How To Read A Book- A Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading - Mortimer J. Adler, Charles Van Doren [115]
With regard to the last question, What of it?, it is possible that no kind of literature has a greater effect on the actions of men than history. Satires and pictures of philosophical utopias have little effect; we would all like the world to be better, but we are seldom inspired by the recommendations of authors who do no more than describe, often bitterly, the difference between the real and the ideal. History, which tells us of the actions of men of the past, often does lead us to make changes, to try to better our lot. In general, statesmen have been more learned in history than in other disciplines. History suggests the possible, for it describes things that have already been done. If they have been done, perhaps they can be done again
-or perhaps they can be avoided.
The main answer to the question, What of it?, therefore, lies in the direction of practical, political action. For this reason it is of great importance that history be read well. Unfortunately, leaders have often acted with some knowledge of history but not enough. With the world as small and danger-244 HOW TO READ A BOOK
ous as it has become, it would be a good idea for al of us to start reading history better.
How to Read Biography and Autobiography
A biography is a story about a real person. This mixed patrimony causes it to have a mixed character.
Some biographers would object to this description. But ordinarily, at least, a biography is a narrative account of the life, the history, of a man or woman or of a group of people; thus, a biography poses many of the same problems as a history. The reader must ask the same sort of questions-what is the author's purpose? What are his criteria of truth?-as well, of course, as asking the questions we must ask of any book.
There are several kinds of biographies. The definitive biography is intended to be the final, exhaustive, scholarly work on the life of someone important enough to deserve a definitive biography. Definitive biographies cannot be written about living persons. They are seldom written until several non-definitive biographies have first appeared, all of them often somewhat inadequate. All sources are gone through, all letters read, and a great deal of contemporary history examined by the author. Since the ability to gather the materials is somewhat different from the talent for shaping them into a good book, definitive biographies are not always easy reading.
This is too bad. A scholarly book does not have to be dull. One of the greatest of all biographies is Boswell's Life of Johnson, and it is continuously fascinating. It is certainly definitive ( though other biographies of Dr. Johnson have since appeared ), but it is also uniquely interesting.
A definitive biography is a slice of history-the history of a man and of his times, as seen through his eyes. It should be read as history. An authorized biography is not the same thing at all. Such works are usually commissioned by the heirs or How to Read History 245
friends of some important person, and they are carefully written so that the errors the person made and the triumphs he achieved are seen in the best light possible. They can sometimes be very good indeed, because the author has the advantage-not as a rule accorded to other writers-of being allowed access to all pertinent material by those who control it. But, of course, an authorized biography cannot be trusted in the same way that a definitive biography can be. Instead of reading it simply as history, the reader should understand that it may be biased-that this is the way the reader is expected to think of the book's subject; this is the way his friends and associates want him to be known to the world.
The authorized biography is a kind of history, but it is history with a difference. We may be curious to know what interested persons want the public to know about someone's private life, but we should not expect to know what the private life really was. The reading of an authorized biography will thus often tell us much about the time in