Biography Theory at a Glance (1/9)

Thayer, William Roscoe. The Art of Biography. New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1920.

An elegant argument in three parts: biography in antiquity, the break in between "medieval" and "modern" biography, and finally biography in the nineteenth century, with a list of recommended titles. Urging as much as possible to understand the lives of people of other races and times via biography -- though more than occasionally exhibits an elitism that is as refreshing as it is humorous. "Providence has ordered it so that, although we are all made of the same stuff, that stuff
has innumerable varieties, and, humanly speaking, those varieties are not equal in interest, in charm, or in beauty or significance."

Thayer was a Harvard man and a biographer of Teddy Roosevelt (see it on Bartleby.com), John Jay, and George Washington.