biographer

American  

[bahy-og-ruh-fer, bee-] / baɪˈɒg rə fər, bi- /

noun

1. a writer of someone's biography.

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Etymology

Origin of biographer

First recorded in 1705–15; biograph(y) + -er ¹

Explanation

A biographer is a writer who specializes in true stories of other people's lives. The finished books that biographers publish are called biographies. In some cases, well-known writers, actors, and other public figures work with biographers in order to collaborate on their own biographies. Other times, biographers research the lives of their subjects after they've died. In the 1660s, they were known as biographists. The root of all variations on biography is the Late Greek biographia, "description of life," from bio-, "life," and graphia, "record or account."

Example Sentences

"Any meeting with Asha has to be a talk show. She will do all the talking, of course, interrupting the flow of words only to sing," Bharatan, her biographer, wrote.

From BBC • Apr. 12, 2026

“The campaign to glorify him,” wrote one biographer in 1988, “has surpassed fanatic religious fervor. The North Korean ‘sun of the nation’ shines both day and night, and it is hard to escape his ubiquity.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 11, 2026

In the words of biographer David Reynolds, Brown’s execution helped “spark” the Civil War.

From Slate • Apr. 2, 2026

He cites a particular debt to biographer Meryle Secrest’s extensive taped interviews, from the mid-1990s, with Sondheim and others.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 17, 2026

He was, as one biographer observed with an all but audible sigh, "almost entirely innocent of rhetorical accomplishments."

From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson

Related Words

• author
• columnist
• correspondent
• critic
• dramatist
• editor
• essayist
• journalist
• novelist
• poet
• reporter
• screenwriter