This essay identifies and illustrates a number of significant features that, in combination, make literary biography a distinct and recognizable genre. Among these are considerations of the various aspects of the composition of literary works, such as sources of inspiration, authors' motives and methods in transforming life into art, and…

This paper is concerned with determining the influences of biographers' gender on the content of biographies of women. The following questions are addressed: Do some treatments of subjects produce feminist or sexist biographies? What are the principal characteristics of both forms? Which, if any, of these features combine to result in identifiable…