Memoir

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"Famous memoirs include Lives of Fair and Gallant Ladies (1665-1666) by Brantôme, the anonymously published Mémoires secrets (1783-89), and Histoire de ma vie (1822) by Casanova."--Sholem Stein

"Powerful and rich as English literature is, it has little to place in line against the superb array of French memoirs. Englishmen enough have done great things, or taken part in the doing of them, or seen them done ; but only a scanty few have been moved to write — even fewer to write with any approach to style — of what they had done and seen. Among the French it has been otherwise. The French statesman, or leader, his life's greater battle being fought, has more often betaken himself to his pen, either— to use Guizot's image — for the purpose of fighting the old fights once more, with that weapon, in the smaller arena of letters, or simply for pure indulgence in the pleasures of memory. Villehardouin, Joinville — I exclude Froissart, beautiful as his work is, because he was a chronicler pure and simple and not an actor in the world's affairs — Commines, Sully, Retz, the " Grande Mademoiselle," Saint-Simon, Chateaubriand, Guizot, — here is a fine list of examples."--Memoirs of the Crusades (1915) Geoffroi de Villehardouin

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A memoir from French: mémoire: memoria, meaning memory or reminiscence) 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 autobiography since the late 20th century, the genre is differentiated in form, presenting a narrowed focus. A biography or autobiography tells the story "of a life", while a memoir often tells the story of a particular event or time, such as touchstone moments and turning points from the author's life. The author of a memoir may be referred to as a memoirist or a memorialist.

1 Early memoirs
2 From the eighteenth century
3 Memoirs today
4 Famous authors of memoirs (listed alphabetically)
5 See also

[edit]

Early memoirs

Memoirs have been written since the ancient times, as shown by Julius Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico, also known as Commentaries on the Gallic Wars. In the work, Caesar describes the battles that took place during the nine years that he spent fighting local armies in the Gallic Wars. His second memoir, Commentarii de Bello Civili (or Commentaries on the Civil War) is an account of the events that took place between 49 and 48 BC in the civil war against Gnaeus Pompeius and the Senate. The noted Libanius, teacher of rhetoric who lived between an estimated 314 and 394 AD, framed his life memoir as one of his literary orations, which were written to be read aloud in the privacy of his study. This kind of memoir refers to the idea in ancient Greece and Rome, that memoirs were like "memos", or pieces of unfinished and unpublished writing, which a writer might use as a memory aid to make a more finished document later on.

In the Middle Ages, Geoffrey of Villehardouin, Jean de Joinville, and Philippe de Commines wrote memoirs, while the genre was represented toward the end of the Renaissance, through the works of Blaise de Montluc and Margaret of Valois, that she was the first woman to write her Memoirs in modern-style.

Until the Age of Enlightenment encompassing the 17th and 18th centuries, works of memoir were written by Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury; François de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac of France; and Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon, who wrote Memoirs at his family's home at the castle of La Ferté-Vidame. While Saint-Simon was considered a writer possessing a high level of skill for narrative and character development, it wasn't until well after his death that his work as a memoirist was recognized, resulting in literary fame.

[edit]

From the eighteenth century

Over the latter half of the 18th through the mid-20th century, memoirists generally included those who were noted within their chosen profession. These authors wrote as a way to record and publish their own account of their public exploits. Authors included politicians or people in court society and were later joined by military leaders and businessmen. An exception to these models is Henry David Thoreau's 1854 memoir Walden, which presents his experiences over the course of two years in a cabin he built near Walden Pond.

Twentieth-century war memoirs became a genre of their own, including, from the First World War, Ernst Jünger (Storm of Steel) and Frederic Manning's Her Privates We. Memoirs documenting incarceration by Nazi Germany during the war include Primo Levi's If This Is a Man, which covers his arrest as a member of the Italian Resistance Movement, followed by his life as a prisoner in Auschwitz; and Elie Wiesel's Night, which is based on his life prior to and during his time in the Auschwitz, Buna Werke, and Buchenwald concentration camps.

[edit]

Memoirs today

In the early 1990s, memoirs written by ordinary people experienced a sudden upsurge, as an increasing number of people realized that their ancestors’ and their own stories were about to disappear, in part as a result of the opportunities and distractions of technological advances. At the same time, psychology and other research began to show that familiarity with genealogy helps people find their place in the world and that life review helps people come to terms with their own past.

With the advent of inexpensive digital book production in the first decade of the 21st century, the genre exploded. Memoirs written as a way to pass down a personal legacy, rather than as a literary work of art or historical document, are emerging as a personal and family responsibility.

[edit]

Famous authors of memoirs (listed alphabetically)

[edit]

+{| class="toccolours" style="float: left; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 2em; font-size: 85%; background:#c6dbf7; color:black; width:30em; max-width: 40%;" cellspacing="5"
+| style="text-align: left;" |
+"Famous memoirs include ''[[Lives of Fair and Gallant Ladies]]'' (1665-1666) by Brantôme, the anonymously published ''[[Mémoires secrets]]'' (1783-89),  and ''[[Histoire de ma vie]]'' (1822) by Casanova."--Sholem Stein
+<hr>
+"Powerful and rich as [[English literature]] is, it has little to place in line against the superb array of French [[memoir]]s. Englishmen enough have done great things, or taken part in the doing of them, or seen them done ; but only a scanty few have been moved to write — even fewer to write with any approach to style — of what they had done and seen. Among the French it has been otherwise. The French statesman, or leader, his life's greater battle being fought, has more often betaken himself to his pen, either— to use [[Guizot]]'s image — for the purpose of fighting the old fights once more, with that weapon, in the smaller arena of letters, or simply for pure indulgence in the pleasures of memory. [[Villehardouin]], [[Joinville]] — I exclude [[Froissart]], beautiful as his work is, because he was a chronicler pure and simple and not an actor in the world's affairs — [[Commines]], [[Sully]], [[Retz]], the " Grande Mademoiselle," [[Saint-Simon]], [[Chateaubriand]], Guizot, — here is a fine list of examples."--''[[Memoirs of the Crusades]]'' (1915) Geoffroi de Villehardouin
+|}
 {{Template}}
-:''[[fake memoirs]], [[erotic memoir]], [[memoir (disambiguation)]]''
+A '''memoir''' from [[French language|French]]: ''mémoire'': ''memoria'', meaning ''[[memory]]'' or ''[[reminiscence]]'') 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 [[autobiography]] since the late 20th century, the genre is differentiated in form, presenting a narrowed focus. A biography or autobiography tells the story "of a life", while a memoir often tells the story of a particular event or time, such as [[touchstone (metaphor)|touchstone]] moments and turning points from the author's life. The author of a memoir may be referred to as a ''memoirist'' or a ''memorialist''.
-As a [[literary genre]], a '''memoir''' (from the [[Latin]] ''memoria'', meaning "[[memory]]") forms a subclass of [[autobiography]], although it is an older form of writing.  Memoirs may appear less structured and less encompassing than formal autobiographical works as they are usually about part of a life rather than the chronological telling of a life from childhood to adulthood/old age. Like most autobiographies, memoirs are generally written from the first person point of view.
-[[Gore Vidal]], in his own memoir ''[[Palimpsest (Gore Vidal)]]'', writes that "a memoir is how one remembers one's own life, while an autobiography is history, requiring research, dates, facts double-checked."  It is more about what can be gleaned from a section of one's life than about the outcome of the life as a whole.
+==Early memoirs==
+Memoirs have been written since the ancient times, as shown by [[Julius Caesar]]'s ''[[Commentarii de Bello Gallico]]'', also known as ''Commentaries on the Gallic Wars''. In the work, Caesar describes the battles that took place during the nine years that he spent fighting local armies in the [[Gallic Wars]]. His second memoir, ''[[Commentarii de Bello Civili]]'' (or ''Commentaries on the Civil War'') is an account of the events that took place between 49 and 48 BC in [[Caesar's civil war|the civil war]] against [[Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus|Gnaeus Pompeius]] and the [[Roman Senate|Senate]]. The noted [[Libanius]], teacher of rhetoric who lived between an estimated 314 and 394 AD, framed his life memoir as one of his literary [[oration]]s, which were written to be read aloud in the privacy of his study. This kind of memoir refers to the idea in [[ancient Greece]] and [[ancient Rome|Rome]], that memoirs were like "memos", or pieces of unfinished and unpublished writing, which a writer might use as a memory aid to make a more finished document later on.
-==History==
+In the [[Middle Ages]], [[Geoffrey of Villehardouin]], [[Jean de Joinville]], and [[Philippe de Commines]] wrote memoirs, while the genre was represented toward the end of the [[Renaissance]], through the works of [[Blaise de Lasseran-Massencôme, seigneur de Montluc|Blaise de Montluc]] and [[Margaret of Valois]], that she was the first woman to write her ''Memoirs'' in modern-style.
-Memoirs have often been written by politicians or military leaders as a way to record and publish an account of their public exploits. In the eighteenth century, "scandalous memoirs" were written (mostly anonymously) by [[prostitutes]] or [[libertine]]s: these were widely read in France for their vulgar details and gossip.  In another vein, the pagan rhetor [[Libanius]] framed his life memoir as one of his [[oration]]s, not the public kind, but the literary kind that would be read aloud in the privacy of one's study. This kind of memoir refers to the idea in [[ancient Greece]] and [[ancient Rome|Rome]], that memoirs were like "memos," pieces of [[unfinished]] and [[unpublished]] writing which a writer might use as a memory aid to make a more finished document later on.
-The term "memoir" has begun to replace "autobiography" in its popular use.
+Until the [[Age of Enlightenment]] encompassing the 17th and 18th centuries, works of memoir were written by [[Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury]]; [[François de La Rochefoucauld (writer)|François de La Rochefoucauld]], Prince de Marcillac of France; and [[Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon]], who wrote ''Memoirs'' at his family's home at the castle of La Ferté-Vidame. While Saint-Simon was considered a writer possessing a high level of skill for narrative and character development, it wasn't until well after his death that his work as a memoirist was recognized, resulting in literary fame.
-Women writers have been in the forefront of combining the memoir form with historical non-fiction writing, which can be seen in [[Helen Epstein]]'s Czech-based ''Where She Came From: A Daughter's Search for her Mother's History'' and [[Jung Chang]]'s [[Wild Swans| Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China]].  [[Maxine Hong Kingston]]'s well known book ''[[The Woman Warrior|The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts]]'' is also an example of a memoir that combines factual material with fictional material as it tells the author's story and the story of her family.
+==From the eighteenth century==
+Over the latter half of the 18th through the mid-20th century, memoirists generally included those who were noted within their chosen profession. These authors wrote as a way to record and publish their own account of their public exploits. Authors included politicians or people in court society and were later joined by military leaders and businessmen. An exception to these models is [[Henry David Thoreau]]'s 1854 memoir ''[[Walden]]'', which presents his experiences over the course of two years in a cabin he built near [[Walden Pond]].
-Another category of memoir is the eyewitness account to history by private citizens; Slave narratives fall into this category as do Holocaust memoirs, such as by [[Primo Levi]], Heda Kovaly, and [[Elie Wiesel]].
+Twentieth-century war memoirs became a genre of their own, including, from the [[First World War]], [[Ernst Jünger]] (''[[Storm of Steel]]'') and [[Frederic Manning]]'s  ''Her Privates We''. Memoirs documenting incarceration by [[Nazi Germany]] during the war include [[Primo Levi]]'s ''[[If This Is a Man]]'', which covers his arrest as a member of the [[Italian Resistance Movement]], followed by his life as a prisoner in [[Auschwitz concentration camp|Auschwitz]]; and [[Elie Wiesel]]'s ''[[Night (book)|Night]]'', which is based on his life prior to and during his time in the Auschwitz, [[Monowitz Buna Werke|Buna Werke]], and [[Buchenwald concentration camp|Buchenwald]] concentration camps.
-==Types of memoir==
-Memoirs have often been written by politicians or military leaders as a way to record and publish an account of their public exploits. In the eighteenth century, "scandalous memoirs", allegedly factual but largely invented, were written (mostly anonymously) by [[prostitutes]] or [[libertine]]s: these were widely read in [[France]] for their vulgar details and gossip. In another vein, the [[rhetor]] [[Libanius]] framed his life memoir as one of his [[oration]]s, not the public kind, but the literary kind that would be read aloud in the privacy of one's study. This kind of memoir refers to the idea in [[ancient Greece]] and [[ancient Rome|Rome]], that memoirs were like "memos," pieces of unfinished and unpublished writing which a writer might use as a memory aid to make a more finished document later on.
-Women writers have been prominent amongst those combining the memoir form with historical non-fiction writing. Examples include [[Jung Chang]]'s ''[[Wild Swans]]'',[[Heda Margolius Kovaly]]'s ''Under a Cruel Star'' and [[Helen Epstein]]'s ''Where She Came From''.
+==Memoirs today==
+In the early 1990s, memoirs written by ordinary people experienced a sudden upsurge, as an increasing number of people realized that their [[Ancestor|ancestors’]] and their own stories were about to disappear, in part as a result of the opportunities and distractions of technological advances. At the same time, [[psychology]] and other research began to show that familiarity with [[genealogy]] helps people find their place in the world and that life review helps people come to terms with their own past.
-Some professional contemporary writers such as [[David Sedaris]] and [[Augusten Burroughs]] have specialised in writing amusing essays in the form of memoirs. To some extent this is an extension of the tradition of newspaper [[columnist]]s' regular accounts of their lives. (Cf. the work of [[James Thurber]] which often has a strong memoir-like content).
+With the advent of inexpensive [[Self-publishing|digital book production]] in the first decade of the 21st century, the [[Literary genre|genre]] exploded. Memoirs written as a way to pass down a personal legacy, rather than as a literary work of art or historical document, are emerging as a personal and family responsibility.
 ==Famous authors of memoirs (listed alphabetically)==
 *[[Albert Speer]] (''[[Inside the Third Reich]]'')
 *[[Elie Wiesel]]
-==Famous memoirs==
-*[[Memoires secrets]]
-*[[Brantôme's mémoirs]]
-*[[Histoire de ma vie]]
 ==See also==
+*[[Anecdote]]
 *[[Autobiography]]
 *[[Chronicler]]
+*[[Last will and testament]]
 *[[List of autobiographies]]
 *[[Diary]]
+*[[Erotic memoir]]
+*[[Memoir (disambiguation)]]''
 *[[Fake memoirs]]
+*[[Table talk (literature)]]
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Memoir

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

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Contents

Early memoirs

From the eighteenth century

Memoirs today

Famous authors of memoirs (listed alphabetically)

See also

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