Which of the following books is a biography and not an autobiography?
- A.Long Walk to Freedom
- B.Playing It My Way
- C.The Man Who Knew Infinity
- D.Wings of Fire
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is C, The Man Who Knew Infinity. The book was written by Robert Kanigel about the mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan, so the writer and the subject are two different people, which makes it a biography. Ramanujan himself left no account of his life, and the book was built from letters, records and the recollections of those who knew him.
Option A, Long Walk to Freedom, was written by Nelson Mandela about his own life and is therefore an autobiography. Option B, Playing It My Way, is the cricketer Sachin Tendulkar's own account of his career and is likewise an autobiography. Option D, Wings of Fire, was written by A. P. J. Abdul Kalam with the help of Arun Tiwari, but the life described is Kalam's own, so the presence of a co-author does not turn it into a biography.
Read the full article: Famous Autobiographies and Biographies: Book and Author Pairs
Practice Questions
View allThe autobiography titled The Story of My Experiments with Truth was written by
- A.Jawaharlal Nehru
- B.Mahatma Gandhi
- C.Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
- D.Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel
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The Story of My Experiments with Truth is the autobiography of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, written originally in Gujarati and later translated into English.
Read the full explanation →Wings of Fire, the autobiography of A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, was co-authored by
- A.Arun Tiwari
- B.Y. S. Rajan
- C.Sanjaya Baru
- D.Robert Kanigel
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Wings of Fire was written by A. P. J. Abdul Kalam with Arun Tiwari, a scientist who had worked under Kalam in the missile programme.
Read the full explanation →The book India Wins Freedom was written by
- A.Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
- B.Rajendra Prasad
- C.Jawaharlal Nehru
- D.Subhas Chandra Bose
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India Wins Freedom is Azad's account of the last decade of the freedom struggle, of the Cabinet Mission and of the events that led to partition.
Read the full explanation →Playing It My Way is the autobiography of which sportsperson?
- A.Kapil Dev
- B.Sunil Gavaskar
- C.Sachin Tendulkar
- D.Rahul Dravid
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Playing It My Way is the autobiography of Sachin Tendulkar and was published shortly after he retired from international cricket.
Read the full explanation →The Accidental Prime Minister, an account of the working of the Prime Minister's Office, was written by
- A.Manmohan Singh
- B.Sanjaya Baru
- C.Daman Singh
- D.Natwar Singh
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Sanjaya Baru served as media adviser to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and wrote The Accidental Prime Minister as an insider's account of those years.
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