memoir

Re: memoir



It can be both. It can also be a personal account of one's own experience, but more tending to be about events one has witnessed than about oneself.


It means, broadly, an account written from one's own experiences, rather than history or biography derived from research about the topic.

I am not aware of a difference between British English and American English.

I don't think there's a difference between the BrE and the AmE either.

Re: memoir


I would like to expand a little on the Wabbit's answer. A memoir, as she implies, can come in various forms. So, for example, the memoir of Ulysses Grant (an American general and President) is the account of his entire life, because that is what he chose to tell. James Bowell wrote a memoir, in which he told of the life of Samuel Johnson, after he (Bowell) had met him. Johnson was a famous "man of letters" in 18th century England, and Boswell was his companion for many years.

Adolf Galland was, by the end of the Second World War, the commander of the Luftwaffe (the German Air Force) fighter service. He wrote a memoir, The First and the Last, which is an account of his experiences in the war--and is limited to the war. Annie Dillard wrote a memoir entitled An American Childhood, which tells of her childhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Grant's account tells the story of his entire life, for as much as he can remember. Boswell's account tells the story of Samuel Johnson's life, for that part of it when he was Johnson's friend and companion. Galland doesn't tell us anything of his personal, private life, he tells us only about the Luftwaffe, and in particular, about the fighter service, in the period 1939-1945. Dillard tells us what she can remember of her childhood, and her childhood only--the book ends as she prepared to leave home for college.

I hope this will make it a little more clear what memoir means, and just how flexible the word is.



I agree with Miss Wabbit and Wy, and will stick my neck out to say that there is no difference.

So....do you think Boswell and Johnson did it?

The mental image that conjures is sufficient to keep me from delving very far into such a question.

Bowell is said to have died from the combination of venereal disease and excessive resort to alcohol. Clearly, he was doin' it with somebody.