Hagiography

By Deane Barker • • tags: definition •
Updates
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Definition: a biography or writing about a saint; or an over-idealized biography

Why I Looked It Up

In a book about Algiers in 1913:

In 1907, a book published in Algiers provided brief biographies of great figures from the Algerian past, the kind of hagiographical exercise which Friend republicans, who went in for much the same thing, would understand as being crucial to the formation of a sense of nationhood.

Update

Added on

I want to use this word in a conference presentation, so I’m trying to figure out how to pronounce it.

The most common form is “HAG-e-og-graphy” (hard “g” on “hag”)

But I’ve also found one claim to “HAGE-e-og-graphy” (soft “g” on “hage”)

Update

Added on

From a footnote in Trillion Dollar Coach:

A hagiography is a biography that idealizes the subject.

Links from this – 1913: In Search of the World Before the Great War March 25, 2022
An interesting look at the world in 1913, before the Great War. The book doesn’t mention the looming war, and that’s kind of the point. It goes city-by-city, discussing what was happening in each, on the eve of World War 1. The result is…interesting. The book paints the picture of the world as a...
Links from this – Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley's Bill Campbell March 7, 2024