Unauthorized biography
An unauthorized biography sometimes called a kiss-and-tell, or a tell-all, is a biography written without the subject's permission or input.[1] The term is usually restricted to biographies written within the subject's lifetime or shortly after their death; as such, it is not applied to biographies of historical figures written long after their deaths.[2]
"Tell-all" redirects here. For the novel, see Tell-All.Objectivity[edit]
Unauthorized biographies may be considered more objective but less reliable than other biographies, because they are not subject to the subject's (subjective) approval (and therefore may contain accurate information that the subject would not have authorized), but are also not privy to information or corrections known only to the subject or the subject's close friends and family.[3]
Reception[edit]
Unauthorized biographies are not necessarily unwelcomed by their subjects, and in fact some unauthorized biographies have been criticized for displaying overeager admiration for them;[10][11] however, unauthorized biographies have a wider reputation for fueling controversy and painting unflattering portraits of their subjects.[12]
While unauthorized biographies often receive significant news coverage, their writers tend to face "media disdain" due to the perception that their work is gossipy, voyeuristic, and busybodyish.[13]
For a period in the early 1990s, a number of independent publishers — including Revolutionary Comics and Personality Comics[14] — found great success and sales of unauthorized comic book biographies. One publisher claimed that not all its biographies were unauthorized, stating that "DeForest Kelley... and Kim Basinger had sent autographed copies of their biographies, and... Walter Koenig... had edited his."[15] However, a number of these companies later faced legal challenges to their publications,[16][17] which resulted in the unauthorized comic book biography fad dying down.