The three primary formats used to tell a life story are a biography, an autobiography, and a memoir. Distinguishing between the three can feel a bit confusing since they all share several similarities. But there are some distinct differences.

1. Difference In Memoir And Autobiography
2. Memoir And Autobiography

• A memoir is similar to an autobiography in the sense that it is also about one’s own life as written by that person. However, as an autobiography narrates the whole life start to end, a memoir speaks of a particular time period or a particular instance, which the author chose to focus on.
• The Writer’s Digest Podcast, Episode 10: The Art of the Graphic Memoir. In this episode author and cartoonist Tom Hart shares an inside look at writing and publishing in the graphic novel and comics world.
• The Pulitzer Prize for Biography is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It has been presented since 1917 for a distinguished biography, autobiography or memoir by an American author or co-authors, published during the preceding calendar year.

Maya Angelou was a civil rights activist, poet and award-winning author known for her acclaimed 1969 memoir, 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,' and her numerous poetry and essay collections.

Simply put, a biography is the life history of an individual, written by someone else. An autobiography is the story of a person’s life, written by that person. And a memoir is a collection of memories written by the person themselves.

What is a Biography?

A biography, also called a bio, is a non-fiction piece of work giving an objective account of a person’s life. The main difference between a biography vs. an autobiography is that the author of a biography is not the subject.

Biographies include details of key events that shaped the subject’s life, and information about their birthplace, education, work, and relationships. Biographers use a number of research sources, including interviews, letters, diaries, photographs, essays, reference books, and newspapers. While a biography is usually in the written form, it can be produced in other formats such as music composition or film.

Examples of famous biographies include:

• His Excellency: George Washington by Joseph J. Ellis
• Einstein: The Life and Times by Ronald William Clark
• Princess Diana – A Biography of The Princess of Wales by Drew L. Crichton

What is an Autobiography?

An autobiography is the story of a person’s life written by that person. Because the author is also the main character of the story, autobiographies are written in the first person.

The purpose of an autobiography is to portray the life experiences and achievements of the author. Therefore, most autobiographies are written later in the subject’s life.

They often begin during early childhood and chronologically detail key events throughout their life. Autobiographies usually include information about where a person was born and brought up, their education, career, life experiences, the challenges they faced, and their key achievements.

One of the main differences between an autobiography vs. a biography is that autobiographies tend to be more subjective. That’s because they are written by the subject, and present the facts based on their own memories of a specific situation, which can be biased.

Examples of famous autobiographies include:

• The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
• The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
• Losing My Virginity by Richard Branson

What is a Memoir?

Memoir comes from the French word mémoire, meaning memory or reminiscence. Similar to an autobiography, a memoir is the story of a person’s life written by that person.

The difference between a memoir vs. an autobiography is that a memoir focuses on reflection and establishing an emotional connection, rather than simply presenting the facts around their life. The author uses their personal knowledge to tell an intimate and emotional story about the private or public happenings in their life. The topic is intentionally focused and does not include biographical or chronological aspects of the author’s life unless they are meaningful and relevant to the story.

Examples of famous memoirs include:

• Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
• Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant by Ulysses S. Grant

Autobiography vs. Biography vs. Memoir Comparison Chart

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An autobiography differs from a memoir in a sense that an autobiography covers all the events of the narrator’s life in chronological order, whereas a memoir is a real-life experience of the author, that has a lesson or message to share with the readers. Due to many similarities between these two, many people get a bit confused and don’t understand, which form of literature is an autobiography and which one is a memoir.

While an autobiography covers the entire life of the writer, the memoir is about a part of life of the writer. Read the article provided below, in which substantial differences between autobiography and memoir are explained in detail.

Content: Autobiography Vs Memoir

Comparison Chart

Difference In Memoir And Autobiography

Definition of Autobiography

Autobiography is a detailed account of an individual’s life, written or told by that individual himself. It is an abbreviated summary written in chronological order, that tells one’s experience in life, like the highs and lows, in different phases like childhood, adulthood and so on. Usually, they are written in the first person, ‘I’ and in this way the writer can easily express his views on the life events.

An autobiography can be written by the subject or the subject may hire a ghost writer, to write for them. It can be in the form of books, audio recording, drama, skit, documentaries or movies.

Definition of Memoir

The word ‘memoir’ is a French term which refers to reminiscence or remembrance. It is a memory written by the subject himself, in real time that presents a moral or message to the readers. It aims to explain how the subject learned a lesson from his experience or how he changed himself. The author of the memoir is called memorist. It covers a specific section, stage or time of the author’s life, that cause him to change like a turning point or a failure, etc.

A memoir is a less formal, often friendly work, which is supposed to cover the details that are accurate and facts based. It is structure-less i.e. it can begin at any point.

Memoir And Autobiography

Key Differences Between Autobiography and Memoir

The significant differences between autobiography and memoir are described in the points given below:

1. A form of literature, in which the subject writes or narrates his own life story, is known as Autobiography. The memoir is a literary genre, which is a collection of memories, written by the individual on the incidents and events occurred to him in his life.
2. An autobiography contains intricate details about the life events of the subject. On the other hand, a memoir is more centralised in nature which focuses on the specific events that happened to the author.
3. An autobiography covers the entire life of the subject, but a memoir spans a particular section or time or stage, of the memoirist’s life.
4. An autobiography is written in first or third person, whereas a memoir is written in the first person.
5. An autobiography focuses on all events of the life of the protagonist. In contrast, memoir, focuses on exploring any particular event or incident in depth, which is important to the memorist.
6. An autobiography follows a chronological order while a memoir is structure-less i.e. it does not follow any order like a novel, it can start at any point.

Similarities

• Nonfictional literary genre.
• Written by the subject himself.
• Written in the first person.

Conclusion

A memoir is recognised as a subgenre of the biography and autobiography. The basic difference between these two literary forms is that an autobiography is a story of a life that contains all the details of the life of the main character like birthplace, education, work, relationship, etc. of the subject. On the other hand, memoir focuses on a specific aspect of the lead character’s life.