The main purpose of biography is to provide readers with insights into the subject's life. However, according to Peter Nagourney, author of "The Basic Assumptions of Literary Biography", readers are led to destruction and ruin. Nagourney states that biographies contain no absolute truth about the subject, only relative and partial truths. They are biased and misuse anecdotal evidence. Finally they rely on doubtful assumptions, that of a unified life and that of growth and development. The Steve Waugh biography, `The Cricketer Who Defined His Era', makes interesting reading despite falling victim to a number of the problems identified by Nagourney.

The reader of biography should be able to rely on the author to convey the full truth of the subject's life. But according to Nagourney, even the subject cannot claim to know himself completely, as self perceptions change and one can become selective. As well...