of the United States. In this biography, Slevin highlights Michelle Obama’s many accomplishments that were often overlooked in her role as First Lady.
Becoming by Michelle Obama
In Becoming, Michelle Obama gives us an intimate look into her life, detailing childhood memories and lessons she learned to help shape her into who she is today. She gives details about her personal experience in the early days of her husband’s career as a politician, where she was working hard at a career of her own, while balancing being a mother to her daughters and a supportive spouse.
Obama gives us an insider’s point of view of some of the best and worst days while living at the White House. Above all, what shines through in her memoir is her eloquence and her infectious spirit as a strong and inspiring woman with her own story to tell.
Joan Didion
The Last Love Song: A Biography of Joan Didion by Tracy Daugherty
Tracey Daugherty travels back through the life of acclaimed author and journalist Joan Didion in The Last Love Song: A Biography of Joan Didion. By interviewing people who knew Didion personally and scraping together what clues Didion had left about her own life, Daughtery is able to piece together a narrative of the life of Didion.
Daugherty goes back to Didion’s childhood and details her adult life, developing her career as a journalist and her life with her husband, John Gregory Dunne. Overall, he creates a beautiful portrait of one of America’s great authors, shedding light on her mysterious and reclusive literary life.
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
The Year of Magical Thinking is one of Joan Didion’s most well-known books. In this memoir, she delivers a poignant story of love and grief and details the mindset that got her through one of the hardest times in her life. It was just one of those years where everything was going wrong: her daughter fell critically ill, her husband suddenly passed away, and Didion had to find a way to live when her life had so drastically changed.
In her memoir, Didion specifically discusses memory and grief and creates an example for anyone going through hard times. This intimate look into her life and her mind reveals how her ways of thinking made her into such a coveted author and famed literary figure.
Britney Spears
Britney Spears: From Pop Princess to Resilient Icon by Pearl Pascal
Pop icon Britney Spears’s story is one that has been sensationalized and strewn across headlines for years. Plenty of biographies about her exist, including Britney Spears: From Pop Princess to Resilient Icon by Pearl Pascal, which corroborates sources from documents to detail the life of Spears from when she first rose to fame to a more recent account.
Spears’s is a story of constant scrutiny and turmoil produced by harmful tabloids. This biography aims to capture the woman behind the headlines and frame her story as one of resilience, a journey for authenticity, and the power to push through even when it feels like everyone is against you.
The Woman in Me by Britney Spears
Britney Spears published her memoir, The Woman in Me, after fighting a legal battle over her conservatorship, which took away all of the pop star’s personal freedom.
With this memoir, we finally hear the voice of the real Britney Spears after she had been so closely monitored and controlled by the people in her life she once trusted. It is a story of bravery and freedom as Spears finds new ways to express herself and redefine herself and her story.
Biographies tell the story of a life as if it were a legend, while memoirs give us a glimpse into the hearts and minds of some of our favorites. Whether they be songwriters, first ladies, or authors, they will be forever remembered in their own words and in the words of others. We hope you enjoyed seeing how a memoir differs from a biography in shaping a life story. How would you rather be remembered?
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Find these books and more on our Fascinating Nonfiction Reads You Can’t Miss bookshelf on Bookshop.org.
