CMP Review 2026-01-14

January 14, 2026

Whom would you choose to write your biography?

In Forms V & VI—that is our 10th, 11th, and 12th grades—Charlotte Mason assigned biographies or memoirs of the authors her students were reading in Literature. Alongside the reading of Jane Austen’s Emma, students had A Memoir of Jane Austen by her nephew, J.E. Austen-Leigh. The book offers an intimate look at both Jane’s family life and work through letters and family recollections. When a novel by Charlotte Brontë was assigned, it’s the biography by her dear friend Elizabeth Gaskell that shines further light on the author’s life.

As I looked over the biographies assigned by Miss Mason, I noticed a pattern: none were salacious, they were most often written by other novelists—full of anecdotes, they spoke of the author’s character and the life that helped form it. Many were written by contemporaries, which offered a view from the time period in which the author lived. They all held to the standard of a “living book.”

These are the qualities that can help guide us when we choose biographies for our own highschoolers.

@rbaburina