what is an unauthorized autobiography

Chapter one . . .

(Lemony Snicket apparently scratched out the second title, and the rest of the writing is illegible)

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Meet shaun boothe: the 'unauthorized' biographer who breathes life into life stories.

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Shaun Boothe with some of the subjects of his autobiographies.

As a researcher I study life storytelling, so I was naturally intrigued with a show that came to my town last month called Shaun Boothe: The Unauthorized Biography Series . What I did not realize, until I watched, was how perfectly Boothe's work fits my series DIYouTube, covering people from a multitude of interests and perspectives who are changing the way society learns. Boothe's performance was equal parts entertainment, inspiration and education. Using hip hop as his lectern, visually compelling multimedia as his slides, Boothe's presentation teaches us the critical peaks and valleys of great people, often in surprising ways.

According to Boothe's  own bio , the Toronto native has opened for artists such Nas, Lauryn Hill and Snoop Dog. And his fascination with the lives of historic figures, women and men of color who confront oppressive systems, blended with his ability to tell stories through rap and created an opportunity to repackage history with the whole human in mind. This has led to TEDx Talks , videos watched by hundreds of thousands, and a speaking tour .

In this email interview, Boothe discusses how the idea came to fruition, what common themes are woven in biographies of great people, and how digital media has changed the way we teach those stories.

How did the idea for The Unauthorized Biography Series come about?

When I began I was really just following in the footsteps of Nas—one of my biggest inspirations in hip hop growing up. Many years ago Nas created a song celebrating Rakim, someone who inspired him when he was young. When James Brown passed away, that Nas song inspired me to want to do the same for The Godfather of Soul. I wanted to create something that celebrated his achievements. Something that highlighted all the ways he transformed the face of music. Something that also celebrated the grit, hard work and commitment it took for him to go from growing up poor, being abandoned by his mother, to becoming a musical and social icon.

How do you research your topics and build the base of knowledge?

These are my heroes but by no means do I go into creating any of these bios feeling like I know all I need to know. I go into it with curiosity, a desire to learn and a mission to see and celebrate the person behind the persona.

As far as research, nothing is off limits for me. Documentaries. Books. Articles. TV interviews. Wikipedia. Testimonials from friends and family. I just make sure I'm triple fact checking everything I come across. The challenge isn't really gathering the information. The challenge is synthesizing the often overwhelming amount of information and getting to the essence of what that person's life was really about. It's not just a retelling of biographical facts and accomplishments for me. What was their message? What were the universal truths and lessons their life was teaching us? What drove them? What was their purpose? It can't all be captured in a 4-6 minute song, of course. So in my live events I do get to expand on these ideas. But, ultimately, these are the questions I'm thinking about when I'm creating the bios. This is the lens through which I'm watching these documentaries or reading these books.

While I was watching your show and videos, I was impressed by your ability to find turning points in their lives that are not always told in the broader narratives. Are there any themes across your subjects, commonalities about when someone finds their purpose?

Yes, so many recurring themes! I'll give you my top three:

Firstly, I've noticed most of them are very clear about their passion from a young age. This doesn't surprise me because, in a way, I feel that the younger we are the closer we are to our truth. The less programming we've been subjected to, fewer fears and considerations are projected onto us. That's why I think our youth is such a magical window of opportunity. It's that time in your life when society actually encourages you to listen to your heart, follow your passions and to take a chance on your dreams. As we get older the messaging switches over to practicality. And we mostly follow suit.

Another common theme I've noticed was focus. These people didn't have competing dreams. They weren't spreading themselves thin. They were 100% committed to their one vision. And that focus created a sense of urgency that was palpable. Some of them went the Napoleon Hill route and 'burned their boats' to create that urgency, but many others, like James Brown as an example, really washed up ashore shipwrecked. He had no boats. No retreat. Just him, his natural gifts and no way out but forward. I believe many of us have such an overwhelming amount of options that we never get around to deciding on anything. It's hard to show up powerfully in life until you make a powerful and clear decision. That's an edge that these icons had. They weren't on the fence about life. They were leaning in. They had urgency.

Thirdly, a very clear commonality is that they all went...big. And I don't mean big like 'I want a hundred millions dollars'. I mean big like 'deeply meaningful' big. To become larger than life like these icons, you really have to commit to something larger than yourself. If that vision isn't big and bold enough to inspire you, to fully light you up, then you might not have the motivation to do what's necessary. Big, bold dreams push us to be unreasonable. Good is reasonable. Greatness, however, requires a level of unreasonableness that doesn't just come naturally. So you better have a really meaningful why behind the vision. That's what pushes us through. Ali, Bob, James, Oprah, Bruce—they were up to a much bigger game in life. Yes, they all had very very successful careers, but they weren't just working for applause, they were working for a cause.

To add one more thing, I think it's important to mention the common theme in these life stories that we all try to avoid most...struggle! The role of struggle on the path to greatness is universal. These icons were not only able to overcome their struggles, they were able to transmute them. They used them as fuel.

What role has YouTube played in your success? 

Youtube was The Great Equalizer at the start of my music career. No money to hire radio pluggers? No industry champions or connections? No record label backing? No cosigns? No problem. Just create amazing content and put it out. See what happens. Yes, the barrier to entry was low, but that just pushed me to keep the level of artistry and creativity high. I knew I had to cut through the noise. YouTube is what originally launched The Unauthorized Biography Series. It all existed there at first. We'd just blast out new bios out into the ether just to see where it took us. One of the biggest 'you're on the right track' moments for me was actually when I released my Unauthorized Biography of Muhammad Ali video on YouTube.  That was only the third chapter to the series at the time, right after Bob Marley.  I still remember how I was casually going through my inbox messages and, boom, I see a message from none other than Muhammad Ali's real life daughter! She introduced herself and explained that she came across my music video about her father online and wanted to say I really captured what he's about and to keep up the great work. That right there is the power of YouTube. There are no limits to who it will reach, how far it will go, what doors it can open. Since then I've had people from the Marley family tweet YouTube video links of my Bob bio, Diddy tweeting his bio, Kanye West blog posts. No connections. No behind-the-scenes strings being pulled. Just put it out there and see what happens.

... as a research tool ...

Youtube is a research goldmine. Some stuff you just can't find anywhere else. Rare interviews. Live performance footage. Vintage music videos. Some things you just aren't able to buy anymore. In a lot of ways you're just casting a wide net and seeing what comes back at the beginning. You don't have a clear idea of what you even want until you start diving in. YouTube definitely helps out here. Lots of jokes have been made about getting lost in random 'YouTube rabbit holes', but you can also find real gems. It can also lead you to some interesting and rewarding places. Much like how YouTube recommends related videos to the one you're watching, I often start studying one person and then end up needing to research people related to that person, or social issues related to that person or time period.

We read stories all the time about the despicable and harmful elements of the site. It sounds like you find a deeper version of the site because you dig deeper. So do you think YouTube is ultimately good for humanity?

I don't see YouTube as being inherently good or bad. I see it as a mirror. If we as a collective have ugliness to us, it will mirror that back. Is that a bad thing? I don't make a moral issue of it. It all serves a greater purpose in my mind. If it's showing us our ugly side that's because that's the side we need to heal. My only caveat is that I do believe parents should 100% be monitoring their kids online.

There is definitely malicious and inappropriate content out there that young kids aren't ready for—and not solely on YouTube either. As an adult, however, I try to use YouTube for things that add value to my life. Do I slip and waste an hour searching something ridiculous like a 'Cardi B vs Nicki Minaj' beef? Absolutely. But I'm getting better at that. I'm way more intentional in how I use the platform these days. For me, YouTube is a digital library, an educational resource, a classroom that teaches me the things I actually care about. You even have traditional schools starting to harness the power of YouTube in the classroom now. I actually got started as a motivational speaker from teachers showing my Unauthorized Biographies in their classrooms—all streamed off Youtube. Then they would invite me in to talk about my journey as recording artist. So there's a lot of good that can come from it. We just have to set the intention to use it for good.

What do you think your success says about the way we learn?

It shows me that our thirst and desire to learn is still very very much alive. There just isn't enough innovation in the way we teach. At my presentations it's really a place where my inner artist meets my inner teacher. I absolutely hate the term edutainment, but that's basically what it is. I'm raising the bar in both worlds, and then combining them. It shows me that learning isn't just a mental exercise. It's an emotional experience as well. Many people come up to me after my shows saying they were brought to tears. I think we need that. We need to be touched and inspired from a deeper emotional level to create space for something new to show up. When it comes to learning emotional state matters. And I don't know anything that impacts emotional state as universally as music, visuals and innovation. That what I try my best to bring to the table.

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What’s the Difference Between a Biography and an Autobiography?

There are so many fascinating people in the world and throughout history. Books invite us into the life of someone worth knowing. There are two types of books that tell the story of someone’s life: biographies and autobiographies. Biographies and autobiographies are forms of nonfiction. This means that they contain real, factual information. They do not include stories or made-up scenarios. They’re meant to be informative.  

Both forms of writing highlight the life, work, and views of a real person. The subject of the book is usually someone who has made an impact on society and is considered famous. These people include athletes, celebrities, and business leaders. Although there are some core similarities, there are many important differences between biographies and autobiographies as well. Most notably, the level of objectivity and factual content is different. The language style and perspectives also differ. Let’s look closer at the difference between a biography and an autobiography!

Difference Between a Biography and an Autobiography: Biographies

Point of view.

Someone other than the subject of the book writes biographies. It is written in the third-person, which means the author refers to the subject with their name or with ‘he’, ‘she’, or ‘they’. Since a biography is an account of a person’s life written by someone else, it is considered to be a secondary source. Point of view is the main difference between a biography and an autobiography.

A biography may take several years to complete because of all the research required. This is especially true if the person has recently died, and the author must rely on other people to provide interviews. For example, Walter Isaacson, who wrote a biography on Steve Jobs, had to piece together information from the accounts of over 100 people who knew the subject.  

Degree of objectivity

A biography tends to be more objective than an autobiography. Biography writers typically gather information through a journalistic research project. This normally includes reviewing records of events and interviews with the subject of the book or people connected to the subject. 

Biographies usually cover the entire life of the subject. This is especially true if the subject has died. If they are still living, the book may cover a large portion of that person’s life.  

Authorized vs Unauthorized 

A biography should have trustable sources so that there is nothing fictional within the book. When it comes to biographies, it’s important to note whether it is authorized or unauthorized. This has to do with the subject’s participation in the book. Did the subject allow the author to interview them? If so, the biography is considered authorized. If, on the other hand, the subject is not involved in the research of the book, it is considered an unauthorized biography.

Unauthorized 

When the book is unauthorized there is a chance it contains nonfactual information. Anyone can write a biography on a famous person so long as they don’t violate privacy rights. People like celebrities and high-profile politicians can be hard to gain access to which is why many biographies are written without cooperation from the subject. However, another reason the book may not have approval from the subject is that the author is writing a negative portrayal of the subject. They’re often gossipy and promise to “spill the beans”. Some of these end up on the New York Times Bestsellers List. They’re also controversial and can lead to legal troubles for the author. Some people view unauthorized accounts as less reliable. If the biography is about a historical figure or someone who died long ago, it wouldn’t be considered unauthorized.

Authorized 

Authorized biographies are more likely to be based on facts because the subject is providing information. Sometimes it is the subject’s idea to have the book written in the first place. In these cases, the subject may seek out a reputable author to write their story.

Autobiographies

Point of view.

The subject of the book writes the autobiography, meaning the author and the subject are the same. The author writes in the first person point of view. This means they refer to the subject with ‘I’, ‘me’, and ‘my’. A first-person account gives the reader first-hand opinions, thoughts, and feelings from the subject. Knowing this will help them easily spot the difference between a biography and an autobiography.

An autobiography is considered a primary source because it is a first-hand account of a person’s life in its original form without interpretation or commentary from other writers. However, this doesn’t always mean the subject/author wrote the book without help from anyone else.Because the subject is not a professional writer, a collaborator often joins to help the author tell the most factual story possible.

Degree of objectivity 

In an autobiography, the author’s memory is the primary source. good autobiographies leave the reader feeling like they know the author personally. this is because the book includes details that only the author knows, as well as their thoughts and feelings. , timeline .

Autobiographies tend to focus on a certain period of time when a notable event occurred. The chronology is organized but may not specify exact dates. The timeline may veer off track if appropriate. For instance, the author may start from the present day and include flashbacks. They may even organize events thematically rather than chronologically. 

How to Define Autobiography

Glossary of Grammatical and Rhetorical Terms

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An autobiography is an account of a person's life written or otherwise recorded by that person. Adjective: autobiographical .

Many scholars regard the Confessions (c. 398) by Augustine of Hippo (354–430) as the first autobiography.

The term fictional autobiography (or pseudoautobiography ) refers to novels that employ first-person narrators who recount the events of their lives as if they actually happened. Well-known examples include David Copperfield (1850) by Charles Dickens and Salinger's  The Catcher in the Rye (1951).

Some critics believe that all autobiographies are in some ways fictional. Patricia Meyer Spacks has observed that "people do make themselves up. . . . To read an autobiography is to encounter a self as an imaginative being" ( The Female Imagination , 1975).

For the distinction between a memoir and an autobiographical composition, see memoir  as well as the examples and observations below. 

From the Greek, "self" + "life" + "write"

Examples of Autobiographical Prose

• Imitating the Style of the Spectator , by Benjamin Franklin
• Langston Hughes on Harlem
• On the Street, by Emma Goldman
• Ritual in Maya Angelou's Caged Bird
• The Turbid Ebb and Flow of Misery, by Margaret Sanger
• Two Ways of Seeing a River, by Mark Twain

Examples and Observations of Autobiographical Compositions

• "An autobiography is an obituary in serial form with the last installment missing." (Quentin Crisp, The Naked Civil Servant , 1968)
• "Putting a life into words rescues it from confusion even when the words declare the omnipresence of confusion, since the art of declaring implies dominance." (Patricia Meyer Spacks, Imagining a Self: Autobiography and Novel in Eighteenth-Century England . Harvard University Press, 1976)
• The Opening Lines of Zora Neale Hurston's Autobiography - "Like the dead-seeming, cold rocks, I have memories within that came out of the material that went to make me. Time and place have had their say. "So you will have to know something about the time and place where I came from, in order that you may interpret the incidents and directions of my life. "I was born in a Negro town. I do not mean by that the black back-side of an average town. Eatonville, Florida, is, and was at the time of my birth, a pure Negro town--charter, mayor, council, town marshal and all. It was not the first Negro community in America, but it was the first to be incorporated, the first attempt at organized self-government on the part of Negroes in America. "Eatonville is what you might call hitting a straight lick with a crooked stick. The town was not in the original plan. It is a by-product of something else. . . ." (Zora Neale Hurston, Dust Tracks on a Road . J.B. Lippincott, 1942) - "There is a saying in the Black community that advises: 'If a person asks you where you're going, you tell him where you've been. That way you neither lie nor reveal your secrets.' Hurston had called herself the 'Queen of the Niggerati.' She also said, 'I like myself when I'm laughing.' Dust Tracks on a Road is written with royal humor and an imperious creativity. But then all creativity is imperious, and Zora Neale Hurston was certainly creative." (Maya Angelou, Foreword to Dust Tracks on a Road , rpt. HarperCollins, 1996)
• Autobiography and Truth "All autobiographies are lies. I do not mean unconscious, unintentional lies; I mean deliberate lies. No man is bad enough to tell the truth about himself during his lifetime, involving, as it must, the truth about his family and friends and colleagues. And no man is good enough to tell the truth in a document which he suppresses until there is nobody left alive to contradict him." (George Bernard Shaw, Sixteen Self Sketches , 1898)" " Autobiography is an unrivaled vehicle for telling the truth about other people." (attributed to Thomas Carlyle, Philip Guedalla, and others)
• Autobiography and Memoir - "An autobiography is the story of a life : the name implies that the writer will somehow attempt to capture all the essential elements of that life. A writer's autobiography, for example, is not expected to deal merely with the author's growth and career as a writer but also with the facts and emotions connected to family life, education, relationships, sexuality, travels, and inner struggles of all kinds. An autobiography is sometimes limited by dates (as in Under My Skin: Volume One of My Autobiography to 1949 by Doris Lessing), but not obviously by theme. "Memoir, on the other hand, is a story from a life . It makes no pretense of replicating a whole life." (Judith Barrington, Writing the Memoir: From Truth to Art . Eighth Mountain Press, 2002) - "Unlike autobiography , which moves in a dutiful line from birth to fame, memoir narrows the lens, focusing on a time in the writer's life that was unusually vivid, such as childhood or adolescence, or that was framed by war or travel or public service or some other special circumstance." (William Zinsser, "Introduction," Inventing the Truth: The Art and Craft of Memoir . Mariner Books, 1998)
• An "Epidemical Rage for Auto-Biography" "[I]f the populace of writers become thus querulous after fame (to which they have no pretensions) we shall expect to see an epidemical rage for auto-biography break out, more wide in its influence and more pernicious in its tendency than the strange madness of the Abderites, so accurately described by Lucian. London, like Abdera, will be peopled solely by 'men of genius'; and as the frosty season, the grand specific for such evils, is over, we tremble for the consequences. Symptoms of this dreadful malady (though somewhat less violent) have appeared amongst us before . . .." (Isaac D'Israeli, "Review of "The Memoirs of Percival Stockdale," 1809)|
• The Lighter Side of Autobiography - "The Confessions of St. Augustine are the first autobiography , and they have this to distinguish them from all other autobiographies, that they are addressed directly to God." (Arthur Symons, Figures of Several Centuries , 1916) - "I write fiction and I'm told it's autobiography , I write autobiography and I'm told it's fiction, so since I'm so dim and they're so smart, let them decide what it is or isn't." (Philip Roth, Deception , 1990) - "I'm writing an unauthorized autobiography ." (Steven Wright)

Pronunciation: o-toe-bi-OG-ra-fee

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Legal Challenges Of Writing Unauthorized Biographies

Biographies are grouped into two categories: biographies written with the subject’s permission and cooperation, aka authorized biographies, and biographies written without the subject’s permission and cooperation, aka known as unauthorized biographies.  The former tends to suggest a puffy publicity piece. The later tends to suggest a forbidden sense of controversy, like a “kiss and tell” book written by a former employee, paramour, or confidante of the biography’s subject.  In the words of Kitty Kelly, the author of the controversial biography “Oprah,” the label unauthorized biography “sounds so nefarious, kind of like breaking and entering. But that’s what biography is. It does break and enter a life.”

And with that sense of transgression or trespass, also comes a few significant legal risks that authors of unauthorized biographies might encounter — like a lawsuit for libel, invasion of privacy or misappropriation of the right of publicity. Some of the most notorious biographies garnered a heap of legal attention. Just read up on the news thicket around these examples: His Way: The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra, by Kitty Kelly; Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography, by Andrew Morton; and Becoming Beyonce, by J. Randy Taraborrelli.  Should an author lose such a lawsuit, the end results could be not only monetary damages, but an injunction preventing publication of the unauthorized biography or further distribution.

If you intend to write an unauthorized biography, here are the legal challenges you might encounter and what you can do to lessen your level of risk. In general, anyone can write a biography of someone without their approval as long as it is accurate and you don’t run afoul of the following legal principles: libel, invasion of privacy, misappropriation of the right of publicity, copyright infringement or breach of confidence.

We usually hear the legal term libel when a gossip rag damages a celebrity’s reputation by printing false rumors of a derogatory nature like a sexual escapade, or an ex-paramour’s heroine addiction. But libel can happen in biographies too.

Libel is the publication of a defamatory statement that injures a person’s reputation (as opposed to slander, which covers the verbal form of defamation). A libelous statement must be false about some statement of fact (as opposed to an opinion). The defamed person must be living and need not be identified by name. The real person need only be identifiable to readers via the information provided. Business entities and small identifiable groups (like a lacrosse team) can be defamed too.

To avoid a defamation claim, your best defenses would be truth, opinion, or parody/satire.

• Truth is a complete defense to a defamation claim. No false statement equals no libelous statement. Even if minor inconsequential facts are incorrect, libel does not exist if the overall statement is true.
• Opinions are protected (because opinions are neither true or false). This defense, however, can be tricky to navigate. Just because you say it is your opinion will not keep the statement from being defamatory. Merely implying a false statement can be enough. “In my opinion, she is an alcoholic” is just as defamatory as “she is an alcoholic.” These issues often arise with biographical works. The best way to utilize this defense is for the writer to provide in their work the underlying facts on which the opinion is based, like, “She was convicted of a DUI, and then went to rehab.”
• Parody and satire genres exaggerate material for comic effect, which is not considered to be true or a statement of fact.

Thankfully, for writers and publishers, the success rate for defamation suits tends to be low. Why? Because courts tend to require the author to be negligent in publishing the defamatory statement and, if the subject of the biography is a celebrity or public figure, that the author acted with malice, i.e. they had actual knowledge the statement was false and published anyway. If the subject is not well-known, the courts tend to give them more protection against libel acts, so there is no need to show negligence or malice.

In short, stick to the facts when writing an unauthorized biography. If you have support for those facts, then you’ve preserved the accuracy of the life story you’re writing about and will be on solid ground to avoid a libel cause of action.

2. The Right of Privacy

People have the right to be left alone. Privacy is invaded when private facts not in the public’s interest are publicly disclosed. While the truth can deflect a defamation claim, often the truth when disclosed can be the basis for an invasion of privacy claim.

Usually, invasion of privacy occurs when:

• Private facts that are not of public interest are disclosed;
• There has been intrusion into a person’s private life; and
• Someone is portrayed or misrepresented in a false light, i.e. highly offensive to a reasonable person.

The injured person must be living (unless you want to dig up the casket and that is an invasion of another kind). The disclosure of private facts must cause harm to the person’s reputation (personal or professional). Mere embarrassment usually is not enough. The injured person must have a reasonable expectation the disclosed fact was to remain private. So, if facts occurred in a public setting, then most likely there is no expectation of privacy.

Often the most crucial point in a right to privacy claim is whether the disclosure was of public interest, which public figures and celebrities are. Fortunately, writers have had luck in persuading courts that the disclosure of private facts is of public interest when it illuminates the human condition. But a third-party telling someone else’s story about a child born from an incestuous relationship that was never made public and the crime never reported has been held to violate the right of privacy. The facts were newsworthy; yet revealing the identity of the victim was not a matter of public interest.

For unauthorized biographies about a celebrity or public figure, rarely are they successful on an invasion of privacy claim. They are after all public people, and with that comes the sad truth that intimate and personal facts about their lives could be revealed to the public. Just remember, if the subject of your unauthorized biography is not a celebrity or public figure the the law will give greater protection to the disclosure of intimate and personal facts of their personal lives.  If this is your subject, I’d suggest getting permission from the subject before you publish private or embarrassing facts about them.

3. The Right of Publicity

Misappropriation of the right of publicity is using someone’s name, likeness, or identifying characteristics for advertising, merchandising, endorsements, promotional, or commercial purposes without permission. The law normally applies to the living, although some states will extend the right of publicity posthumously. And it only applies to a person who makes money from who they are (i.e. famous people).

Normally, if you don’t have permission, you wouldn’t want to use someone’s name or likeness for commercial purposes. Just because you spilt a cocktail on Liza Minnelli at a party, you would not put her picture on the cover of your memoir to boost sales. Nor would you add Lee Child’s endorsement on your book if he hasn’t given one. But, if you written a biography about a famous person, permission is not required because the right of publicity yields to the First Amendment.

That said, don’t claim an unauthorized biography of Madonna was authorized or you’ll be asking for trouble. Not only would this be a misappropriation of the right of publicity, but it could also lead to an unfair competition claim against you and your publisher. For an unfair competition claim to stick, the author must have intended to mislead the public into believing the subject either authorized the biography or assisted in writing it.

4. Copyright Infringement

The US Copyright Office defines copyright infringement as occurring when a “copyrighted work is reproduced, distributed, performed, publicly displayed, or made into a derivative work without the permission of the copyright owner.” ( United States Copyright Office. “Definitions.” copyright. gov . ) Usually when copyright infringement arrises in the context of an unauthorized biography, the author has used without permission excerpts of letters or papers by or oral conversations with the subject. Just remember, if you’re using the subject’s own words, whether published or unpublished, copyright law requires permission before publication unless the words are in the public domain or fair use applies. Here are two articles about fair use if you need more information:  US Copyright Office  and  Stanford University , or see my earlier article on Permissions .

5. Breach of Confidence

Breach of confidence is a common law tort in the United States that protects private information conveyed in confidence. This claim usually requires the information to be of a confidential nature, communicated in confidence and made public to the detriment of whoever is claiming the breach.

Proving a breach of confidence requires some breach of a duty of confidentiality or a fiduciary relationship, so the relationships of the parties is important. Often a duty of confidentiality exists between employers and employees, a patients and physicians,  and banks and clients. If the subject and author of the unauthorized biography entered into a contractual relationship that prohibits the disclosure of information about the subject’s life then a breach of confidence claim could be warranted. It all depends on the scope of the contract.

If you intend to write an unauthorized biography, a little upfront organization and legal scouring will save you hassles in the long run. Before publication, consult a lawyer to vet the manuscript and provide advice on how to minimize risk. If you are publishing traditionally, use your publisher’s legal department; if self-publishing, hire your own publishing lawyer. A lawyer will explain what is acceptable and what is not. The last thing you want is for your creative work to meet an untimely death from these legal challenges.

Photo Credit: pedrosimoes7 | Visual Hunt | CC BY

Legal Disclaimer: This information is provided for educational purposes only. Consult a qualified lawyer in your jurisdiction for all legal opinions for your specific situation.

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Biography vs. Autobiography: What's the Difference?

Key Differences

Comparison chart, perspective, research requirement, authorization, biography and autobiography definitions, autobiography, who typically writes a biography, is research needed for writing a biography, what is a biography, is an autobiography always truthful, are memoirs and autobiographies the same, which is more subjective, a biography or an autobiography, can biographies be fictionalized, are autobiographies written posthumously, how does an autobiography differ from a biography, what perspective is an autobiography written from, can a biography be written without the subject's permission, can a person have both a biography and an autobiography, who is the target audience for biographies and autobiographies, are biographies always factual, do autobiographies cover an individual's entire life, how do readers benefit from biographies, what challenges do biographers face, are personal memories the main source for autobiographies, which is more intimate, a biography or an autobiography, why do people write autobiographies.

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December 1, 2007

An Unauthorized Autobiography of Science

Journal article explanations of how science works often differ from the actual process

By Michael Shermer

According to 55 percent of 350,000 people from 70 countries who participated online in Richard Wiseman’s Laugh Lab experiment (discussed in last month’s column), this is the world’s funniest joke:

Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn’t seem to be breathing, and his eyes are glazed. The other guy whips out his phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps, “My friend is dead! What can I do?” The operator says, “Calm down. I can help. First, let’s make sure he’s dead.” There is a silence, then a shot is heard. Back on the phone, the guy says, “Okay, now what?”

So say the data, but according to Wiseman’s personal narrative describing how the research was actually conducted (in his new book Quirkology), he believes that “we uncovered the world’s blandest joke—the gag that makes everyone smile but very few laugh out loud. But as with so many quests, the journey was far more important than the destination. Along the way we looked at what makes us laugh, how laughter can make you live longer, how humor should unite different nations, and we discovered the world’s funniest comedy animal.” Chickens notwithstanding, such first-person accounts in popular science books that include the journey and not just the destination afford readers a glimpse into how science is really carried out.

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Formal science writing—what I call the “narrative of explanation”—presents a neat and tidy step-by-step process of Introduction-Methods-Results-Discussion, grounded in a nonexistent  “scientific method” of Observation-Hypothesis-Prediction-Experiment followed in a linear fashion. This type of science writing is like autobiography, and as the comedian Stephen Wright said, “I’m writing an unauthorized autobiography.” Any other kind is fiction. Formal science writing is like Whiggish history—the conclusion draws the explanation toward it, forcing facts and events to fall neatly into a causal chain where the final outcome is an inevitable result of a logical and inevitable sequence.

Informal science writing—what I call the “narrative of practice”—presents the actual course of science as it is interwoven with periodic insights and subjective intuitions, random guesses and fortuitous findings. Science, like life, is messy and haphazard, full of quirky contingencies, unexpected bifurcations, serendipitous discoveries, unanticipated encounters and unpredictable outcomes. This chaotic process helps to explain, in part, the phenomenal success in recent decades of first-person popular accounts by scientists of how they actually did their research. The effect is especially noteworthy in works exploring the peculiarities of life.

Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner’s Freakonomics (William Morrow, 2006) illuminates the power of incentives through certain oddities. For instance, that most drug dealers live with their mothers because only the top guys make the big bucks while the rest bide their time and pay their dues, or that baby names tell us about the motives of parents. Cornell University professor Robert Frank’s The Economic Naturalist: In Search of Explanations for Everyday Enigmas (Basic, 2007) employs the principle of cost-benefit analysis to explain such idiosyncrasies as why drive-up ATM keypads have Braille dots (because it is cheaper to make the same machine for both drive-up and walk-up locations), why brown eggs are more expensive than white eggs (because there is less demand and the hens that lay them are larger and consume more food), why it is harder to find a taxi in the rain (because more people use them when it is raining, most cabbies reach their fare goals earlier in the day), and why milk is stored in rectangular cartons but soft drinks come in round cans (because it is handier to drink soda directly from a round can but easier to pour and store milk in a rectangular carton).

In my October column I railed against the artificial (and odious) ranking of technical science writing over popular science writing. I suggested that the latter should be elevated to a more exalted standing of “integrative science,” where good science writing integrates data, theory and narrative into a useful and compelling work. And here I would add that exploring the minutiae of life, especially on the quirky borderlands of science, makes the scientific process more accessible to everyone. Where a narrative of explanation might read something like “the data lead me to conclude...,” a narrative of practice reads more like “Huh, that’s weird...”

Weirdness trumps data in the biography of science.

The Ethics of Biography and Autobiography

Cite this chapter.

• Larry Lockridge  

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I shall be arguing that biographers and autobiographers incur different kinds of moral risk, just as they pursue different moral opportunities. To set some contexts, I shall risk an autobiographical account of my work in ethics and literature, begun in the late 1960s.

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The Evocative Autoethnographic I

‘No One Is the Author of His Life’: Philosophy, Biography, and Autobiography

The Return of Ethics in Literary Studies

Laurence S. Lockridge, The Ethics of Romanticism (Cambridge University Press, 1989) 22–38.

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John Leggett, Ross and Tom: Two American Tragedies (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1974). ‘Tom’ refers to Thomas Heggen, author of Mister Roberts. He and Lockridge never met.

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Larry Lockridge, ‘Least Likely Suicide’, Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior 25.4 (1995) 429–36.

Jerome Bruner, ‘The Autobiographical Process’, The Culture of Autobiography , ed. Robert Folkenflik (Stanford University Press, 1993) 40, 55.

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University of Aarhus, Denmark

Dominic Rainsford ( Lecturer in English ) ( Lecturer in English )

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© 1999 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited

About this chapter

Lockridge, L. (1999). The Ethics of Biography and Autobiography. In: Rainsford, D., Woods, T. (eds) Critical Ethics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-27188-7_8

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His Way: The Unauthorized Biography of Frank Sinatra Paperback – December 28, 2010

• Print length 688 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Bantam
• Publication date December 28, 2010
• Dimensions 5.1 x 1.4 x 8.25 inches
• ISBN-10 0553386182
• ISBN-13 978-0553386189
• See all details

Editorial Reviews

About the author, excerpt. © reprinted by permission. all rights reserved..

On the night of December 22, 1938, two constables from Hackensack, New Jersey, headed for the Rustic Cabin in Englewood Cliffs to arrest Frank Sinatra.

Armed with a warrant charging adultery, the two officers walked into the dim little roadhouse looking for the skinny singer who waited tables and sang with Harold Arden's band over the radio line to WNEW in New York.

They waited until Frank finished his midnight broadcast and then sent word that they wanted to give him a Christmas present from one of his admirers. Falling for the ruse, Sinatra walked over to their table, where the criminal court officers arrested him and took him off to the courthouse. After posting five hundred dollars bail, he was released on his own recognizance.

The next day a Hoboken newspaper carried a story headlined: songbird held in morals charge, but no one in Hoboken paid much attention. They were accustomed to seeing the Sinatra name in print for getting into trouble with the law. Frank's uncle Dominick, a boxer known as Champ Sieger, had been charged with malicious mischief; his uncle Gus had been arrested several times for running numbers; his other uncle, Babe, had been charged with participating in a murder and had been sent to prison. His father, Marty, was once charged with receiving stolen goods, and his mother, Dolly, was regularly in and out of courthouses for performing illegal abortions. And Frank himself had been arrested just a month before on a seduction charge.

Frank's relationship with the woman who pressed criminal charges against him had begun earlier that year, when Antoinette Della Penta Francke, a pretty twenty-five-year-old who had long been separated from her husband, went to the Rustic Cabin.

"He got on the platform to sing and I turned to face him," she said. "I was sucking a lemon from my Scotch, and he got mad at me. He came to the table afterwards and said, 'Look, young lady. Do you know you almost ruined my song? You suck a lemon and you make me go dry."

" 'I'm going to give you a lemon in your sour face,' I joked to him. He asked me to dance and then he said, 'Can I take you out next week?' He was playing two against the middle with me and Nancy Barbato, but I didn't know it for a long time. We went together quite a few months, but then, because of his mother, he dropped me. He made me die of humiliation over something. To this day, I think about it."

Toni Francke was from Lodi, New Jersey, an Italian blue-collar town of tiny clapboard houses, several of which had plaster shrines to the Blessed Virgin Mary on their front porches. Dolly Sinatra, who prized her uptown location in Hoboken, was enraged that her son had reached into such a poor area for a girlfriend.

"After dating Frank awhile," Toni said, "I learned how to drive, and sometimes I'd pick him up in my car. Dolly would come out and holler at me, 'Who are you waiting for?'

" 'I'm waiting for Frank,' I'd say.

" 'You are after his money and you are nothing but cheap trash from Lodi,' she'd say.

"Then Frank would come down. He'd feel real embarrassed. He'd put his head down and get in the car, but Dolly would start screaming at him. He used to cry in my car because she didn't want him to be a singer. She said he was a bum. 'Go to college. Go to college,' she'd yell. 'You would not go to school.' 'You want to sing.' 'You bring home bad girlfriends.' She kept it up all the time, always nagging and screaming at him.

"I asked him how he could stand all that hollering. Frank said that she yelled at him all the time. Even when he went for a walk with his dad, she'd scream out the door. 'Where youse going? Don't start making him drink beer like you do, do you hear me?' Frank loved his father then. He really did. He used to say to me, 'I'd give Ma anything if she'd just leave my old man alone.'

"I said to him, 'Frank, why don't you open your mouth to your mother?'

" 'I don't like to say anything,' he said. 'She's my mother.'

"He loved her but he didn't, if you know what I mean."

Despite his mother's strenuous objections, Frank kept going to Lodi. After a few months of steady dating, Toni and her parents invited the Sinatras to dinner.

"Frank told me that Dolly yelled, 'What do you mean I have to go down there?' You see, she felt she was better than us."

Dolly finally relented and went with her husband and her son to the Della Penta home. Frank was looking forward to introducing his father to Toni, but he was worried about his mother kicking up a scene. He didn't have long to wait.

Tension pulsated on both sides of the front door when the Sinatras arrived and rang the bell. Mr. Della Penta answered, and Dolly walked in first, followed by Marty and Frank. Toni stepped forward and said hello. "You look so nice," she said. "You have such a nice dress on." As Dolly was looking around the house, Toni took their coats and hung them up. Here's how she recalls the occasion:

Frank went into the living room, sat down, and asked Toni to sit beside him. His parents sat down as well. Mrs. Della Penta said she was going into the kitchen to check on dinner. Frank popped up to help her.

"That's more than he does for me," said Dolly. "I'm sorry I had a boy. I should have had a girl."

"You get what God gives you," said Toni's father.

"How many children do you have anyway, Mr. Della Penta?"

He said that he had two daughters and one son, which seemed excessive to Dolly. "My, that's a big family, isn't it," she said.

"Big?" said Toni. "It's a pleasure. At least you are never alone."

"If God wanted me to have more kids, I would've had them," Dolly said.

Frank walked into the room. "Did you say God, Ma? I haven't seen you go to church in quite a while."

They had barely sat down to dinner when Dolly turned to Mr. Della Penta and said, "Don't you think these kids are kind of young to be going around together?"

Frank looked at him and said, "I care for your daughter."

"It's only puppy play," said Dolly.

"Mom, I'm a twenty-two-year-old man," said Frank. "Besides, you got married young."

Dolly persisted. "I don't want these kids to get married. Frankie has to go to school first."

"I quit school, and you know it," said Frank.

"You what?" said Toni, who thought Frank was a high-school graduate. "When did you quit?"

"Now you know," said Frank. "You don't have to read it in the papers with Ma around, do you?"

"I don't want Toni to go with him," said Dolly. "They're too young. She'll keep Frankie from being a big singer. I want him to be a star."

Mr. Della Penta looked at Marty, who had not said a word. "Are you against this too?"

Turning to Dolly, Marty said, "I've had it. She's a fine girl. Just because she has Italian grandparents, does that mean she is so bad? Your parents did not like the idea of me, but you did it anyway, so why can't Frankie do what he wants?"

"Shut your goddamned mouth," said Dolly.

"Yeah, if someone's not Irish, you don't want me to have anything to do with them," said Frank.

Rose Della Penta left the room, and Toni's brother turned to Dolly. "Your son came after my sister," he said. "She didn't go after Frank."

"I don't care," said Dolly. "I don't want them going around together anymore."

Mr. Della Penta went into the kitchen to join his wife. Frank turned to his mother. "You should not have come. You're making Mr. and Mrs. Della Penta feel bad," he said.

Toni got up from the table to serve dessert. "Would you care for some fruit?"

"Oh, no," said Dolly. "I'm on a diet." Then she asked to go to the bathroom. Toni showed her where it was, saying, "Watch yourself coming down the steps."

"Oh, I can watch myself, don't you ever worry about that, young lady," said Dolly.

The dinner ended with Frank's telling his parents to go home without him because Toni would drive him back later.

"You have to get your rest, Frankie," said his mother. "You can't stay out late."

"Don't worry, Ma. I'll be home later."

"I don't like that. What time will you be back? I worry. I don't sleep right."

Marty looked at her and said, "You do okay. I'm the one who gets up at night."

Dolly never called to thank the Della Pentas for the macaroni dinner, nor did she ever invite them to Hoboken to have dinner at her house on Garden Street.

Frank told Toni not to take his mother's insults personally. "It's not just you," he said. "It's any girl I go with. No matter who the girl is, my mother always has something to say."

In the summer of 1938, Frank asked Toni to go steady and gave her a small diamond ring. A few days later, she said, he proposed in his car, saying, "I got to make more money, but I'm going to marry you, Toni."

He teased her because she wouldn't go to bed with him, saying that other girls treated their boyfriends better than she treated him.

"I'm not that type," Toni recalls.

"What have you got to lose?"

"What do you mean? If you marry me, okay, but otherwise you can't touch me until you marry me."

"Why, you made of gold or something?"

After a few nights of such sparring, Toni softened, convinced she would eventually get a divorce and marry Frank. She said she had known him a long time and felt good about him.

"Frank didn't seem like he had been to bed with anyone before," she said later. "He was kind of shy. He wasn't all that good because he was so thin. But he was very gentle with me. He did not grab me the first night. He could have but he didn't. We had gone to a big hotel outside of town with a bunch of other couples. We never slept together at my house. We always went to hotels, and Frank registered us as Mr. and Mrs. Sinatra. He sang to me in bed."

Within six weeks, Toni was pregnant. When she broke the news to Frank, he did not say anything for the longest time. Then he said, "Well, I'll have to marry you."

"Don't do me no favors, Frank."

She said that there were no fights or arguments over her pregnancy and that Frank did not suggest an abortion. But Dolly bore down so hard on him for continuing to see Toni that the anxiety contributed to her miscarriage in her third month.

"When I told Frank, he was real sweet. 'Gee, I'm sorry,' he said. 'I'll do anything to take care of you.' Later, he said he would marry me anyway. But his mother kept up her screaming about us, and after a while Frank started to get real snippy. He told me that I was standing in the way of him being a big singer and he didn't come around anymore."

Toni called Frank one night at the Rustic Cabin. Nancy Barbato answered the phone and announced, "He's my boyfriend and I want to know why you want to talk to him."

Toni was so angry that she jumped into her car and drove to the Rustic Cabin. Frank saw her walk in and quickly got off the bandstand and walked the other way. She grabbed him.

"I told him that I was going to make such a scene in that place that he would probably get fired. Then Nancy Barbato tried to grab me to help him, but I screamed at her. 'Get your hands off me.'

" 'What is this? Another whore?' Nancy asked.

" 'Get away from me or I'll hit you,' I yelled. Then I tore her dress. Frank had been standing there without saying a word. Finally he spoke up.

" 'Is that necessary?' he said.

" 'If you didn't want to see me anymore, why didn't you let me know?' I said.

" 'No,' he said. 'I want to see you.'

" 'You what?' screamed Nancy.

" 'Will you get the hell out of here,' Frank said to her."

Taking Toni by the hand, Frank led her into the lounge. "That's where he said, 'I have to marry Nancy. Otherwise her father will kill me. She's pregnant.' "

"So what?" said Toni. "I was pregnant and you didn't break your neck for me."

"Yeah, but my mother. . . ."

"Never mind about your mother."

"You were a fighter, but Nancy won't stand up to her."

Toni stormed out of the Rustic Cabin and drove home, wondering how she would ever tell her friends in Lodi that Frank wasn't going to marry her.

Determined to punish him for publicly embarrassing her, she swore out a warrant for his arrest on a morals charge, stating that on November second and ninth, 1938, Frank Sinatra, "being then and there a single man over the age of eighteen years, under the promise of marriage, did then and there have sexual intercourse with the said complainant who was then and there a single female of good repute for chastity whereby she became pregnant."

Frank's first arrest was on November 27, 1938. He was taken to the Bergen County jail and held for sixteen hours. The news made the papers, and Dolly called Toni Francke in tears.

"If you cared for him, you would not have done this," she said.

"Frank was going out with Nancy the whole time he was going with me," said Toni.

"Not that I know of," said Dolly. That was a lie.

"He made a fool out of me."

"Please get him out of jail."

"I'll get him out when I'm good and ready," said Toni, slamming the receiver down.

Dolly called back begging for her son's release and even offered Toni money, but she got nowhere. In desperation, Dolly sent Marty to Lodi to talk to Toni's family.

"Marty came to my father's house, and he was shaking," she said. "He walked real slow and quiet, like he was a beaten man. Dolly made that man so low. He said, 'Frank should respect his mother but when he doesn't, she takes it out on me.' You never embarrass an Italian man and make him low like that. As soon as I saw him I felt bad. He looked like a hobo at the door begging for something to eat. He didn't even ask for help right away, but his face said it all. He was stunned when I let him in. He thought I was going to swear at him. My father came out and said, 'You look bad. You want a shot of liquor?"

" 'Yeah,' said Marty. 'Today I feel tired.' "

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bantam (December 28, 2010)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 688 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0553386182
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0553386189
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.1 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.1 x 1.4 x 8.25 inches
• #616 in Rich & Famous Biographies
• #883 in Composer & Musician Biographies
• #1,463 in Actor & Entertainer Biographies

About the author

Kitty kelley.

Among the awards that Kitty Kelley has been honored with by her professional peers are the Outstanding Author Award from the American Society of Journalists and Authors for her "courageous writing on popular culture," the Philip M. Stern Award for her "outstanding service to writers and the writing profession," the Medal of Merit from the Lotos Club in New York City, and the 2005 PEN Oakland Literary Censorship Award. She has also been selected as a member of Vanity Fair magazine's Hall of Fame. Her articles have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, People, Ladies' Home Journal, McCall's, the Los Angeles Times, and the Chicago Tribune.

Customer reviews

• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 5 star 54% 26% 12% 6% 3% 54%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 4 star 54% 26% 12% 6% 3% 26%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 3 star 54% 26% 12% 6% 3% 12%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 2 star 54% 26% 12% 6% 3% 6%
• 5 star 4 star 3 star 2 star 1 star 1 star 54% 26% 12% 6% 3% 3%

Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.

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Customers say

Customers find the content interesting, well-documented, and easy to read. They also praise the writing quality as skilled, thorough, and careful. However, some readers feel the writing style is not interesting or a novel to read, and that the singer is not always a good person.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

Customers find the book very interesting, with excellent research and an update. They also appreciate the detailed and well-documented personal life of Sinatra. Readers also mention that the book is a fast read and provides all of the sources for documentation.

" Very interesting and well-written book! Great writer, not all bio's can pull off over 700 pages and keep you turning pages...." Read more

"It was easy reading , but after reading this biography, I decided I didn't like the man He was such a bully. and I have no respect for him...." Read more

"...The book has great depth to it . It is mind boggling how she accumulated all the data on his life but the overtone is clearly negative...." Read more

"I think the book was quite good ...." Read more

Customers find the writing quality of the book very skilled, thorough, and careful. They also say the author does a good job covering the many complex sides of Frank Sinatra. Customers also mention the book is very detailed and well-documented. They say it's a complete biography of a very talented and complex man.

"Very interesting and well-written book! Great writer , not all bio's can pull off over 700 pages and keep you turning pages...." Read more

"...The mafia chapters are really well written and use sources such as actual mobsters along with FBI wiretaps to show how deeply entrenched Frank..." Read more

"...have not rather known, I still consider him one of the greatest singers of his period ...." Read more

"This book was well written and covered Frank Sinatra's life up until the mid 1980's when it was written...." Read more

Customers find the writing style of the book not interesting, tiring, and repetitive. They also say it's selfish, egotistical, childish, and nasty.

"... Selfish , egotistical, childish and nasty are pretty much the adjectives just about anyone who actually knew Mr. Sinatra would first use to describe..." Read more

"...This one is kind of boring . How can you write a book about "Ole Blue Eyes" that is boring?...Kitty managed to do so...." Read more

"...The book had an unbelievable amount of detail which did not make it a fast read " Read more

"...The Voice: incomparable. The Man: not fun to read about . In fact, disgusting." Read more

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Mad Ones, The (fka The Unauthorized Autobiography Of Samantha Brown)

2016 festival.

Book, Lyrics and Music Kait Kerrigan and Bree Lowdermilk

Director Portia Krieger

Music Director Paul Staroba

Cast Kevin Carolan, Corey Cott, Morgan Keene, Kecia Lewis and Ciara Renee

Contact for Rights

Kait Kerrigan, [email protected]

Number of Acts: 1

Number of principals (male): 2, number of principals (female): 3, total cast size: 5, orchestra breakdown:.

Piano, Guitar, Violin, Harp

Genre & Style:

Chamber Musical Memory Play

Search Production History & Resources for Mad Ones, The (fka The Unauthorized Autobiography Of Samantha Brown): Search Set & Costume Registry

When her best friend dies, Samantha Brown is paralyzed with grief and loses touch with the part of herself that was learning how to take risks. Now, she must wade through the memories of her senior year in order to take the first risk of her adult life.

This smart, funny, moving show unfolds at a deliberate, confident pace like a good mystery, and we love that about it: it asks how one of the “good kids” who has it all and has done everything right can end up just as confused, lost and frightened as the rest. We feel it speaks volumes about what it is to come of age in 21st century America. - Festival Committee

Development History

The Unauthorized Autobiography of Samantha Brown was produced by the Aurora Theatre in Lawrenceville, GA (2014) and had a developmental production at Goodspeed’s Norma Terris Theatre (2011). It also received developmental workshops and readings at OCPAC (2009), La Jolla Playhouse (2008), Perry-Mansfield (2007), the ASCAP/Disney Workshop (2007), MTC (2006), and the Makor (2005).

Festival Successes

Off-Broadway premiere in November 2017 with Prospect Theater Company at 59E59 (NY). Concert production at Philadelphia Theatre Company (PA) in October 2017. Cast recording released in December 2019. Available for licensing through Concord Theatricals . May-June 2019 Production at the Loeb Drama Center

5 Things You Should Know

• The Unauthorized Autobiography of Samantha Brown can be performed with 5 actors (3W, 2M), 3 musicians and little to no set. This gives the piece great flexibility – fitting into an educational setting or a chamber or black box space in a regional house.
• This show features strong female leads and passes the Bechdel test with flying colors.
• Kerrigan-Lowdermilk have a broad and loyal following on YouTube, where their channel has 13K subscribers and over 6 million views. Most of these views are of videos of songs from this show. Additionally, there are conservatively more than 10,000 YouTube community videos of their song “Run Away with Me” alone.
• We have been toying with a possible title change. We would love to hear your thoughts on our new ideas. Come talk to us!
• Brian first conceived the idea for this piece when he was dropping out of Harvard during his freshman year. He moved to New York to become a writer and reconnected with a friend from middle school – Kait, who was a junior at Barnard and in the midst of writing her first play. The rest is history.

The Unauthorized Autobiography of Samantha Brown

Aug 4 – 28, 2011 / The Terris Theatre - 33 N Main Street, Chester, CT 06412 view map

A New Musical

It is dawn. Samantha Brown is supposed to leave for college today. She sits in her car with her bags packed, but she can't turn the key in the ignition. She is filled with doubts as the defining moments of her senior year flash through her mind.  Somehow Samantha has to come to terms with her parents' expectations, her first love, and a lost friendship before she can turn the key and make the first decision of her adult life.  With a compelling and contemporary score,   Samantha Brown   is a fresh new musical that you must see.

Audience Insights Guide Author's Notes Director's Vision Road Trip Guide Track the show's progress

Book and Lyrics by

Kait Kerrigan

Brian Lowdermilk

Scenic Design by

Walt Spangler

Costume Design by

David C. Woolard

Lighting Design by

Jason Lyons

Sound Design by

Music direction by

Directed by

Daniel Goldstein

Aug 4 – 28, 2011

The Terris Theatre

Goodspeed's Unauthorized Autobiography of Samantha Brown pt3

Goodspeed's Unauthorized Autobiography of Samantha Brown pt4

Goodspeed's Unauthorized Autobiography of Samantha Brown pt2

Goodspeed's Unauthorized Autobiography of Samantha Brown - S

Highlights: The Unauthorized Autobiography of Samantha Brown final dress rehearsal clip.wmv