Final answer:
The Life of Samuel Johnson is a biography, a nonfiction narrative detailing an individual's life written by someone other than the subject.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Life of Samuel Johnson is an example of a biography. This genre includes nonfiction stories about a person's life, written by someone other than the person the book is about. In contrast, an autobiography is a work of creative nonfiction about the author's life, written by the author themselves. A well-known autobiography is the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass.
Biographies and autobiographies are both valuable resources for historical and self-reflective study. Unlike encyclopedias, which provide basic information on a wide range of topics, or fictional literature like fairy tales, biographies provide a deep dive into an individual's life, making them crucial for those seeking to understand history from a personal perspective.