Portal:Biography

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The Biography Portal

Biography (from the Greek words bios, meaning 'life', and graphein, meaning 'to write') is a genre of literature and other forms of media like film, based on the written accounts of individual lives. While a biography may focus on a subject of fiction or non-fiction, the term is usually in reference to non-fiction. As opposed to a profile or curriculum vitae, a biography develops complex insight and highlights different textures of personality including intimate details of experiences. A biography is more than a list of facts like birth, education, work, relationships and death. It also delves into the emotions of experiencing such events.

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Jorge Luis Borges was an Argentine(read more...)

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Selected portrait

Thomas Young (June 13, 1773 – May 10, 1829) was an English scientist, researcher, physician and polymath. He is sometimes considered to be "the last person to know everything": that is, he was familiar with virtually all the contemporary Western academic knowledge at that point in history. Clearly this can never be verified, and other claimants to this title are Gottfried Leibniz, Leonardo da Vinci, and Francis Bacon, among others.

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Did you know...

From Wikipedia's newest articles:

...that the phrase of Soviet sniper Roza Shanina "I will return after the battle" would be paraphrased in a book title?

...that several years prior to the downfall and execution of the Romanov dynasty, the image of God's Mother disappeared from their patron Fyodorovskaya icon?

...that Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy is the longest single-volume novel ever published in English?

...that Merv Wood, a single sculls gold medallist and the only person to twice be Australian flagbearer at the Summer Olympics, later became the Police Commisioner of New South Wales?

... that Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor will become the first Malaysian in space when he launches on board Soyuz TMA-11 towards the International Space Station in September 2007?

...that Mauryan Emperor Ashoka had to stop the execution of his future spiritual adviser Moggaliputta-Tissa for touching his right hand?

...that Virginia Congressman, John Floyd (pictured) argued for settlement of the Oregon Territory twenty-eight years before it became an official United States territory?

...that Estonian Margus Hunt won two gold medals at the 2006 World Junior Championships in Athletics, setting a world junior record in discus throw and a national junior record in shot put?

...that Bobby Pearce won the single sculls at the 1928 Summer Olympics despite stopping mid-race for a passing flock of ducks?

...that inventor Thomas Highs was never credited for his invention of both the spinning jenny (pictured) and the water frame, mostly due to his lack of funding to patent the devices?

...that Easter Posey was the first American woman to be killed in the line of duty in World War II?

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On this day - December 16

Births

1485 - Catherine of Aragon, Queen of England (d. 1536)
1770 - Ludwig van Beethoven, German composer (d. 1827) (pictured)
1775 - Jane Austen, British writer (d. 1817)
1899 - Sir Noel Coward, British playwright, actor and composer (d. 1973)
1917 - Sir Arthur C. Clarke, British writer

Deaths

1916 - Grigori Rasputin, Russian monk (b. 1869)
1921 - Camille Saint-Saëns, French composer (b. 1835)
1965 - W. Somerset Maugham, British writer (b. 1874)

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Quote of the week

"I have but one passion: to enlighten those who have been kept in the dark, in the name of humanity which has suffered so much and is entitled to happiness. My fiery protest is simply the cry of my very soul."

— Émile Zola

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