Autobiography vs memoir

While an autobiography and a biography both tell the story of someone’s life, they are not the same thing. When a person writes his or her own life story, the finished work is an autobiography.

When an author writes a book about another person’s life, the result is a biography.

While there are some similarities between biographies and autobiographies, there are several notable differences between the two types of books.

• Authorship: Who writes the book is the primary difference between an autobiography and a biography.

  An autobiography is always written by the person the book is about. A biography is always written by someone other than the subject of the book.

• Point of View: An autobiography is usually written in first person point of view (I, me, my) since the book is about the author’s own experiences.

  A biography is typically written in third person point of view (she, her, hers, he, him, his) since the author is descri