After dying early and under mysterious circumstances, his name is now little known and has all but vanished from conventional literary biographies of the period.

The book is more an extended cultural essay than a conventional biography.

Others have more conventional biographies.

He also published a more conventional biography of Edward Wortley Montagu in 1869.

In another departure from conventional biographies, nominations for inclusion can be made by anyone offering a name to help enrich the narrative about race in America.

The first half is a conventional biography of Mr. Brown's youth and dazzling athletic career, which he ended in 1966 to go into the movies.

Not that a conventional biography doesn't emerge from the many layers of this rich and subtly dramatic book.

Books written for a business audience, of course, are generally perceived as having different requirements than conventional biography.

He was quick to add, however, that "neither did it become a conventional biography of a historically influential person."

Perhaps, but I can think of few conventional political biographies that bring their subjects' pasts so richly alive.