Memoir vs. Biography

Are you into reading? Have you read any nonfiction works like 'memoirs' or 'biographies'? Well, don't worry if you haven't. I'll tell you everything about them.

What Is Their Main Difference?

Both are stories of someone's life. However, a 'memoir' is written a self-written book of one's emotional experiences in life. It is not necessarily in chronological order and it does not focus on facts and events. It mainly deals with what the author has learned, their regrets, memories, and other emotional experiences. A 'biography' is a story of someone's life written by another person. So, it is mainly factual.

Differences

As mentioned above, a 'memoir' is someone's life story written by the person him/herself. However, it is not in chronological order and it focuses on the emotional experiences of that person. It indicates regrets, mistakes, complex emotions, emotional changes, etc. Look below:

I was never really fascinated about reading memoirs till now.

Name some famous memoirs please.

A 'biography' is also someone's life story but it is written by someone else. So, obviously, it is factual, in chronological order, and deals with events and facts rather than that person's emotions. Take a look at the examples below:

This week, we're reading Albert Camus's biography by Jennifer Alden.

If you want to write someone's biography, you should've gathered enough information.

Warning!

Note that a 'memoir' is different from an 'autobiography' in that a 'memoir' is about the writer's emotional experiences, whereas, an 'autobiography' is the writer's life events in chronological order.

Similarities

Both are stories about someone's life. Check out the examples below:

Michelle Obama has published a memoir recently.

Biographies mainly go under the category of non-fiction works.

Are They Interchangeable?

Since they deal with different issues regarding someone's life story and the fact that they are written by different people, they cannot be used interchangeably. Both examples below are correct but they have different meanings. Compare:

✓ We're gonna analyze a famous memoir this week.

✓ We're gonna analyze a famous biography this week.

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