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Biography Online

Biographies of the famous, influential, and inspirational.

People throughout history who influenced and changed the world, from Socrates and Plato to Sir Winston Churchill and John F. Kennedy.

Over 50 influential women who helped to shape the world in which we live. Including; Sappho, Malala Yousafzai, Indira Gandhi, Susan B. Anthony, Helen Keller, Princess Diana, Joan d’Arc, Greta Thunberg and Mother Teresa.

A selection of inspirational people who have helped create a better world. Includes Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu and Albert Einstein.

Famous men and women who have campaigned for, and promoted human and civil rights. Includes Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks.

Great artists such as Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Leonardo da Vinci and Pablo Picasso. Greatest works of art :  Mona Lisa , Statue of David

The great scientists who have changed our world from Archimedes to Albert Einstein and Marie Curie. Also; list of famous inventors .

Famous poets and authors. Great writers including J. R. R. Tolkien, George Orwell, Ernst Hemingway, J.K.Rowling and C.S. Lewis

Saints and sages from different religious and spiritual traditions. Including The Buddha, Jesus Christ, Muhammed and the Dalai Lama.

100 great sporting personalities from the fields of football, athletics, tennis, gymnastics, boxing and more.

A list of famous Africans, including Nelson Mandela, Haile Selassie, Kofi Annan, Tegla Laroupe, and Wangari Maathai.

Famous military leaders from Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan and Napoleon to modern military commanders.

Featured biographies

Recently added pages

• Tenzing Norgay – (1914 – 1986) Nepalese-Indian climber who was first to climb Mount Everest.
• Herbert Hoover (1874 – 1964) the 31st US president during the Great Depression
• Sir Edmund Hillary (1919 – 2008) New Zealand climber who became first to climb Mount Everest.
• Simone Weil –  Philosopher, mystic and member of French Resistance.
• James Joyce – Irish contemporary writer.
• George R.R. Martin (1948 – )- Best selling fantasy author of “Game of Thrones”
• Sadhguru (1957 – ) Indian Guru and founder of Isha yoga foundation
• Charles Lindbergh (1902 – 1974) US air pilot who flew from NY to Paris.
• Simon Bolivar (1783–1830) Venezuelan military and political leader who was instrumental in helping Latin American countries achieve independence.
• Diego Maradona (1960 – ) Argentinian footballer. Voted greatest player of 20th Century.
• Franz Schubert (1797 – 1828) Austrian composer of the late classical period.
• Prophet Muhammad (570–632) Founder of Islam.
• Anne Frank (1929-45) Diarist and writer who perished in the Holocaust.
• Karl Marx (1818-1883) Political philosopher and founder of Marxism
• James Watt – inventor of a more powerful steam engine
• 100 most influential people – Influential figures of world history.
• Sappho Biography – The enigmatic poet of Lesbos.
• Sojourner Truth (1797 – 1883) Civil rights campaigner
• Harriet Tubman (1822 – 1913) Escaped slave who helped others to escape on the Underground Railroad.
• Grace Kelly (1929–1982) American film actress and Princess of Monaco.
• Meister Eckhart – (1260–1327) German mystic, philosopher and religious administrator.
• People who promoted religious tolerance – Timeline of religious tolerance.
• People who changed their minds – Some of the greatest u-turns in beliefs and opinions.
• Martin Niemöller (1893–1984) German pastor, imprisoned for opposing Hitler.
• Germans who resisted Hitler – Including: Dietrich Bonhoffer, Claus von Stauffenberg.
• Mozart (1756 – 1791) – Classical composer and musical genius
• Famous historical figures – from the age of the Ramayana to the present day.
• Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) African American, anti-slavery campaigner.

Deposit Photos – I use some photos from this source of stock images.

The 7 Best Biography Sites for Famous and Inspirational People

Biographies give us a historical look into the lives and times of notable people. They help to teach, inspire, and improve us as people.

Famous people, both living and dead, can help to inspire us to greater things and teach us about missing gaps in our own knowledge. Indeed, by studying the lives of some of the most famous people throughout history, you can turn yourself into a better person. And who doesn’t want that?

Thanks to the internet, you don’t need to spend a fortune on physical biographies in your local bookstore. Here are the best websites for biographies of renowned people who have ever lived.

1. Biography

Biography has been online for many years and has become one of the most well-known sites out there for memoirs, interviews, and life stories.

The People section has grown to thousands of entries and covers everyone from actors to scientists. When you click on a person's profile, you'll get a brief overview of their life, a list of “quick facts”, and information on their education, career, and personal life.

Biography also has entire sections dedicated to nostalgia, celebrities, history and culture, and crime and scandal. Most of the content in these sections takes a long-form article approach.

If you enjoy the content on the main site, make sure you also check out Biography's YouTube channel. Most of the videos are a couple of minutes long and focus on a single person.

S9 is like a Wikipedia of biographies . The content is editable by the users, and they also can contribute to the existing biographies on the site.

Every day, there is a selection of featured biographies, with many of the selections being for people you might not have heard of but who have achieved wonderful things in their lives. The site also has a birthday section and a latest biographies section, allowing you to delve into the lives of different fascinating people every time you log on.

S9 even has a biographical game in the form of a quiz. The questions are, predictably, based on people's lives. Fair warning—to get a good score, you need to have a serious deep amount of knowledge.

3. Notable Biographies

The simply organized encyclopedia on famous and historical personalities is very readable with an alphabetically arranged Wikipedia-like presentation. You can also add your own information through a form.

It lacks the large number of entries that you will find on some of the other sites on this list, but don't let that put you off. If you're looking for a who's-who of various global luminaries rather than endless lists of people you have never heard of, this is the site for you.

4. Women's History Month

Women's History Month is an official site produced by the US government. Of course, the month of the celebration itself is March, but you can visit and enjoy the site and its massive amount of content throughout the year.

The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution, and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum join in commemorating and encouraging the study, observance, and celebration of the vital role of women in American history.

Overall, the site is an exhaustive resource on women who have impacted history through the ages. It pays tribute to some of the greatest women in history with multimedia content and other exhibits.

5. Wikipedia

If you want information on famous people, you can never go too far wrong with the ubiquitous Wikipedia. If anyone has achieved something globally noteworthy in their lives, you can be almost certain that they will have an entry on the site.

Of course, for the true giants of history, the entries can run to tens of thousands of words. But even for slightly less-famous people, you will still be able to find plenty of information.

Wikipedia is also one of the few biography sites that is available in multiple languages. For regionally famous people, you might find their local entry has far more information than the English-language entry. You can use Google Translate if you cannot understand the language in question.

And hey, if no article exists about the person in question, you can always try and make one yourself!

6. Academy of Achievement

The Academy of Achievement aims to provide readers with insight into the visionaries and pioneers who have shaped the modern world around us. The academy has existed for more than six decades, thus making inclusion in its hall of fame an honor in its own right.

For all the people who have made it onto the hallowed list over the years, you can access complete biographies, samples of their work, images, interviews, video content, and more.

7. Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

If you're a politics fanatic, you will love the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. It features a biography for all 12,877 people who have served in the House of Representatives and Congress since the forming of the United States.

For each person, you will be able to find information about the congresses they served, the years they served, the state/territory they represented, their position, and their party. Of course, there is also a text article dedicated to each person, with information on their personal life, background, and career.

We've also covered some of the best sites for unbiased fact-checking if this isn't enough for your politics fix.

8. Academy of American Poets

If literature is more your thing, head to the Academy of American Poets. It offers more than 3,000 biographies of contemporary and classical poets from the US.

The site also offers non-biographical content. For example, there are thousands of poems for you to read, a poem-a-day feature, a library containing books, texts, and more, and even materials for teachers and links to poetry events near your location.

Learn About People to Become a Better Person

No matter what hobbies and interests you have, there is always something to be learned by studying the lives of other people.

Whether they help you find an answer to a moral question, inspire you to start a new project, or simply helps you pass some time on your commute, these sites will all help to keep you entertained and engaged for hours.

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Biofy offers a comprehensive link management solution that includes features such as link-in-bio feature, os targeting urls, short urls, qr codes, and event management urls making it an all-in-one solution for managing your online presence and networking efficiently., what is biofy, what can you do, we’ll give you few very good reasons....

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One link in bio, Endless Possibilities

Turn followers into customers with later’s link in bio tool.

Use Link in Bio from Later to create a fully-customizable link in bio web page. Drive traffic from Instagram & TikTok, track clicks, and more.

ADD LINK IN BIO TO YOUR PAGE

What is Link in Bio?

Link in Bio is a mini web page built into your Instagram and TikTok profiles — making your content clickable and easier to find. Create your page, drop the link in your bio, and help followers discover more about you, your products, and your brand.

Turn Followers into Customers

Drive traffic from Instagram & TikTok to wherever you want. Like your website, e-commerce shop, or latest blog post.

Grow Your Following on Every Platform

Help followers discover your featured content, social profiles, and mailing list to engage on every channel.

Manage All Your Links in One Place

Create a seamless experience. With just one link, your TikTok and Instagram followers can find exactly what they're looking for.

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Customize the color, shape, style, and shadow of your buttons. You can also optimize your title tag and meta description for search engines.

HOW DOES LATER’S LINK IN BIO TOOL WORK?

More Traffic. More Clicks. More Tools to Make it Yours.

Create your link in bio page and help followers discover more about you.

Create & customize

Choose between a light and dark theme, curate your content, and then drop your new link into your Instagram and TikTok bio.

Track posts easily

Tag your posts with any URL. You can even tag previous posts.

Connect seamlessly

Your posts and their linked pages are automatically added to your Link in Bio page.

Drive traffic anywhere

Followers click the link in your Instagram or TikTok bio and find the page, product, or article they’re looking for.

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HOW TO CUSTOMIZE LINK IN BIO

Make your page as unique as you.

Customize with buttons, featured media, scrollable banners, linked posts, and design your page to match your brand aesthetic.

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Collect and grow your list of email subscribers and keep your audience in the know.

Personalize the title tag and meta description of your Later Link in Bio page for search engines.

LINK IN BIO FEATURES

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Manage all your links from one easy-to-use platform. Curate, sell, grow, and engage your audience all from one link.

Set Up Link in Bio

Drive traffic and clicks

Your Link in Bio page takes visitors past your profile to anywhere else on the web. Whether it’s a blog post or product page with your latest offer — you decide where your followers go next.

Measure What Matters

Track sales & revenue

Using Instagram for e-commerce? Link in Bio lets you add up to 5 links on each Instagram post so you can direct your followers to your website or e-commerce shop. With Link in Bio Analytics you can find out which linked posts are generating sales.

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One link in bio. Endless possibilities.

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“Link in Bio has been a game changer for us, successfully allowing us to utilize Instagram as a traffic resource and not just as an engagement resource. We also now have better than ever alignment between our web content and Instagram.”

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“The Link in Bio landing page is a copy of the account’s grid. This is a seamless experience for our users who are looking for more. We use the Link in Bio analytics to send reports back to section editors about what people are clicking through to.”

How do I add a link to my TikTok bio?

As long as you have over 1000 followers on TikTok, you’ll be able to add a customizable link in bio page to your TikTok bio. With Link in Bio by Later you can link TikTok posts from your feed to specific URLs to drive traffic and increase engagement from TikTok.

Can I use one Link in Bio website link for both Instagram and TikTok?

Yup! You can use the same Link in Bio link for both your Instagram and TikTok profiles. Your followers will see the posts from the platform that they’re on when they click your bio link and will be able to toggle between your TikTok and Instagram feeds to see even more of your great content.

What’s the difference between Link in Bio and Instagram shop tags?

With Link in Bio, you can drive traffic to your website, product pages, blog posts, and more — all through the link in your Instagram bio! Unlike Instagram shop tags, Link in Bio doesn’t tag posts directly on your Instagram feed. Instead, you get a separate clickable Link in Bio page that looks like your Instagram feed.

Can I add multiple links in one post?

Linking is available on all Later plans. Single links can be added to all TikTok and Instagram posts. Those on Growth and Advanced plans can add up to 5 links per Instagram post"

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Yes. For links to display as a post on your Link in Bio page, they need to be attached to an Instagram or TikTok post.

If you have previously published posts, you can always add them to your Link in Bio page through Later.

Will the Link in Bio page look exactly like my feed?

Your Link in Bio page will contain any posts tagged with a link. Meaning it may not mirror your exact feed if you don’t tag every single post with a link.

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No problem. Analytics inside Later will help you measure ROI from Instagram, too. Here’s a look at what you can do with Link in Bio analytics .

What kind of profile do I need to use Link in Bio?

You can use Link in Bio on any Instagram profile! Yep, that’s right — personal, creator, or business profiles are all eligible for Link in Bio.

Adding a bio link to TikTok requires a TikTok Business account (not a personal account) with over 1000 followers.

Will you track the personal data of my Link in Bio visitors?

We don’t track any personal data from visitors. You’ll be able to view your overall audience breakdown by city and country, as well as the number of clicks on your Link in Bio posts, but nothing personally identifying for your visitors. You can read more in our Link in Bio privacy policy .

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Blog – Posted on Monday, Jan 21

The 30 best biographies of all time.

Biographer Richard Holmes once wrote that his work was “a kind of pursuit… writing about the pursuit of that fleeting figure, in such a way as to bring them alive in the present.”

At the risk of sounding cliché, the best biographies do exactly this: bring their subjects to life. A great biography isn’t just a laundry list of events that happened to someone. Rather, it should weave a narrative and tell a story in almost the same way a novel does. In this way, biography differs from the rest of nonfiction .

All the biographies on this list are just as captivating as excellent novels , if not more so. With that, please enjoy the 30 best biographies of all time — some historical, some recent, but all remarkable, life-giving tributes to their subjects.

If you're feeling overwhelmed by the number of great biographies out there, you can also take our 30-second quiz below to narrow it down quickly and get a personalized biography recommendation  😉

Which biography should you read next?

Discover the perfect biography for you. Takes 30 seconds!

1. A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nasar

This biography of esteemed mathematician John Nash was both a finalist for the 1998 Pulitzer Prize and the basis for the award-winning film of the same name. Nasar thoroughly explores Nash’s prestigious career, from his beginnings at MIT to his work at the RAND Corporation — as well the internal battle he waged against schizophrenia, a disorder that nearly derailed his life.

2. Alan Turing: The Enigma: The Book That Inspired the Film The Imitation Game - Updated Edition by Andrew Hodges

Hodges’ 1983 biography of Alan Turing sheds light on the inner workings of this brilliant mathematician, cryptologist, and computer pioneer. Indeed, despite the title ( a nod to his work during WWII ), a great deal of the “enigmatic” Turing is laid out in this book. It covers his heroic code-breaking efforts during the war, his computer designs and contributions to mathematical biology in the years following, and of course, the vicious persecution that befell him in the 1950s — when homosexual acts were still a crime punishable by English law.

3. Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow

Ron Chernow’s Alexander Hamilton is not only the inspiration for a hit Broadway musical, but also a work of creative genius itself. This massive undertaking of over 800 pages details every knowable moment of the youngest Founding Father’s life: from his role in the Revolutionary War and early American government to his sordid (and ultimately career-destroying) affair with Maria Reynolds. He may never have been president, but he was a fascinating and unique figure in American history — plus it’s fun to get the truth behind the songs.

Prefer to read about fascinating First Ladies rather than almost-presidents? Check out this awesome list of books about First Ladies over on The Archive.

4. Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" by Zora Neale Hurston

A prolific essayist, short story writer, and novelist, Hurston turned her hand to biographical writing in 1927 with this incredible work, kept under lock and key until it was published 2018. It’s based on Hurston’s interviews with the last remaining survivor of the Middle Passage slave trade, a man named Cudjo Lewis. Rendered in searing detail and Lewis’ highly affecting African-American vernacular, this biography of the “last black cargo” will transport you back in time to an era that, chillingly, is not nearly as far away from us as it feels.

5. Churchill: A Life by Martin Gilbert

Though many a biography of him has been attempted, Gilbert’s is the final authority on Winston Churchill — considered by many to be Britain’s greatest prime minister ever. A dexterous balance of in-depth research and intimately drawn details makes this biography a perfect tribute to the mercurial man who led Britain through World War II.

Just what those circumstances are occupies much of Bodanis's book, which pays homage to Einstein and, just as important, to predecessors such as Maxwell, Faraday, and Lavoisier, who are not as well known as Einstein today. Balancing writerly energy and scholarly weight, Bodanis offers a primer in modern physics and cosmology, explaining that the universe today is an expression of mass that will, in some vastly distant future, one day slide back to the energy side of the equation, replacing the \'dominion of matter\' with \'a great stillness\'--a vision that is at once lovely and profoundly frightening.

Without sliding into easy psychobiography, Bodanis explores other circumstances as well; namely, Einstein's background and character, which combined with a sterling intelligence to afford him an idiosyncratic view of the way things work--a view that would change the world. --Gregory McNamee

6. E=mc²: A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation by David Bodanis

This “biography of the world’s most famous equation” is a one-of-a-kind take on the genre: rather than being the story of Einstein, it really does follow the history of the equation itself. From the origins and development of its individual elements (energy, mass, and light) to their ramifications in the twentieth century, Bodanis turns what could be an extremely dry subject into engaging fare for readers of all stripes.

7. Enrique's Journey by Sonia Nazario

When Enrique was only five years old, his mother left Honduras for the United States, promising a quick return. Eleven years later, Enrique finally decided to take matters into his own hands in order to see her again: he would traverse Central and South America via railway, risking his life atop the “train of death” and at the hands of the immigration authorities, to reunite with his mother. This tale of Enrique’s perilous journey is not for the faint of heart, but it is an account of incredible devotion and sharp commentary on the pain of separation among immigrant families.

8. Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera

Herrera’s 1983 biography of renowned painter Frida Kahlo, one of the most recognizable names in modern art, has since become the definitive account on her life. And while Kahlo no doubt endured a great deal of suffering (a horrific accident when she was eighteen, a husband who had constant affairs), the focal point of the book is not her pain. Instead, it’s her artistic brilliance and immense resolve to leave her mark on the world — a mark that will not soon be forgotten, in part thanks to Herrera’s dedicated work.

9. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

Perhaps the most impressive biographical feat of the twenty-first century, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is about a woman whose cells completely changed the trajectory of modern medicine. Rebecca Skloot skillfully commemorates the previously unknown life of a poor black woman whose cancer cells were taken, without her knowledge, for medical testing — and without whom we wouldn’t have many of the critical cures we depend upon today.

10. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

Christopher McCandless, aka Alexander Supertramp, hitchhiked to Alaska and disappeared into the Denali wilderness in April 1992. Five months later, McCandless was found emaciated and deceased in his shelter — but of what cause? Krakauer’s biography of McCandless retraces his steps back to the beginning of the trek, attempting to suss out what the young man was looking for on his journey, and whether he fully understood what dangers lay before him.

11. Let Us Now Praise Famous Men: Three Tenant Families by James Agee

"Let us now praise famous men, and our fathers that begat us.” From this line derives the central issue of Agee and Evans’ work: who truly deserves our praise and recognition? According to this 1941 biography, it’s the barely-surviving sharecropper families who were severely impacted by the American “Dust Bowl” — hundreds of people entrenched in poverty, whose humanity Evans and Agee desperately implore their audience to see in their book.

12. The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann

Another mysterious explorer takes center stage in this gripping 2009 biography. Grann tells the story of Percy Fawcett, the archaeologist who vanished in the Amazon along with his son in 1925, supposedly in search of an ancient lost city. Parallel to this narrative, Grann describes his own travels in the Amazon 80 years later: discovering firsthand what threats Fawcett may have encountered, and coming to realize what the “Lost City of Z” really was.

13. Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang

Though many of us will be familiar with the name Mao Zedong, this prodigious biography sheds unprecedented light upon the power-hungry “Red Emperor.” Chang and Halliday begin with the shocking statistic that Mao was responsible for 70 million deaths during peacetime — more than any other twentieth-century world leader. From there, they unravel Mao’s complex ideologies, motivations, and missions, breaking down his long-propagated “hero” persona and thrusting forth a new, grislier image of one of China’s biggest revolutionaries.

14. Mad Girl's Love Song: Sylvia Plath and Life Before Ted by Andrew Wilson by Andrew Wilson

Titled after one of her most evocative poems, this shimmering bio of Sylvia Plath takes an unusual approach. Instead of focusing on her years of depression and tempestuous marriage to poet Ted Hughes, it chronicles her life before she ever came to Cambridge. Wilson closely examines her early family and relationships, feelings and experiences, with information taken from her meticulous diaries — setting a strong precedent for other Plath biographers to follow.

15. The Minds of Billy Milligan by Daniel Keyes

What if you had twenty-four different people living inside you, and you never knew which one was going to come out? Such was the life of Billy Milligan, the subject of this haunting biography by the author of Flowers for Algernon . Keyes recounts, in a refreshingly straightforward style, the events of Billy’s life and how his psyche came to be “split”... as well as how, with Keyes’ help, he attempted to put the fragments of himself back together.

16. Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder

This gorgeously constructed biography follows Paul Farmer, a doctor who’s worked for decades to eradicate infectious diseases around the globe, particularly in underprivileged areas. Though Farmer’s humanitarian accomplishments are extraordinary in and of themselves, the true charm of this book comes from Kidder’s personal relationship with him — and the sense of fulfillment the reader sustains from reading about someone genuinely heroic, written by someone else who truly understands and admires what they do.

17. Napoleon: A Life by Andrew Roberts

Here’s another bio that will reshape your views of a famed historical tyrant, though this time in a surprisingly favorable light. Decorated scholar Andrew Roberts delves into the life of Napoleon Bonaparte, from his near-flawless military instincts to his complex and confusing relationship with his wife. But Roberts’ attitude toward his subject is what really makes this work shine: rather than ridiculing him ( as it would undoubtedly be easy to do ), he approaches the “petty tyrant” with a healthy amount of deference.

18. The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson IV by Robert A. Caro

Lyndon Johnson might not seem as intriguing or scandalous as figures like Kennedy, Nixon, or W. Bush. But in this expertly woven biography, Robert Caro lays out the long, winding road of his political career, and it’s full of twists you wouldn’t expect. Johnson himself was a surprisingly cunning figure, gradually maneuvering his way closer and closer to power. Finally, in 1963, he got his greatest wish — but at what cost? Fans of Adam McKay’s Vice , this is the book for you.

19. Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline Fraser

Anyone who grew up reading Little House on the Prairie will surely be fascinated by this tell-all biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Caroline Fraser draws upon never-before-published historical resources to create a lush study of the author’s life — not in the gently narrated manner of the Little House series, but in raw and startling truths about her upbringing, marriage, and volatile relationship with her daughter (and alleged ghostwriter) Rose Wilder Lane.

20. Prince: A Private View by Afshin Shahidi

Compiled just after the superstar’s untimely death in 2016, this intimate snapshot of Prince’s life is actually a largely visual work — Shahidi served as his private photographer from the early 2000s until his passing. And whatever they say about pictures being worth a thousand words, Shahidi’s are worth more still: Prince’s incredible vibrance, contagious excitement, and altogether singular personality come through in every shot.

21. Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout by Lauren Redniss

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22. Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter by Kate Clifford Larson

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23. Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford

This appropriately lyrical biography of brilliant Jazz Age poet and renowned feminist, Edna St. Vincent Millay, is indeed a perfect balance of savage and beautiful. While Millay’s poetic work was delicate and subtle, the woman herself was feisty and unpredictable, harboring unusual and occasionally destructive habits that Milford fervently explores.

24. Shelley: The Pursuit by Richard Holmes

Holmes’ famous philosophy of “biography as pursuit” is thoroughly proven here in his first full-length biographical work. Shelley: The Pursuit details an almost feverish tracking of Percy Shelley as a dark and cutting figure in the Romantic period — reforming many previous historical conceptions about him through Holmes’ compelling and resolute writing.

25. Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life by Ruth Franklin

Another Gothic figure has been made newly known through this work, detailing the life of prolific horror and mystery writer Shirley Jackson. Author Ruth Franklin digs deep into the existence of the reclusive and mysterious Jackson, drawing penetrating comparisons between the true events of her life and the dark nature of her fiction.

26. The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit by Michael Finkel

Fans of Into the Wild and The Lost City of Z will find their next adventure fix in this 2017 book about Christopher Knight, a man who lived by himself in the Maine woods for almost thirty years. The tale of this so-called “last true hermit” will captivate readers who have always fantasized about escaping society, with vivid descriptions of Knight’s rural setup, his carefully calculated moves and how he managed to survive the deadly cold of the Maine winters.

27. Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

The man, the myth, the legend: Steve Jobs, co-founder and CEO of Apple, is properly immortalized in Isaacson’s masterful biography. It divulges the details of Jobs’ little-known childhood and tracks his fateful path from garage engineer to leader of one of the largest tech companies in the world — not to mention his formative role in other legendary companies like Pixar, and indeed within the Silicon Valley ecosystem as a whole.

28. Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand

Olympic runner Louis Zamperini was just twenty-six when his US Army bomber crashed and burned in the Pacific, leaving him and two other men afloat on a raft for forty-seven days — only to be captured by the Japanese Navy and tortured as a POW for the next two and a half years. In this gripping biography, Laura Hillenbrand tracks Zamperini’s story from beginning to end… including how he embraced Christian evangelism as a means of recovery, and even came to forgive his tormentors in his later years.

29. Vera (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov) by Stacy Schiff

Everyone knows of Vladimir Nabokov — but what about his wife, Vera, whom he called “the best-humored woman I have ever known”? According to Schiff, she was a genius in her own right, supporting Vladimir not only as his partner, but also as his all-around editor and translator. And she kept up that trademark humor throughout it all, inspiring her husband’s work and injecting some of her own creative flair into it along the way.

30. Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare by Stephen Greenblatt

William Shakespeare is a notoriously slippery historical figure — no one really knows when he was born, what he looked like, or how many plays he wrote. But that didn’t stop Stephen Greenblatt, who in 2004 turned out this magnificently detailed biography of the Bard: a series of imaginative reenactments of his writing process, and insights on how the social and political ideals of the time would have influenced him. Indeed, no one exists in a vacuum, not even Shakespeare — hence the conscious depiction of him in this book as a “will in the world,” rather than an isolated writer shut up in his own musty study.

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Biographical Resources: A Research Guide: National and International Biographies

• Introduction
• National and International Biographies
• Biographical Indexes
• K. G. Saur Indexes & Microfiche
• Subject Biographies
• Dissertations and Theses
• Research Help

International Biographies

• Dictionary of World Biography 5th edition, JSTOR ebooks; online only; open access Comprehensive, short-entry articles about persons worldwide throughout history, both living and dead. Part of the ANU Lives Series in Biography, an initiative of the National Centre for Biography in the History Program in the Research School of Social Sciences at The Australian National University. The National Centre was established in 2008 to extend the work of the Australian Dictionary of Biography
• Dictionary of African Biography Oxford, 2012. "From the pharaohs to Frantz Fanon, Dictionary of African Biography provides a comprehensive overview of the lives of the men and women who shaped Africa’s history." --Publisher's description
• Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro-Latin American Biography Oxford, 2016. Online only. "a comprehensive overview of the lives of Caribbeans and Afro-Latin Americans who are historically significant..., unprecedented in scale, covering the entire Caribbean, and the Afro-descended populations throughout Latin America, including people who spoke and wrote Creole, Dutch, English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish."
• Visual History Archive [of the USC Shoah Foundation]. [Los Angeles, CA]: USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education; online only. Contains more than 54,000 audiovisual testimonies of survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust and other acts of genocide, recorded in 63 countries and in 40 languages since 1994. Most testimonies have been terminologically indexed at one-minute segments. Aside from Holocaust testimony, the resource includes (as of 20 July 2018) testimonies from the Armenian Genocide (1915-23), the Nanjing (China) Massacre (1937), the Cambodian Genocide (1975-79), the Guatemalan Genocide (1978-83), the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, and ongoing conflicts in the Central African Republic and South Sudan. Also included are testimonies about contemporary acts of violence against Jews.

National Biographies

These national biographies cover persons no longer living who were prominent in the history of that country (often including its colonial extensions). For exact coverage dates and information on other criteria for inclusion, see the front matter of the individual title. Online versions are regularly updated with new entries.

• American National Biography. Online version of the standard national biography of the United States. Profiles of more than 23,000 notable American women and men from all eras of U.S. history who are no longer alive. The ANB Online features thousands of illustrations, thousands of hyperlinked cross-references, links to select web sites, and archival sources. Articles are updated and added regularly. The ANB supersedes the Dictionary of American Biography, the previous standard national biography of the United States. For persons not listed in the ANB, check the less authoritative, older National Cyclopaedia of American Biography (Call number: Olin Reference, CT 213 .N27) and the K. G. Saur index and microfiche collection of biographical dictionaries.
• African American National Biography Entries integrated into the Biography section of the Oxford African American Studies Center . "Covering African American life for almost five centuries, from the arrival of Esteban in Spanish Florida in 1528 to notable black citizens of the present day, this major reference project collects and resurrects the lives of over 5,000 African Americans." [Introduction] New biographies added regularly.
• The Berkshire Dictionary of Chinese Biography Berkshire, 2014. "In 135 entries, written by some of the world's leading China scholars, the Dictionary takes the reader from the important figures of ancient China to Communist leaders Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping." [catalog summary]
• Diccionario Biográfico Español . 50 volumes. Call Number: Library Annex CT 1343 .D52 2009 Publication Date: 2009-2013 The premier biographical dictionary of Spain.
• Dictionary of Canadian Biography. online version of the standard Canadian national biography. Full coverage for individuals who played an important role in the formation of what is now Canada who died between the years 1000 and 1930 or whose last known date of activity falls within these years. Additional biographies cover 1940 to 2000. Annotated bibliographies include substantial listings of archival collections.
• Deutsche Biographische Enzyklopädie . 12 volumes. Call Number: Olin Library Reference CT 759 .D48 1995 For an more extensive version of German biography, available online, see Elektronische Allgemeine deutsche Biographie , below. See also Deutsches Biographisches Archiv from K.G. Saur.
• Dictionary of German Biography . 10 volumes. by Walther Killy; Rudolf Vierhaus; Dietrich von Engelhardt Call Number: Olin Library Reference CT 759 .D48 2001 Publication Date: 2001 - 2006 München: K.G. Saur. We also have the German language edition. See above.
• Dictionary of Irish Biography. Contains over 9,000 signed biographical articles on the careers of Irish men and women who made a significant contribution from the earliest times to the year 2010 in Ireland and abroad in all fields of endeavor. Also includes articles on people born outside Ireland who had noteworthy careers in Ireland. Articles may be searched by name, gender, birth or death place, birth or death dates, religion, occupation, contributor, or keywords. Articles will be added each year to cover people who died since the previous update.
• Elektronische Allgemeine deutsche Biographie: Herausgegeben von der Historischen Kommission bei der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek. Also known as Deutsche Biographie. Searchable database for Allgemeine deutsche biographie (ADB) and Neue deutsche Biographie (NDB). "Certified information on more than 730.000 personalities and families in the German speaking areas from the Middle Ages to the present; namely 50.000 biographies (ADB and NDB) and links to more than 230 online resources (literature, dictionaries, source editions etc.)." [database home page]
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. A continuously updated online version of the standard British national biography which was originally published from 1885-1901 in 66 volumes and updated with decennial supplements. Over 50,000 biographies of people who shaped the history of the British Isles and beyond, from the earliest times to the year 2000 (newer entries in the online version). Portraits and citations to archival collections and major biographies of the subject. See also K. G. Saur index and microfiche.

Other National Biographies

• Australian Dictionary of Biography . Online . Print volumes through volume 18 (1981-1990): Library Annex CT 2801 .A93. Online version covers persons who died through 1995. Entries for persons who died from 1996 to 2000 is currently in progress.
• Biografisch Woordenboek van Nederland . 4 volumes. Call Number: Olin Library Stacks CT 1143 .B61 Publication Date: 1979-1994
• Chinese Lives: The people Who Made a Civilization . Call Number: Kroch Asia Reference DS 734 .M35 2013 Publication Date: 2013 Biographical work for major persons in Chinese history. Description from the catalog record .
• Dictionnaire de Biographie Française . Call Number: Olin Library Stacks Oversize CT 143 .D55 Publication Date: 1933 to date. 22 volumes so far.
• Dizionario Biografico degli Italiana . 100 volumes so far. Call Number: Library Annex CT 163 .D62 Publication Date: 1960 to date. Names covered in each volume .
• Polski Slownik Biograficzny . Call Number: Olin Library Reference CT 1230 .P76 Publication Date: 1935 to date. 54 volumes so far. Names covered in each volume .

Reference Help

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• Last Updated: Apr 25, 2024 4:28 PM
• URL: https://guides.library.cornell.edu/biographyresearch

Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol was one of the most prolific and popular artists of his time, using both avant-garde and highly commercial sensibilities.

(1928-1987)

Who Was Andy Warhol?

Andy Warhol was a successful magazine and ad illustrator who became a leading artist of the 1960s Pop art movements. He ventured into a wide variety of art forms, including performance art, filmmaking, video installations and writing and controversially blurred the lines between fine art and mainstream aesthetics. Warhol died on February 22, 1987, in New York City.

Born Andrew Warhola on August 6, 1928, in the neighborhood of Oakland in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Warhol's parents were Slovakian immigrants. His father, Andrej Warhola, was a construction worker, while his mother, Julia Warhola, was an embroiderer. They were devout Byzantine Catholics who attended mass regularly and maintained much of their Slovakian culture and heritage while living in one of Pittsburgh's Eastern European ethnic enclaves.

At the age of eight, Warhol contracted Chorea—also known as St. Vitus's Dance — a rare and sometimes fatal disease of the nervous system that left him bedridden for several months. It was during these months, while Warhol was sick in bed, that his mother, herself a skillful artist, gave him his first drawing lessons. Drawing soon became Warhol's favorite childhood pastime. He was also an avid fan of movies, and when his mother bought him a camera at the age of nine, he took up photography as well, developing film in a makeshift darkroom he set up in their basement.

Warhol attended Holmes Elementary school and took the free art classes offered at the Carnegie Institute (now the Carnegie Museum of Art) in Pittsburgh. In 1942, at the age of 14, Warhol again suffered a tragedy when his father passed away from a jaundiced liver. Warhol was so upset that he could not attend his father's funeral, and he hid under his bed throughout the wake. Warhol's father had recognized his son's artistic talents, and in his will he dictated that his life savings go toward Warhol's college education. That same year, Warhol began at Schenley High School, and upon graduating, in 1945, he enrolled at the Carnegie Institute for Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) to study pictorial design.

When he graduated from college with his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1949, Warhol moved to New York City to pursue a career as a commercial artist. It was also at this time that he dropped the "a" at the end of his last name to become Andy Warhol. He landed a job with Glamour magazine in September, and went on to become one of the most successful commercial artists of the 1950s. He won frequent awards for his uniquely whimsical style, using his own blotted line technique and rubber stamps to create his drawings.

Campbell's Soup Cans

In the late 1950s, Warhol began devoting more attention to painting, and in 1961, he debuted the concept of "pop art"—paintings that focused on mass-produced commercial goods. In 1962, he exhibited the now-iconic paintings of Campbell's soup cans. These small canvas works of everyday consumer products created a major stir in the art world, bringing both Warhol and pop art into the national spotlight for the first time.

British artist Richard Hamilton described pop art as "popular, transient, expendable, low cost, mass-produced, young, witty, sexy, gimmicky, glamorous, big business." As Warhol himself put it, "Once you 'got' pop, you could never see a sign the same way again. And once you thought pop, you could never see America the same way again."

Warhol's other famous pop paintings depicted Coca-cola bottles, vacuum cleaners and hamburgers.

The Factory

In 1964, Warhol opened his own art studio, a large silver-painted warehouse known simply as "The Factory." The Factory quickly became one of New York City's premier cultural hotspots, a scene of lavish parties attended by the city's wealthiest socialites and celebrities, including musician Lou Reed, who paid tribute to the hustlers and transvestites he'd met at The Factory with his hit song "Walk on the Wild Side"—the verses of which contain descriptions of individuals who were fixtures at the legendary studio/warehouse in the '60s, including Holly Woodlawn, Candy Darling, "Little Joe" Dallesandro, "Sugar Plum Fairy" Joe Campbell and Jackie Curtis. (Warhol was a friend of Reed's and managed Reed's band, the Velvet Underground.)

Warhol, who clearly relished his celebrity, became a fixture at infamous New York City nightclubs like Studio 54 and Max's Kansas City. Commenting on celebrity fixation—his own and that of the public at large—Warhol observed, "more than anything people just want stars." He also branched out in new directions, publishing his first book, Andy Warhol's Index , in 1967.

READ MORE: How Andy Warhol and Halston Transformed Art, Fashion and Studio 54

In 1968, however, Warhol's thriving career almost ended. He was shot by Valerie Solanas , an aspiring writer and radical feminist, on June 3. Warhol was seriously wounded in this attack. Solanas had appeared in one of Warhol's films and was reportedly upset with him over his refusal to use a script she had written. After the shooting, Solanas was arrested and later pleaded guilty to the crime. Warhol spent weeks in a New York hospital recovering from his injuries and underwent several subsequent surgeries. As a result of the injuries he sustained, he had to wear a surgical corset for the rest of his life.

READ MORE: Learn About Valerie Solanas, the Woman Who Shot Andy Warhol

Warhol Books and Films

In the 1970s, Warhol continued to explore other forms of media. He published such books as The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and Back Again) and Exposures . Warhol also experimented extensively with video art, producing more than 60 films during his career. Some of his most famous films include Sleep , which depicts poet John Giorno sleeping for six hours, and Eat , which shows a man eating a mushroom for 45 minutes.

Warhol also worked in sculpture and photography, and in the 1980s, he moved into television, hosting Andy Warhol's TV and Andy Warhol's Fifteen Minutes on MTV.

In his later life, Warhol suffered from chronic issues with his gallbladder. On February 20, 1987, he was admitted to New York Hospital where his gallbladder was successfully removed and he seemed to be recovering. However, days later he suffered complications that resulted in sudden cardiac arrest and he died on February 22, 1987, at the age of 58. Thousands of people attended a memorial for the artist at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City.

Warhol's enigmatic personal life has been the subject of much debate. He is widely believed to have been a gay man, and his art was often infused with homoerotic imagery and motifs. However, he claimed that he remained a virgin for his entire life.

Warhol's life and work simultaneously satirized and celebrated materiality and celebrity. On the one hand, his paintings of distorted brand images and celebrity faces could be read as a critique of what he viewed as a culture obsessed with money and celebrity. On the other hand, Warhol's focus on consumer goods and pop-culture icons, as well as his own taste for money and fame, suggests a life in celebration of the very aspects of American culture that his work criticized. Warhol spoke to this apparent contradiction between his life and work in his book The Philosophy of Andy Warhol , writing that "making money is art and working is art, and good business is the best art."

QUICK FACTS

• Name: Andy Warhol
• Birth Year: 1928
• Birth date: August 6, 1928
• Birth State: Pennsylvania
• Birth City: Oakland, Pittsburgh
• Birth Country: United States
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: Andy Warhol was one of the most prolific and popular artists of his time, using both avant-garde and highly commercial sensibilities.
• Astrological Sign: Leo
• Carnegie Institute (Carnegie Museum of Art)
• Schenley High School
• Carnegie Institute for Technology (Carnegie Mellon University)
• Interesting Facts
• Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side" is a tribute to the individuals he'd met at Andy Warhol's "The Factory," including Holly Woodlawn, "Sugar Plum Fairy" Joe Campbell and Jackie Curtis.
• Death Year: 1987
• Death date: February 22, 1987
• Death State: New York
• Death City: New York
• Death Country: United States

We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us !

CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: Andy Warhol Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/artists/andy-warhol
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: March 11, 2022
• Original Published Date: April 2, 2014
• I'd prefer to remain a mystery. I never give my background, and, anyway, I make it all up different every time I'm asked.
• They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.
• It would be glamorous to be reincarnated as a great big ring on Liz Taylor's finger.
• My idea of a good picture is one that's in focus and of a famous person.
• Isn't life a series of images that change as they repeat themselves?
• In the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes.
• I'm afraid that if you look at a thing long enough, it loses it's meaning.
• Fashion wasn't what you wore someplace anymore. It was the whole reason for going.
• I love going out every night. It's so exciting.
• The idea of waiting for something makes it more exciting.
• I am a deeply superficial person.

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What is a URL?

This article discusses Uniform Resource Locators (URLs), explaining what they are and how they're structured.

A URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the address of a unique resource on the internet. It is one of the key mechanisms used by browsers to retrieve published resources, such as HTML pages, CSS documents, images, and so on.

In theory, each valid URL points to a unique resource. In practice, there are some exceptions, the most common being a URL pointing to a resource that no longer exists or that has moved. As the resource represented by the URL and the URL itself are handled by the Web server, it is up to the owner of the web server to carefully manage that resource and its associated URL.

Basics: anatomy of a URL

Here are some examples of URLs:

Any of those URLs can be typed into your browser's address bar to tell it to load the associated resource, which in all three cases is a Web page.

A URL is composed of different parts, some mandatory and others optional. The most important parts are highlighted on the URL below (details are provided in the following sections):

Note: You might think of a URL like a regular postal mail address: the scheme represents the postal service you want to use, the domain name is the city or town, and the port is like the zip code; the path represents the building where your mail should be delivered; the parameters represent extra information such as the number of the apartment in the building; and, finally, the anchor represents the actual person to whom you've addressed your mail.

Note: There are some extra parts and some extra rules regarding URLs, but they are not relevant for regular users or Web developers. Don't worry about this, you don't need to know them to build and use fully functional URLs.

The first part of the URL is the scheme , which indicates the protocol that the browser must use to request the resource (a protocol is a set method for exchanging or transferring data around a computer network). Usually for websites the protocol is HTTPS or HTTP (its unsecured version). Addressing web pages requires one of these two, but browsers also know how to handle other schemes such as mailto: (to open a mail client), so don't be surprised if you see other protocols.

Next follows the authority , which is separated from the scheme by the character pattern :// . If present the authority includes both the domain (e.g. www.example.com ) and the port ( 80 ), separated by a colon:

• The domain indicates which Web server is being requested. Usually this is a domain name , but an IP address may also be used (but this is rare as it is much less convenient).
• The port indicates the technical "gate" used to access the resources on the web server. It is usually omitted if the web server uses the standard ports of the HTTP protocol (80 for HTTP and 443 for HTTPS) to grant access to its resources. Otherwise it is mandatory.

Note: The separator between the scheme and authority is :// . The colon separates the scheme from the next part of the URL, while // indicates that the next part of the URL is the authority.

One example of a URL that doesn't use an authority is the mail client ( mailto:foobar ). It contains a scheme but doesn't use an authority component. Therefore, the colon is not followed by two slashes and only acts as a delimiter between the scheme and mail address.

Path to resource

/path/to/myfile.html is the path to the resource on the Web server. In the early days of the Web, a path like this represented a physical file location on the Web server. Nowadays, it is mostly an abstraction handled by Web servers without any physical reality.

?key1=value1&key2=value2 are extra parameters provided to the Web server. Those parameters are a list of key/value pairs separated with the & symbol. The Web server can use those parameters to do extra stuff before returning the resource. Each Web server has its own rules regarding parameters, and the only reliable way to know if a specific Web server is handling parameters is by asking the Web server owner.

#SomewhereInTheDocument is an anchor to another part of the resource itself. An anchor represents a sort of "bookmark" inside the resource, giving the browser the directions to show the content located at that "bookmarked" spot. On an HTML document, for example, the browser will scroll to the point where the anchor is defined; on a video or audio document, the browser will try to go to the time the anchor represents. It is worth noting that the part after the # , also known as the fragment identifier , is never sent to the server with the request.

How to use URLs

Any URL can be typed right inside the browser's address bar to get to the resource behind it. But this is only the tip of the iceberg!

The HTML language — which will be discussed later on — makes extensive use of URLs:

• to create links to other documents with the <a> element;
• to link a document with its related resources through various elements such as <link> or <script> ;
• to display media such as images (with the <img> element), videos (with the <video> element), sounds and music (with the <audio> element), etc.;
• to display other HTML documents with the <iframe> element.

Note: When specifying URLs to load resources as part of a page (such as when using the <script> , <audio> , <img> , <video> , and the like), you should generally only use HTTP and HTTPS URLs, with few exceptions (one notable one being data: ; see Data URLs ). Using FTP, for example, is not secure and is no longer supported by modern browsers.

Other technologies, such as CSS or JavaScript , use URLs extensively, and these are really the heart of the Web.

Absolute URLs vs. relative URLs

What we saw above is called an absolute URL , but there is also something called a relative URL . The URL standard defines both — though it uses the terms absolute URL string and relative URL string , to distinguish them from URL objects (which are in-memory representations of URLs).

Let's examine what the distinction between absolute and relative means in the context of URLs.

The required parts of a URL depend to a great extent on the context in which the URL is used. In your browser's address bar, a URL doesn't have any context, so you must provide a full (or absolute ) URL, like the ones we saw above. You don't need to include the protocol (the browser uses HTTP by default) or the port (which is only required when the targeted Web server is using some unusual port), but all the other parts of the URL are necessary.

When a URL is used within a document, such as in an HTML page, things are a bit different. Because the browser already has the document's own URL, it can use this information to fill in the missing parts of any URL available inside that document. We can differentiate between an absolute URL and a relative URL by looking only at the path part of the URL. If the path part of the URL starts with the " / " character, the browser will fetch that resource from the top root of the server, without reference to the context given by the current document.

Let's look at some examples to make this clearer.

Examples of absolute URLs

Examples of relative urls.

To better understand the following examples, let's assume that the URLs are called from within the document located at the following URL: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn

Semantic URLs

Despite their very technical flavor, URLs represent a human-readable entry point for a website. They can be memorized, and anyone can enter them into a browser's address bar. People are at the core of the Web, and so it is considered best practice to build what is called semantic URLs . Semantic URLs use words with inherent meaning that can be understood by anyone, regardless of their technical know-how.

Linguistic semantics are of course irrelevant to computers. You've probably often seen URLs that look like mashups of random characters. But there are many advantages to creating human-readable URLs:

• It is easier for you to manipulate them.
• It clarifies things for users in terms of where they are, what they're doing, what they're reading or interacting with on the Web.
• Some search engines can use those semantics to improve the classification of the associated pages.

Data URLs : URLs prefixed with the data: scheme, allow content creators to embed small files inline in documents.

University of Hawai'i Press

Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly

Editors: Craig Howes, Cynthia Franklin, L. Ayu Saraswati, John Zuern, Center for Biographical Research, University of Hawai‘i.

Individual Subscriptions

Institutional subscriptions, additional information.

For over forty years, Biography has been an important forum for well-considered biographical scholarship. It features stimulating articles that explore the theoretical, generic, historical, and cultural dimensions of life writing; and the integration of literature, history, the arts, and the social sciences as they relate to biography. Each issue also offers insightful reviews, concise excerpts of reviews published elsewhere, an annual bibliography of works about biography, and listings of upcoming events, calls for papers, and news from the field.

Subscribe to the digital edition to gain access to the complete content on Project MUSE .

This journal is a member of the Council of Editors of Learned Journals (CELJ).

Sponsor:  Center for Biographical Research , University of Hawai‘i

Book Series: Biography Monographs

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• Editorial Board

Cynthia G. Franklin , Center for Biographical Research ( CBR ), University of Hawai‘i

Craig Howes , Center for Biographical Research ( CBR ), University of Hawai‘i

L. Ayu Saraswati , Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, University of Hawaiʻi 

John David Zuern , Center for Biographical Research ( CBR ), University of Hawai‘i

Managing Editor

Paige Rasmussen, University of Hawai‘i

Book Review Editor

Caroline Zuckerman, University of Hawaiʻi

• Recent Articles

Editors' Note Posted on Wednesday May 29, 2024

Exvangelical (De)conversion Narratives and the Religious Politics of Spiritual Autobiography Posted on Wednesday May 29, 2024

Psychoanalytic Readings of the Soul: The Birth of Psychography and the New Strategies of Psycholiterary Portraiture Posted on Wednesday May 29, 2024

"With Its Shadows Dominating the Brightness": Jamaica Kincaid's My Brother and the Subjects of AIDS History Posted on Wednesday May 29, 2024

Between Genre and Medium: Hilda Tablet, Henry Reed's Fictional Metabiography for Radio Posted on Wednesday May 29, 2024

"Beyond the Front, Specificity Is Abandoned": Illustrating Backgrounds in Alison Bechdel's Fun Home Posted on Wednesday May 29, 2024

Testimonial Imperative, Collective Autobiography, and Individual Stories of #MeToo on Twitter Posted on Wednesday May 29, 2024

Biobibliographical Studies of Georgian Writers Posted on Wednesday May 29, 2024

Imagining Gender in Biographical Fiction ed. by Julia Novak and Caitríona Ní Dhúill (review) Posted on Wednesday May 29, 2024

Text and Image in Women's Life Writing: Picturing the Female Self ed. by Valérie Baisnée-Keay et al. (review) Posted on Wednesday May 29, 2024

The Photographer as Autobiographer by Arnaud Schmitt (review) Posted on Wednesday May 29, 2024

The Human Rights Graphic Novel: Drawing it Just Right by Pramod K. Nayar (review) Posted on Wednesday May 29, 2024

New Forms of Self-Narration: Young Women, Life Writing and Human Rights by Ana Belén Martínez García (review) Posted on Wednesday May 29, 2024

Transnational Perspectives on Artists' Lives ed. by Marleen Rensen and Christopher Wiley (review) Posted on Wednesday May 29, 2024

False Summit: Gender in Mountaineering Nonfiction by Julie Rak (review) Posted on Wednesday May 29, 2024

Global Biographies: Lived History as Method ed. by Laura Almagor, Haakon A. Ikonomou, and Gunvor Simonsen (review) Posted on Wednesday May 29, 2024

Life Writing in the Posthuman Anthropocene ed. by Ina Batzke, Lea Espinoza Garrido, and Linda M. Hess (review) Posted on Wednesday May 29, 2024

Autobiography, Memory and Nationhood in Anglophone Africa by David Ekanem Udoinwang and James Tar Tsaaior (review) Posted on Wednesday May 29, 2024

Oral Forms of Nigerian Autobiography and Life Stories by Adetayo Alabi (review) Posted on Wednesday May 29, 2024

Dreams of Archives Unfolded: Absence and Caribbean Life Writing by Jocelyn Fenton Stitt (review) Posted on Wednesday May 29, 2024

Autobiography as Indigenous Intellectual Tradition: Cree and Métis âcimisowina by Deanna Reder (review) Posted on Wednesday May 29, 2024

Minor Salvage: The Korean War and Korean American Life Writings by Stephen Hong Sohn (review) Posted on Wednesday May 29, 2024

Negotiating Racial Politics in the Family: Transnational Histories Touched by National Socialism and Apartheid by Barbara Henkes (review) Posted on Wednesday May 29, 2024

Dead Men Telling Tales: Napoleonic War Veterans and the Military Memoir Industry, 1808–1914 by Matilda Greig (review) Posted on Wednesday May 29, 2024

Material Ambitions: Self-Help and Victorian Literature by Rebecca Richardson (review) Posted on Wednesday May 29, 2024

Speculative Biography: Experiments, Opportunities and Provocations ed. by Donna Lee Brien and Kiera Lindsey (review) Posted on Wednesday May 29, 2024

Our Hearts Are Restless: The Art of Spiritual Memoir by Richard Lischer (review) Posted on Wednesday May 29, 2024

Magical Habits by Monica Huerta (review) Posted on Wednesday May 29, 2024

The Art of Identification: Forensics, Surveillance, Identity ed. by Rex Ferguson, Melissa M. Littlefield, and James Purdon (review) Posted on Wednesday May 29, 2024

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• Author Guidelines

Unsolicited submissions to Biography are welcome. Texts should be double-spaced and approximately 5,000 to 10,000 words in length, including bibliography and endnotes. Biography is now using the eighth edition of the Modern Language Association (MLA) reference and works cited system. Authors are welcome to submit their essays to Biography following MLA’s guidelines, or they can use another style and reference system with which they are more comfortable. Please include a 50-word abstract and a biographical note of one or two sentences. All copyrights are held by the Biographical Research Center unless other arrangements are agreed upon.

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Inquiries are welcome. Please address questions about book reviews to our Book Review editor, Caroline Zuckerman at [email protected] .

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Articles appearing in Biography are indexed and/or abstracted in:

Canada in Context, 09/1981-

Clarivate Analytics– Arts & Humanities Citation Index Current Contents Web of Science

De Gruyter Saur– Dietrich’s Index Philosophicus IBZ – Internationale Bibliographie der Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaftlichen Zeitschriftenliteratur Internationale Bibliographie der Rezensionen Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaftlicher Literatur

EBSCOhost– Academic Search Alumni Edition, 1/1/2001- Academic Search Complete, 1/1/2001- Academic Search Elite, 1/1/2001- Academic Search Premier, 1/1/2001- Academic Search: Main Edition, 1/1/2001- Advanced Placement Source, 1/1/2001- America: History and Life, 1/1/1978- Current Abstracts, 1/1/2001- Historical Abstracts (Online), 1/1/1978- Literary Reference Center, 1/1/2001- Literary Reference Center Plus, 1/1/2001- Literary Reference Center: Main Edition, 10/1/2004- MainFile, 1/1/2001- MLA International Bibliography (Modern Language Association) Poetry & Short Story Reference Center, 1/1/2001- TOC Premier (Table of Contents), 1/1/2001-

Elsevier BV– Scopus, 1999-, 1986-1988, 1984, 1980-1982, 1978

Gale– Academic OneFile, 01/2000- Advanced Placement Fine Arts and Music, 09/1981- Book Review Index Plus CPI.Q (Canadian Periodical Index), 01/2000- Expanded Academic ASAP, 12/2000- Fine Arts and Music Collection, 09/1981- General OneFile, 01/2000- General Reference Center, 09/1981- General Reference Center Gold, 09/1981- General Reference Centre International, 9/1981- InfoTrac Custom, 12/2000- InfoTrac Junior Edition, 03/2012- InfoTrac Student Edition, 06/1985- MLA International Bibliography (Modern Language Association) Pop Culture Collection, 09/1981- Popular Magazines, 12/2000- Research In Context, 01/2000- Science in Context, 09/1981- Student Resources in Context, 09/1981-

National Periodical Library– Guide to Social Work, Social Science and Religion in Periodical Literature (Online)

OCLC– ArticleFirst, vol.15, no.3, 1992-vol.34, no.2, 2011 Electronic Collections Online, vol.20, no.2, 1997-vol.34, no.2, 2011

ProQuest– Art, Design & Architecture Collection, 1/1/1996- Arts & Humanities Database, 1/1/1996- Arts Premium Collection, 1/1/1996- International Bibliography of the Social Sciences, Core Literary Journals Index Full Text MLA International Bibliography (Modern Language Association) Periodicals Index Online, 1/1/1978-10/1/2000 Professional ProQuest Central, 01/01/1996- ProQuest 5000, 01/01/1996- ProQuest Central, 1/1/1996- Research Library, 01/01/1996- STEM Database, 1/1/1996-

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