Editing Memoir (section)

==Early memoirs==
Memoirs have been written since the ancient times, as shown by [[Julius Caesar]]'s ''[[Commentarii de Bello Gallico]]'', also known as ''Commentaries on the Gallic Wars''. In the work, Caesar describes the battles that took place during the nine years that he spent fighting local armies in the [[Gallic Wars]]. His second memoir, ''[[Commentarii de Bello Civili]]'' (or ''Commentaries on the Civil War'') is an account of the events that took place between 49 and 48 BC in [[Caesar's civil war|the civil war]] against [[Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus|Gnaeus Pompeius]] and the [[Roman Senate|Senate]]. The noted [[Libanius]], teacher of rhetoric who lived between an estimated 314 and 394 AD, framed his life memoir as one of his literary [[oration]]s, which were written to be read aloud in the privacy of his study. This kind of memoir refers to the idea in [[ancient Greece]] and [[ancient Rome|Rome]], that memoirs were like "memos", or pieces of unfinished and unpublished writing, which a writer might use as a memory aid to make a more finished document later on.

The ''[[Sarashina Nikki]]'' is an example of an early Japanese memoir, written in the [[Heian period]]. A genre of book writing, [[Nikki Bungaku]], emerged during this time. Themes of court life, introspection, and emotional expressiveness were frequently explored in Japanese memoirs; Sarashina Nikki is among the most well-known examples. <ref>{{Cite web |title=Wayback Machine |url=https://web.english.upenn.edu/~cavitch/pdf-library/Sarashina_Diary.pdf |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20220320125109/https://web.english.upenn.edu/~cavitch/pdf-library/Sarashina_Diary.pdf |archive-date=2022-03-20 |access-date=2024-12-17 |website=web.english.upenn.edu}}</ref>
 
In the [[Middle Ages]], [[Geoffrey of Villehardouin]], [[Jean de Joinville]], and [[Philippe de Commines]] wrote memoirs, while the genre was represented toward the end of the [[Renaissance]], through the works of [[Blaise de Lasseran-Massencôme, seigneur de Montluc|Blaise de Montluc]] and [[Margaret of Valois]], that she was the first woman to write her ''Memoirs'' in modern-style.<ref>{{in lang|fr}} Viennot, Éliane, ''[http://revue.etudes-episteme.org/IMG/pdf/1Marguerite_de_Valois2.pdf Marguerite de Valois et l'écriture de l'histoire, 1574-1614] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200919174443/http://revue.etudes-episteme.org/IMG/pdf/1Marguerite_de_Valois2.pdf |date=2020-09-19 }}'', ''Études Épistémè'', 17, spring 2010.</ref> One of the first known examples of medieval memoir writing is Villehardouin's De la Conquête de Constantinople, which provides a first-hand narrative of the Fourth Crusade.

Until the [[Age of Enlightenment]] encompassing the 17th and 18th centuries, works of memoir were written by [[Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury]]; [[François de La Rochefoucauld (writer)|François de La Rochefoucauld]], Prince de Marcillac of France; and [[Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon]], who wrote ''Memoirs'' at his family's home at the castle of [[La Ferté-Vidame]]. While Saint-Simon was considered a writer possessing a high level of skill for narrative and character development, it was not until well after his death that his work as a memoirist was recognized, resulting in literary fame.<ref>{{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Saint-Simon, Louis de Rouvroy, Duc de |volume= 24 |last= Saintsbury |first=  George |author-link= George Saintsbury | pages = 47&ndash;48 }}</ref>