ABSTRACT
To give the truth about oneself has the aim of true autobiography, but from Augustine, toiled at re-collecting the past, it has been realised that this means selection, discrimination. The order or type of truth, one expect from autobiography can be recognised only if the one enumerate some of the main types of untruth that are to be found. The distortion of truth imposed by the act of contemplation is so over-riding a qualification of autobiography that it is indeed a necessary condition of it, and it will demand our attention when considering more fully what autobiographers actually do. To define what sort of truth is meant, one can discover only in relation to the author's general intention. It will not be an objective truth, but the truth in the confines of limited purpose, that grows out of the author's life and imposes itself on specific quality, determines the choice of events and the manner of treatment and expression.
