An unauthorized biography is a

biography A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...

written without the subject's permission or input. The term is usually restricted to biographies written within the subject's lifetime or shortly after their death; as such, it is not applied to biographies of historical figures written long after their deaths.

Other names

Unauthorized biographies marked for revealing scandalous or embarrassing content are often called tell-alls, especially if they take the form of

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobio ...

s; tell-all biographies written by friends or family members of the subject are sometimes called kiss-and-tells. Due to the potential stigma associated with the phrase "unauthorized biography", unauthorized biographies written by journalists and intended to present a fairer portrait of the subject are sometimes called investigative biographies.

Objectivity

Unauthorized biographies may be considered more objective but less reliable than other biographies, because they are not subject to the subject's ( subjective) approval (and therefore may contain accurate information that the subject would not have authorized), but are also not privy to information or corrections known only to the subject or the subject's close friends and family.

Legality

The subjects of unauthorized biographies are almost always

public figure A public figure is a person who has achieved notoriety, prominence or fame within a society, whether through achievement, luck, action, or in some cases through no purposeful action of their own, In the context of defamation actions (libel and s ...

s. Rarely do public figures succeed in preventing the release of unauthorized biographies. Unauthorized biographies of people who are not deemed public figures may be considered violations of the

right to privacy The right to privacy is an element of various legal traditions that intends to restrain governmental and private actions that threaten the privacy of individuals. Over 150 national constitutions mention the right to privacy. On 10 December 194 ...

and subject to legal action. As Ted Schwarz (1992) writes: Speaking of U.S. courts, Lloyd Rich (2002) writes: The legality of unauthorized biographies varies by country. Brazil enacted a short-lived law in 2014 requiring permission from biographies' subjects before publication.

Reception

Unauthorized biographies are not necessarily unwelcomed by their subjects, and in fact some unauthorized biographies have been criticized for displaying overeager admiration for them; however, unauthorized biographies have a wider reputation for fueling controversy and painting unflattering portraits of their subjects. While unauthorized biographies often receive significant news coverage, their writers tend to face "media disdain" due to the perception that their work is

gossip Gossip is idle talk or rumour, especially about the personal or private affairs of others; the act is also known as dishing or tattling. Gossip is a topic of research in evolutionary psychology, which has found gossip to be an important mean ...

y, voyeuristic, and busybodyish.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{cite web , last=Waweru , first=Nduta , url=https://allafrica.com/stories/201404170420.html , title=Kenya: Thorny Issue of Unauthorised Biographies , date=2014 , website= The Star , access-date=May 4, 2019