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Is it worth the trouble to go back that far to look at the lives of individuals who may or may not affect our lives today?

historical fiability: Representing the person as closely as possible to his/her real personality and being.

representative credibility:  Making the person seem alive and believable today, with both individuality and universal appeal. For example, the manner in which the person faced and resolved conflicts could very well reflect problems of the present all people face and deal with at one time or another (ie,  jealousy,amibition,conflict of loyalties, betrayal, etc.)

One of the greatest challenges in writing a biography stems from finding accurate data on the individual. If the individual made a significant impact on society, the data tends to be more accurate and "trustworty". If you are writing about an individual who impacted individual lives on a more personal level, finding actual facts about the person may be more difficult. If an individual has been dead for "hundreds of years", interviewing relatives may also be challenging.

Your second question regarding "is it worth it to go back that far to look into lives of indiviudals" is a personal one. Beforewritten "biographies", stories were told of individuals lives to help others through similar challenges or experiences. Careful examination of the life the individual lived, the current relatives of the deceased, and the facts that are readily found are all considerations to think about before writing a biography on an individual.

The sources that you will use to get the information are the most important thing (I think) because secondary sources are sometimes biased.

I was writing a biography on, of course, Oscar Wilde, and I own over 25 different books on his life. Although the gist of the biography is almost similar (where he was born, went to school, etc) since it was gathered from signed documents, the other events became harder for me to focus on due to the biased way in which half of these biographers wrote.

Particularly on the topic of his homosexuality, and whether his wife knew it or not, there were 10 different arguments I collected from all these biographies. In the end, since the wife did not leave a journal, nor Oscar Wilde an autobiography, all was still up in the air, and then I had to employ other sources such as ettiquette books in Victorian society, housewife manuals,etc.  Not enough with that, I then had to get the gossip colums of the times dealing with hidden homosexuality and other crimes (for it was a crime, then) of that nature...In all, beware of those sources. Beware of those "goldmines" of information. Too good to be true, often is.

The greatest challenge is to interpret their work correctly, if no other corroborating evidence is found.  Even with evidence, interpretation of historical documents and personal correspondence is a delicate matter.

Agreed, trying to find accurate information can be difficult. People take for granted modern media today (movies, videos, photos, audio recordings). The further you go back, the more second hand the information becomes; even with kings and queens we can never be 100% positive. The Diary of Samuel Peeps and the autobiography of Dr. Samuel Johnson may be the exception.

Kit Marlowe, for example, is a hard one. How did he die? Was he even a real person? We do not know. Who are you writing about?

I am not writing on anyone in particular. But I was just wondering how you know what is true or not? I guess you could never know.

hey34 in her original topic and posts # 1 and 7 has raised several question regarding writing biography of a person who lived hundreds of years ago, These are, 1) What are the greatest challenges, 2) is it worthwhile doing it at all, and 3) how you establish the truth .

To some extent these issues are interrelated. To be of any value at all, the biography must represent true facts, and finding out the facts is a big challenge.

A biography of a person who lived many hundred years back is a part of past history, and can serve the same purpose that history serves. Here we should remember that the biography not only gives us information of the person whose biography but also about the related time period, place, people and events. How valuable such information will depend on the accuracy and detail of information  and its significance of for the person reading the biography. For example. I am am very much interested in biographies and autobiographies that give any information on any aspect of business and management in the past.

The reliability of information will definitely depend on the efforts put in to collect and check on the accuracy. It also depends on the person described in biography. It is easier to get information on important people who lives some king of public life. The difficulty of data collection is also related to the time and budget available for the same.

In addition to problem of collecting data, I see another personal difficulty in writing biographies of persons who lived long ago. This is the problem of understanding and appreciating the culture and environment of this time. I believe, if one wishes to write a really insightful biography, then he or should also devote sufficient attention to understanding the culture, environment and relevant issues of the time and place.

When you are searching for a subject to write a biography, it is not that important that he/she died a long ago; much more important is how he/she lived or what he/she did. Of course it is difficult to collect biographical material, and it would be even more difficult to select & verify from available materials. You may find truths, half-truths, lies, over/under statements, eulogies, invectives and what not. Since the person belongs to some distant past, things may be extremely difficult to sort out a credibly truthful account. Writing a balanced & unprejudiced biographical account is always a challenging job. In case of a person distanced from the biographer in the time past, the job must be more challenging.

The biggest challenge would be historical accuracy and making sure you have enough primary sources to really write an accurate biography.  The worst situation for the author would be to write a biography and then it come back later that certain information was fabricated or certain truths were stretched.  Also besides primary sources, all your information is secondary since you cannot interview that person, so it will be difficult for that biography to have a personal touch.  The most important aspect of a biography is that it tells a geniune story of that person's life, and that is difficult to tell with second-hand information.