# Full-length biographies of fictional characters **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 3, 2016, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/full-length-biographies-of-fictional-characters/759007 "2016-07-03T16:27:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2016, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/full-length-biographies-of-fictional-characters/759007/1 "2016-07-03T16:27:50Z")
The ultimate in fanwanking has to be inventing a life for a favorite character from birth to death, including all the parts so inconveniently left out by the dumb author. Sherlock Holmes is the leader in all such things fannish. The first attempt at the full biography is Gavin Brend’s _My Dear Holmes: Studies in Sherlock_ (1951). He doesn’t stray far from the texts, though, and so it was William S. Baring-Gould who went full nutso into imagination in his _Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street_ (1962). Baring-Gould also wrote _Nero Wolfe of West 35th Street_ (1969) and was stopped there merely by death. Michael Hardwick topped him by writing an autobiography, _Sherlock Holmes: My Life and Crimes_ (1984). Almost equally beloved is P. G. Wodehouse. Geoffrey Jaggard wrote _Wooster’s World_ (1967) and _C. Northcote Parkinson_ (he of Parkingson’s Law) sequeled him with _Jeeves: A Gentleman’s Personal Gentleman_ (1979). Parkinson had previously written _The Life and Times of Horatio Hornblower_ (1971). In fact, most nuts of this species can’t just do it once. Philip José Farmer put out both _Tarzan Alive_ (1972) and _Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life_ (1973). Are there more? James Pearson wrote\* James Bond: The Authorized Biography of 007\* (1973) The 60s and 70s were the Golden Years of this genre, probably because popular culture was suddenly taken seriously after years of scorn. There must be newer examples. Can the Teeming Millions (itself a leftover phrase from the 1970s) supply them? ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2016, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/full-length-biographies-of-fictional-characters/759007/2 "2016-07-03T16:31:07Z")
The lives of Capt. Kirk and Mr. Spock have been pretty well documented, I think. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2016, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/full-length-biographies-of-fictional-characters/759007/3 "2016-07-03T16:34:41Z")
Kim Newman has a series of books and stories telling about the life of Dracula (in this universe, he evaded Van Helsing). ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2016, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/full-length-biographies-of-fictional-characters/759007/4 "2016-07-03T16:40:06Z")
I’m looking for purported “real” “nonfiction” biographies, rather than just using the character in more fiction. There are several million examples of that. The listing of Sherlock Holmes and other Doyle characters alone would fill up dozens of post windows. I assumed _Star Trek_ would generate the most, terentii. Do you have titles for those? ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2016, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/full-length-biographies-of-fictional-characters/759007/5 "2016-07-03T16:46:15Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > I’m looking for purported “real” “nonfiction” biographies, rather than just using the character in more fiction. There are several million examples of that. The listing of Sherlock Holmes and other Doyle characters alone would fill up dozens of post windows. > > I assumed _Star Trek_ would generate the most, terentii. Do you have titles for those? How about this one [https://www.amazon.com/Autobiography-James-T-Kirk/dp/1783297468](https://www.amazon.com/Autobiography-James-T-Kirk/dp/1783297468) ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2016, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/full-length-biographies-of-fictional-characters/759007/6 "2016-07-03T16:50:48Z")
And this also seems to fit [https://www.amazon.com/Informal-Biography-Scrooge-McDuck-Chalker/dp/0883585022](https://www.amazon.com/Informal-Biography-Scrooge-McDuck-Chalker/dp/0883585022) (by Jack Chalker) ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2016, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/full-length-biographies-of-fictional-characters/759007/7 "2016-07-03T16:58:38Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > And this also seems to fit [https://www.amazon.com/Informal-Biography-Scrooge-McDuck-Chalker/dp/0883585022](https://www.amazon.com/Informal-Biography-Scrooge-McDuck-Chalker/dp/0883585022) (by Jack Chalker) What I want for Christmas! :o ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2016, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/full-length-biographies-of-fictional-characters/759007/8 "2016-07-03T16:58:47Z")
And this [https://www.amazon.com/Autobiography-F-B-I-Special-Agent-Cooper/dp/0671744003](https://www.amazon.com/Autobiography-F-B-I-Special-Agent-Cooper/dp/0671744003) (P.S. I’m really surprised that I can’t find the equivalent for Dracula) ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2016, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/full-length-biographies-of-fictional-characters/759007/9 "2016-07-03T17:00:07Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > How about this one [https://www.amazon.com/Autobiography-James-T-Kirk/dp/1783297468](https://www.amazon.com/Autobiography-James-T-Kirk/dp/1783297468) Well, I’ll be damned! :eek: Now, if there ain’t one for Spock—well, there bloody well ought to be! :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2016, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/full-length-biographies-of-fictional-characters/759007/10 "2016-07-03T18:00:35Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > And this also seems to fit [https://www.amazon.com/Informal-Biography-Scrooge-McDuck-Chalker/dp/0883585022](https://www.amazon.com/Informal-Biography-Scrooge-McDuck-Chalker/dp/0883585022) (by Jack Chalker) I have that from when it was issued. (A whole lot cheaper then.) But full-length, no. It wouldn’t fill up more than a long chapter in a regular book. The other links are good ones. Just to put the names into the thread: _The Autobiography of James T. Kirk_, by David A. Goodman (2015) _The Autobiography of F.B.I. Special Agent Dale Cooper: My Life, My Tapes_, by Mark Frost (1991) ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2016, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/full-length-biographies-of-fictional-characters/759007/11 "2016-07-03T18:53:14Z")
[The Life Story of the Flash](https://www.amazon.com/Life-Story-Flash-Mark-Waid/dp/1563893894), originally just an in-universe book by Iris West Allen, Barry Allen’s widow (at that point in continuity) was later published in the real world by DC Comics. I think this is a bit further from what you had in mind, but DC Comics published a prestige-format book [“Lex Luthor: The Unauthorized Biography”](https://www.amazon.com/Lex-Luthor-Unauthorized-James-Hudnall/dp/B000AS9MMY/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1467571817&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Unauthorized+Biography+of+Lex+Luthor), but rather than being an actual biography, the Superman nemesis’s story is told through the investigations of the reporter who was going to put that book together, before Luthor found him and killed him. Great read. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2016, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/full-length-biographies-of-fictional-characters/759007/12 "2016-07-03T19:11:54Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > In fact, most nuts of this species can’t just do it once. Philip José Farmer put out both _Tarzan Alive_ (1972) and _Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life_ (1973). Dammit! I was going to mention them! First Farmers I read. First I’d heard of Doc Savage. Wasn’t impressed with the novels but read more Farmer. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2016, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/full-length-biographies-of-fictional-characters/759007/13 "2016-07-03T20:59:46Z")
Mentioning Twin Peaks brought to mind _The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer_ by Jennifer Lynch (1989). Can the diary of a fictional person be less real than a biography of a fictional person. “Yes” and “no” are warring inside me. Mostly, this was a cheap attempt at titillation worth scorning for all sorts of reasons. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2016, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/full-length-biographies-of-fictional-characters/759007/14 "2016-07-04T16:19:15Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > I have that from when it was issued. (A whole lot cheaper then.) But full-length, no. It wouldn’t fill up more than a long chapter in a regular book. > > The other links are good ones. Just to put the names into the thread: > > _The Autobiography of James T. Kirk_, by David A. Goodman (2015) > > _The Autobiography of F.B.I. Special Agent Dale Cooper: My Life, My Tapes_, by Mark Frost (1991) Thanks. I should have put the actual names in the post. > [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Mentioning Twin Peaks brought to mind _The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer_ by Jennifer Lynch (1989). Can the diary of a fictional person be less real than a biography of a fictional person. “Yes” and “no” are warring inside me. Mostly, this was a cheap attempt at titillation worth scorning for all sorts of reasons. I was going to mention that one too, but wasn’t sure it fit. > [@dropzone](#): > > Dammit! I was going to mention them! First Farmers I read. First I’d heard of Doc Savage. Wasn’t impressed with the novels but read more Farmer. Yeah, both those were great. Amusingly, Farmer also wrote Tarzan and Doc Savage novels which suggested that the biographer didn’t quite have the whole story either. ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2016, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/full-length-biographies-of-fictional-characters/759007/15 "2016-07-05T19:51:35Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > And this also seems to fit [https://www.amazon.com/Informal-Biography-Scrooge-McDuck-Chalker/dp/0883585022](https://www.amazon.com/Informal-Biography-Scrooge-McDuck-Chalker/dp/0883585022) (by Jack Chalker) The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck by Don Rosa is very good as well if you don’t mind comic books. ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2016, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/full-length-biographies-of-fictional-characters/759007/16 "2016-07-05T20:45:45Z")
The Elder Scrolls video games feature _two_ series of books about the Dunmer Queen Barenziah: _[Biography of Queen Barenziah](http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Biography_of_Queen_Barenziah)_ is the official, “sanitized” version, whereas _[The Real Barenziah](http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:The_Real_Barenziah)_ is the unsanctioned, more scandalous biography. Both books can be read in-game. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2016, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/full-length-biographies-of-fictional-characters/759007/17 "2016-07-05T21:23:15Z")
[Phantom](https://www.amazon.com/Phantom-Susan-Kay/dp/1933626003/), by Susan Kay, was a pretty decent attempt at filling in the history of the Phantom of the Opera. The retelling of the Opera Ghost wasn’t as good as the original, though, so it’s better to switch to Gaston Leroux’s version once you get to that point in the story. ---
**Author:** ![OHS201](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/6de8d8/32.png) [@OHS201](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OHS201)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2016, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/full-length-biographies-of-fictional-characters/759007/18 "2016-07-07T18:39:19Z")
There are “biographies” of Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot, and there are at least two of Nero Wolfe (one is called “The Brownstone House of Nero Wolfe”, not sure of the other). Sorry not to be more specific, my books are all in boxes in prep for a move.