A White House DiaryLady Bird Johnson

•Truth is not only stranger than fiction, it is more telling. To know that a thing actually happened gives it a poignancy, touches a chord, which a piece of acknowledged fiction misses.

•—W. Somerset Maugham

•Fiction = not real•Nonfiction = real

Types of Nonfiction• Biographies•Autobiographies/ Memoirs• Encyclopedias/ Reference

books•Newspaper, magazine,

and Internet articles• Essays• Interviews•Maps/Photos• Legal/court documents

Biography

•The story of a person’s life told by another person

Where do writers get their information? • Primary Sources – First hand “I”• letters• diaries/journals• interviews• photographs• films• Artwork• autobiographies• court documents

• Secondary Sources - Second Hand “he, she, it”• other biographies• specialized dictionaries• encyclopedias• textbooks• newspaper and magazine

articles

Quick Write

1. Why do you think biographies are more popular in bookstores than history books?

2. What is one person you would like to read a biography about?

Biography is history seen through the prism of a person.

—Louis Fischer

Example of Biography• Abd al-Rahman Ibrahima by Walter Dean Myers• What types of primary and secondary sources

might Myers have drawn from?

Ibrahima was inspected on the shore, then put into irons and herded into a small boat that took him out to a ship that was larger than any he had ever seen.

The ship onto which Ibrahima was taken was already crowded with black captives. Some shook in fear; others, still tied, fought by hurling their bodies at their captors. The beating and the killing continued until the ones who were left knew that their lot was hopeless.

—from “Abd al-Rahman Ibrahima,”by Walter Dean Myers

Autobiography and Memoir

• An autobiography is the story of a person’s life, written by that person.• All or most of the individual’s

life.• A memoir is also the story of a

person’s life, written by that person.• Only one or more significant

experiences of the individual’s life.

Example of Autobiography• What elements of autobiographical writing are

present in this passage?

My roots in New Mexico go back for centuries—espanoles arriving in the 17th century to indios parientes already there. The move to Texas happened between 1848 and 1865 (a few wars got in the way, causing strange demographic reshuffles). My great-great-grandmother was already there, and had a seamstress shop in “downtown” San Antonio; my great-grandmother washed clothes in the San Antonio River…. She later married two (one at a time) Confederate veterans.

—from “Mi Familia,”by Carmen Tafolla

Example of Memoir• How is this similar to the autobiography example? • Remember: What is the difference between an autobiography

and a memoir?

“My family had never had a Christmas tree, but I remembered how once I had helped Papi wind colored lights around the eggplant bush that divided our land from Doña Ana’s. We started at the bottom and wound the wire with tiny red bulbs around and around until we ran out; then Papi plugged another cord to it and we kept going until the branches hung heavy with light and the bush looked like it was on fire”

– From “When I was Puerto Rican” by Esmeralda Santiago

Brush up

• Was Arthur Ashe a Biography, Autobiography or Memoir? • Biography

• How do you know?• Written by McPhee, not Ashe

• What is the difference between subjective and objective writing? • Subjective is biased, opinionated; objective is

unbiased, factual

A White House Diary• Memoir• Lady Bird Johnson• Personal account of what happened in the White

House during her husband, Lyndon B. Johnson’s, presidency • Vice president 1961-1963, President 1963-1969

• Why is it important to read nonfiction?• Facts, truth… • Which is more reliable, primary or secondary

sources?• Primary, of course!

JFK Assassination• What do you already know? • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i67x1I2znlQ• Johnson sworn in as President after the death of Kennedy• Ladybird records the event in her memoir

Look for subjective and objective examples in Nonfiction

Selection Objective Subjective

1. A White House Diary Descriptions of other people’s reactions to the event

2. “Arthur Ashe Remembered”

3. “Georgia O’Keeffe”

Summarize

• Nonfiction – real• Biography – written by someone else about a person’s life• Autobiography – written by that person about their life• Memoir – written by that person; only a part of their life

• Sources• Primary – first hand• Secondary – second hand

• For Tonight: Finish reading White House Diary – full text on englishoc.weebly.com or check out a book.

TOD• What does Jackie Kennedy say when

Ladybird offers to help her change clothes? What does this say about Jackie Kennedy as a person? • Identify the phrase in each sentence. Tell

what type it is.A. We all sat around the plane. B. Finally we got to Washington, with a

cluster of people waiting and many bright lights

C. Tell the children to get a Secret Service man with them.

• Comments/Questions