Gifts for parents · Ten minutes a week

Give your parents the gift of being remembered.

Boswell asks the right questions, listens to their stories, and turns every conversation into a beautifully written chapter, for you to keep forever.

No homework, no deadlines. Just ten minutes of conversation, whenever they're ready.

Send a Gift

From $150 for 6 months. Delivered instantly, or scheduled for a special day.

B
What's the first house you can really remember? Not just the address. The room you'd go to when no one was looking for you.
JC
the attic. dad's old records were up there.
B
Tell me about those records. What was the first one you reached for?
Reply to Boswell…
See it in action

This is what it feels like.

A real conversation. A real chapter. No forms, no homework, no awkward prompts. Watch what happens when ten minutes of conversation becomes something worth keeping.

B
Take me back to the summer of '76. You'd just finished your residency. What did the drive to Buffalo feel like?
JC
the car didn't have AC. i remember sweating through my shirt and worrying about how i'd look when i met the chief
B
First impressions mattered then. Did anyone meet you at the hospital, or did you just walk in?
JC
walked in. nobody was expecting me until monday. a nurse named Eleanor took pity on me and showed me where to put my things
B
Wait, Eleanor? Was that the same Eleanor you'd later marry?
JC
yes. though neither of us knew it that afternoon. she was engaged to somebody else at the time
B
10 minutes later
Chapter Three First draft · 3 min ago

The Long Way to Buffalo

A residency, a Pontiac, and the nurse at the front desk

The Pontiac didn't have air conditioning, and by the time James crossed into Erie County the back of his shirt was soaked through. He had rehearsed the handshake somewhere outside Erie — firm, but not too firm — and he was rehearsing it again as he pulled into the staff lot at Buffalo General on a Saturday in July of 1976, two days early and entirely unexpected.

Nobody at the front desk had been told he was coming. He stood there with a duffel bag and a copy of Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, trying to look like a doctor and not a sweating twenty-six-year-old who had just driven four hundred miles. The woman behind the desk — small, dark-haired, a wedding band on the wrong hand for reasons he wouldn't learn for another year — took one look at him and laughed, not unkindly. Her name was Eleanor. She told him to sit down. She brought him water in a paper cup.

He did not know, in that moment, that he was looking at his wife. He knew only that the cup was cold, that the lobby was quiet, and that for the first time since leaving New Haven he could feel his shoulders come down from around his ears.

How it works

Every conversation ends with something to read.

Your parents chat for ten minutes about a memory, a person, a chapter of their life. Boswell turns it into a beautifully written chapter the whole family can read.

i.

Send the Gift.

Pick your plan, write a personal message, and send a gift card in minutes. Send it today, or schedule it for a special day.

ii.

They talk to Boswell.

Your parents open the Biographer, pick a topic, and start. They can speak or type, whatever feels easier. No forms. No questionnaires. Just a conversation.

iii.

Chapters in minutes.

The moment they’re done, Boswell turns what they said into a finished chapter for the whole family to read. Real prose. Real voice. The kind of writing you’d expect from a memoir.

A book is just the beginning

A book. An audiobook. A children's book. A song.

Their stories become whatever feels right: keepsakes for them, gifts for the people they love, surprises for the grandkids.

Printed

The book.

A real, beautifully bound biography the whole family can hold, gift, and pass down.

Listen

The audiobook.

Their story, narrated. Listen on a walk. Send it to family abroad.

Original

The song.

A custom song from a memory.

For kids

The children's book.

Pick a moment from their life and turn it into a story for a kid in the family.

Digital

The ebook.

Their full biography, on any device, ready whenever they want to read or share it.

More

…and more.

New formats added over time. Once their story’s in Boswell, it can become almost anything.

No writing required

Voice when it's easier. Type when it's quieter.

They can use voice when it's easier. Type when it's quieter. They can even switch mid-sentence if they want. Boswell handles both seamlessly.

Talk or type.

No spelling. No grammar. No "is this good enough?" They talk like they'd talk to a friend at the kitchen table. Boswell turns it into beautiful prose.

0:42

Rambling is welcome.

Tangents, half-finished thoughts, "wait, where was I?" All of it is fine. Boswell finds the through-line and turns it into prose worth reading.

"so anyway my mom — wait did i say my dad already worked at the plant? — okay so my mom…"
Their story, their way

Every chapter is theirs to shape.

First or third person. Add photos. They can even invite the people who were there to chime in. Boswell writes the first draft. They and their people make it true.

First or third person.

They pick how their chapters are read, and switch anytime. Same story, different voice.

It was raining the morning I bet it all on myself. The studio on Park & 23rd was empty when I signed the lease. My mother, when I finally called her, did not kill me — though it was a close thing.

Add photos.

Drop in pictures from any chapter: the porch, the wedding, the summer of '74.

+ Add

Edit anything.

Rewrite a sentence, fix a name, add the part they forgot to mention. It’s their book.

We moved to Brooklyn Brooklyn Heights in the fall of '68, the year my brother was born.

Invite family to add their memories.

Friends and family can chime in with their version of the same story. The book gets richer.

SK
DM
JK
Sarah, Dad & Jess
3 contributors invited
A gift for
"Mom — your stories deserve to be more than memories."— Love, Sarah
For the people who matter most

The most meaningful gift you'll ever give.

The stories your parents tell at the dinner table deserve to be more than memories that fade: the move across the country, the year everything almost fell apart, how they met, how they got through.

Gift the Biographer, and they'll capture the life they've actually lived. In their own words. On their own time. Ten minutes at a time. And at the end of every conversation, they'll have a finished chapter to share with you.

Most gifts are forgotten by spring. This one gets richer every year.

Send a Gift

Takes 2 minutes · Secure checkout.

Pricing

The Most Meaningful Gift You'll Ever Give

Send a personal gift card with a custom message. No account needed until they're ready.

6-month gift
$150
Half a year · paid upfront · about 82¢ a day
  • Six months of unlimited conversations
  • 100+ interview topics to pick from
  • Personal gift card with your message
Included free
EbookDigital copy of their story
AudiobookNarrated, listen anywhere
Send a gift

Takes 2 minutes · Secure checkout.

Add-on artifacts
À la carte
Buy whenever you're ready
  • Children's books
  • Custom songs
  • Extra hardcover copies
  • More formats coming soon
See add-ons

Nothing for your parent to set up. They can start their first conversation minutes after opening the gift.

Children's books, custom songs, and extra copies available à la carte during or after any subscription.

Questions

The good answers.

Ten minutes per conversation, as often or as rarely as they like. There's no schedule, no homework, no pressure. Most people do a session or two a week and end the year with a full biography.

If they can use a computer, they can use Biographer. They can talk instead of type, and the interface is designed to feel like a text conversation. Nothing to learn, nothing to set up.

A growing library of beautifully written chapters, accessible anytime. From there, they can turn the chapters into a printed book, audiobook, children's book, song, or ebook, either included in the gift package or added à la carte whenever it feels right.

Gifts are paid upfront so it arrives as a complete, ready-to-open present. Nothing for your parent to set up or pay for later. They can start their first conversation the moment they're ready.

Yes. At checkout you choose when it arrives: send it right away, or pick a future date like their birthday or Mother's Day. We'll deliver the gift on the day you choose, so it lands right on the occasion.

Yes. Monthly, 6-month, and 12-month plans can all be cancelled. Refund terms vary by plan. See Terms for details.

They're theirs. Forever. They can export their chapters and transcripts at any time, and they'll always be available to them in their account.

Those products send weekly prompts and produce a single book at the end of the year. Boswell is a real, ongoing conversation. They get a finished chapter after every session, the conversations and prompts get more personal as they go, and their stories can become books, audiobooks, children's books, songs, and more. A book is just the beginning.