It could be hectic, stressful, mind-racking or a piece of cake. I am talking about the different emotions that one may portray when writing a biographical essay.
At one point or another, you will come across biographical essays, which are not as difficult as some people make it out to be.
However, the obstacle usually begins from how to start a biography essay. This is no surprise as some writers try to avoid being biographies at all costs and try writing about a different subject, rather than the one chosen to represent themselves.
However, just because you can write about something else does not mean that it is a worthy subject to include in the biographical essay and the more you try and avoid it, the more you will go against your own biases and preconceived ideas.
When you’re looking to start a biography essay, keep a close eye on the topics, writers and subject line choices. What are the authors’ stories they want to tell.
Is it an interesting take on a subject or is it about a man or a situation? Are you writing about the author’s life of self-actualization or are you writing about an author who has died?
To give you an idea. In my experience, the main topic of most books I read before writing my biographical essays is suicide.
Never before have I encountered more intriguing works of art than those done by Andy Warhol. I have been curious about his life ever since I saw his work in Milwaukee. I saw his famous work of the Campbell’s Soup Can. By viewing this, one can tell he is not your average artist. I’m sure … Read more
Never before have I encountered more intriguing works of art than those done by Andy Warhol. I have been curious about his life ever since I saw his work in Milwaukee. I saw his famous work of the Campbell’s Soup Can. By viewing this, one can tell he is not your average artist. I’m sure … Read more
Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) was a son of a minister in Switzerland. He was born on July 26, in the small village of Kesswil on Lake Constance. He was named after his grandfather, a professor of medicine at the University of Basel. He was the oldest child and only surviving son of a Swiss Reform … Read more
Mozart is perhaps the greatest musical genius who ever lived. Mozart ‘s full name is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Most people called him Mozart or Wolfgang. Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria, January 27, 1756. Mozart is the greatest musical child prodigy who ever lived. He began composing minuets at the age of 5 and symphonies … Read more
George Wells Beadle was born at Wahoo, Nebraska, U. S. A. , October 22, 1903, the son of Chauncey Elmer Beadle, a farmer, and his wife Hattie Albro. George was educated at the Wahoo High School and might himself have become a farmer if one of his teachers at school had not directed his mind … Read more
Francesco Petrarch, was a man held in high regards of his peers. The life in which Petrarch lived, was certainly not one of which many people could have had dealt with. A life of solitude, misplaced love and, family misfortune that was endured. But, through hard workand perseverance, loyalty to the churches which lead to … Read more
Tecumseh was born on March 9, 1768 near the Shawnee village near what is now Oldtown, Ohio. He was born to a Shawnee war chief, Pucksinwah, and his wife, Methotasa. According to Shawnee legend, a shooting star the natives called “The Panther” crossed at the same exact time as Tecumseh was born. His unsoma, or … Read more
Auguste Rodin was born November 12, 1840 in Paris and attended the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs in Paris at age 14. Rodin had a special gift for modeling human figures and faces; therefore sculpting humans is all he did. Decorators and commercial sculptors exploited Rodin at a very young age. It was some 20 years … Read more
Throughout her life, Shirley Jackson struggled with a conflict between her dogged individuality and society’s requirement that she adhere to its norms and standards. Jackson saw a second level of human nature, an inner identity lurking beneath the one which outwardly conforms with society’s expectations. Society’s repression of her individuality haunted Jackson in her personal … Read more
James Fenimore Cooper was born in Burlington, New Jersey on September 15, 1789. He was born the eleventh of twelve children to William and Elizabeth Cooper. His real name is James Kent Cooper, he tried to change it so he could inherit some of his mothers wealth, but the court system would not allow it. … Read more
Samuel Morse: a man, an artist, and an inventor. He knew as a childhood love, he was an artist. But the thing he did not know was that out of his love of art and curiosity would come an invention. His invention, now obsolete, was a great weapon of war and means of communication for … Read more
Frank Lloyd Wright was born on June 8th, 1867 in Wisconsin. His heritage was Welsh. His fathers name was William Carey Wright; his occupation was a musician and a preacher of his faith, Unitarian. His mothers name was Anna Lloyd Jones; her occupation was a schoolteacher. It was said that his mother placed pictures of … Read more
Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, was born on April 13, 1743 and grew up on the family plantation at Shadwell in Albermarle County, Virginia. His father was Peter Jefferson, who, with the aid of thirty slaves, tilled a tobacco and wheat farm of 1,900 acres and like his fathers before him, was … Read more
Helen “Nellie” Laetitia Mooney was born October 20, 1873 in a log cabin on Garafraxa Road, two kilometers from Chatsworth, Ontario. She and her family moved to Manitoba when she was six years old. One of Nellie’s best influences was her mother. Her family’s influence was no doubt the reason she became an activist. Her … Read more
Francis Scott Fitzgerald’s life is an example of both sides of the American Dream, the joys of young love, wealth and success, and the tragedies associated with success and failure. Named for another famous American, a distant cousin who authored the Star Spangled Banner, Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul Minnesota on September 24, 1896. … Read more
In the early 1500s, almost four and a half centuries before men first orbited the earth; an expedition completed and led by Ferdinand Magellan performed a task of comparable significance for that time period. Magellan, a Portuguese navigator for Spain, sailed westward with a fleet of five ships from the port of Sanlucar de Barrameda … Read more
George Orwell was a famous author who wrote many novels and essays. His real name was Eric Author Blair. He was born in Motihari near to Bengal, India on June 25 19031. He was born in a “Lower upper middle class family”2. A few years after Orwell’s birth his family moved to England, where he … Read more
He was a man who saved over 100,000 lives, risking his own for each one. Then he disappeared. Raoul Wallenberg was considered a great hero for many reasons: his background, heroic actions and influence on many people, including myself. Despite his father’s death, Raoul had an exceptionally privileged childhood. He was born on August 4, … Read more
David Hicks was a 34 year old black male. He was on death row in Texas from December of 1987 to April of 1988, sentenced to die by lethal injection for rape and murder, on April 25th 1988, of his 87-year-old grandmother, Ms. Ocolor Heggar. David was only a suspect because he was near her … Read more
George Frederick Handel was born on February 24, 1685 in Halle, Germany. One of the greatest composers of the late baroque period (1700-50) and, during his lifetime, perhaps the most internationally famous of all musicians. Handel was born February 24, 1685, in Halle, Germany, to a family of no musical distinction. His own musical talent, … Read more
The purpose for writing on Booker T. Washington is to focus on his educational contributions, and the different speeches he gave during and after the 19th century for African American and for the institution. Booker was born into slavery on a small tobacco plantation on April 5 1856. While in grade school he did not … Read more
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was born at Blenheim Palace on Nov. 30, 1874. His father was Lord Randolph Churchill, who descended directly from the 1st duke of Marlborough, of whom Winston was to write a biography. His mother was Jennie Jerosme, an American. Churchill’s childhood was unhappy. He spent most of his time at … Read more
Charlotte Perkins Gilman experienced astonishing success during her life. When she died in 1935, she left behind a legacy of ingenious writing. Charlotte Perkins Gilman was one of the leading intellectuals of the American womens movement in the first two decades of the 20th century (Gilman, The Living of Charlotte Perkins Gilman). Her literary works … Read more
Walt Whitman was looked upon as the forerunner of 20th Century poetry, praising democracy, and becoming a proclaimed poet of American democracy. He was known as the Son of Long Island, and he loved his country and everything about it. (Current, Williams, Freidel- page 292-293). Whitman lived during the time of the Civil War; a … Read more
Thomas Stearns Eliot was born in St. Louis, Missouri of New England descent, on Sept. 26, 1888. He entered Harvard University in 1906, completed his courses in three years and earned a masters degree the next year. After a year at the Sorbonne in Paris, he returned to Harvard. Further study led him to Merton … Read more
Margaret Mead was born on Monday, December 16, 1901, at the West Park Hospital in Philadelphia, P. A. Margaret was the first baby to be born in this hospital, and because of this, she felt different from the rest of the children, because they had all been born at home. Margaret’s parents were from the … Read more
Melville, Herman (1819-91), an American Novelist, is widely regarded as one of America’s greatest and most influential novelists; known primarily as the author of Moby Dick. He belonged to a group of eminent pre-Civil War writers-American Romantics or members of the American Renaissance-who created a new and vigorous national literature. He is one of the … Read more
World War One. The first great tragedy of humanity. That is of course excluding love and life. Combine all three and you find one of the most masterfully written novels about life, love, and war that could only be written by Ernest Hemingway. Born July 21, 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, … Read more
Cleopatra Vll was born in 69 BC, in Alexandria, Egypt. Despite what people say today, that she was glamorous and beautiful, she was far from it. She is shown on ancient coins with a long hooked nose and masculine features. Although she was not beautiful she was clearly a very seductive woman, and she used … Read more
John Locke was a great educator on several counts. In an immediate sense he was himself a practitioner and publicist of good education. This profile is concerned with his life in education, his theory of knowledge, his advice to parents on the upbringing of their children, and his educational priorities with specific reference to the … Read more
