SOURCE: "Autobiography and American Culture," in American Studies, Vol. XI, No. 2, Winter, 1972, pp. 22-36.

In the following essay, Stone identifies major works of American autobiography, offers a definition of the genre, and discusses some leading critical approaches to the subject.

One of the striking and promising developments in recent American studies is the new exploration of autobiography. This concern, a product largely of the past decade, is currently being pursued with an energy and sophistication which virtually constitute a rediscovery of the manifold possibilities of the genre. As a cultural document providing unique insights into history, social and individual experience and identity, and cultural change, the autobiography has, of course, long been used by social scientists and historians. As a prime form of the American imagination also, autobiography engages the attention of literary critics and scholars for whom Franklin, Thoreau, Henry Adams, and Gertrude Stein are distinctive names...