This article begins by contrasting the popularity of biography in the general culture with the neglect of literary biography as a branch of literary studies. The argument follows from the hybrid character of a genre in which history is crossed with narrative. Using concepts drawn from narratology, it shows how biography's handling of life stories is both like and unlike that of fiction. Narrative is not neutral but imposes a shape on "real life histories" involving selection, continuity, coherence, and closure. These four elements are discussed with particular reference to the two classic literary biographies--Boswell's "Life of Dr. Johnson" and Mrs. Gaskell's "Life of Charlotte Bronte." Two features unique to reading literary biography are identified: how readers must accommodate the image of the "implied author" constructed from the writer's works with that presented by the biography, and the asymmetrical time lines of the writer's "life narrative" and "literary narrative." Literary biography is then shown to occupy an uncomfortable position between factual and fictional truth. The article ends with the educational benefits of studying literary biography--as a source of values, as a context for literature, and as a genre study in its own right.