Memoir vs Autobiography: What Is the Difference?

An autobiography tells the story of the writer's life, usually from the beginning and in order. A memoir tells a story from that life: one period, relationship or theme, with more attention to what it meant. Both are nonfiction written in the first person, and the line between them is not always sharp.

The short version

	Autobiography	Memoir
Scope	The whole life, or most of it	One part of a life
Order	Usually chronological	Often shaped around a theme or turning point
Focus	What happened, and when	What it felt like and what it meant
Typical author	Someone whose public life readers already know	Anyone with a story to tell
Facts and dates	Central, often checked against records	Present, but memory and reflection lead

What makes an autobiography

An autobiography aims to give an account of a life as a whole. It typically starts with family and childhood and moves through education, work and public events towards the time of writing. Readers often come to it because they already know the author's name and want the full record.

One of the best-known early examples in English is Benjamin Franklin's account of his own life, written between 1771 and 1790 and left unfinished at his death. It was first published in 1791, and Franklin himself appears to have called it his "Memoirs", a reminder that the two words were not always kept apart.

Some autobiographies are written with a collaborator. The Autobiography of Malcolm X, published in 1965, was written with the journalist Alex Haley on the basis of long interviews.

What makes a memoir

A memoir is narrower and usually more personal in tone. It picks a slice of life, such as a childhood, an illness, a marriage or a job, and tells it with the shape of a story: a beginning that raises a question, a middle that complicates it and an ending that answers it, at least for the writer.

Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes (1996) is a well-known example: it stays with his childhood, and it is driven as much by voice and humor as by events. Since the late 20th century, memoir has been treated as a form of its own rather than a subcategory of autobiography, largely because of this narrower focus.

Because a memoir is selective, you do not need to be famous to write one. Readers come for the story and the voice, not for a public record.

Where the line blurs

Publishers and booksellers do not always agree on labels. Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969) covers only her early years and reads like a memoir, but it is often described as an autobiography, and it was the first of a series of autobiographical books. Some writers use "memoir" for anything personal; some publishers use "autobiography" for any first-person life story by a well-known person.

A practical test is to ask what the book is organized around. If it is organized around the life, it is closer to autobiography. If it is organized around a question or a theme, it is closer to memoir.

And biography?

A biography is written by someone other than its subject. The biographer relies on research, interviews and documents rather than personal memory, and writes in the third person. An autobiography or memoir is always the writer's own story, even when a collaborator helps with the writing.

Which one are you writing?

• You want a record of your whole life for your family: autobiography, or a "life story". Chronological order is fine and expected.
• One period or event keeps pulling you back: memoir. Narrow the frame and let the rest go.
• You have many separate stories: consider a collection of short memoir pieces or essays, each with its own focus.

Either way, the craft is similar: scenes rather than summaries, honesty about yourself and fairness to others. Our step-by-step guide on how to write a memoir covers the process, and recording relatives with oral history interview questions can help fill in what you don't remember.