When creating your biographies, remember to put a heading at the top of each one that identifies your source book, author, and publication date. I don't have any web space available. There are a number of servers on the web that provide small amounts of free web space. They will then be added to the page, with credit given tot he submitter. You don't have to use the text format.
Some people prefer text because it's easier to create.
There are pros and cons for Text or HTML, it is up to the individual to decide which will work best for them. Yes, however, please be aware that there are some pitfalls associated with typing biographies directly into an e-mail. Not the least if which will be improperly formatted biographies. That means someone has to do a lot more work to make the biography work on the web. If you use Windows95 to create your biography files, a good way to name them is to use the full name of the subject in lower case without any spaces or punctuation.