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The 30 best biographies of all time.

Biographer Richard Holmes once wrote that his work was “a kind of pursuit… writing about the pursuit of that fleeting figure, in such a way as to bring them alive in the present.”

At the risk of sounding cliché, the best biographies do exactly this: bring their subjects to life. A great biography isn’t just a laundry list of events that happened to someone. Rather, it should weave a narrative and tell a story in almost the same way a novel does. In this way, biography differs from the rest of nonfiction .

All the biographies on this list are just as captivating as excellent novels , if not more so. With that, please enjoy the 30 best biographies of all time — some historical, some recent, but all remarkable, life-giving tributes to their subjects.

If you're feeling overwhelmed by the number of great biographies out there, you can also take our 30-second quiz below to narrow it down quickly and get a personalized biography recommendation  😉

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1. A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nasar

This biography of esteemed mathematician John Nash was both a finalist for the 1998 Pulitzer Prize and the basis for the award-winning film of the same name. Nasar thoroughly explores Nash’s prestigious career, from his beginnings at MIT to his work at the RAND Corporation — as well the internal battle he waged against schizophrenia, a disorder that nearly derailed his life.

2. Alan Turing: The Enigma: The Book That Inspired the Film The Imitation Game - Updated Edition by Andrew Hodges

Hodges’ 1983 biography of Alan Turing sheds light on the inner workings of this brilliant mathematician, cryptologist, and computer pioneer. Indeed, despite the title ( a nod to his work during WWII ), a great deal of the “enigmatic” Turing is laid out in this book. It covers his heroic code-breaking efforts during the war, his computer designs and contributions to mathematical biology in the years following, and of course, the vicious persecution that befell him in the 1950s — when homosexual acts were still a crime punishable by English law.

3. Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow

Ron Chernow’s Alexander Hamilton is not only the inspiration for a hit Broadway musical, but also a work of creative genius itself. This massive undertaking of over 800 pages details every knowable moment of the youngest Founding Father’s life: from his role in the Revolutionary War and early American government to his sordid (and ultimately career-destroying) affair with Maria Reynolds. He may never have been president, but he was a fascinating and unique figure in American history — plus it’s fun to get the truth behind the songs.

Prefer to read about fascinating First Ladies rather than almost-presidents? Check out this awesome list of books about First Ladies over on The Archive.

4. Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" by Zora Neale Hurston

A prolific essayist, short story writer, and novelist, Hurston turned her hand to biographical writing in 1927 with this incredible work, kept under lock and key until it was published 2018. It’s based on Hurston’s interviews with the last remaining survivor of the Middle Passage slave trade, a man named Cudjo Lewis. Rendered in searing detail and Lewis’ highly affecting African-American vernacular, this biography of the “last black cargo” will transport you back in time to an era that, chillingly, is not nearly as far away from us as it feels.

5. Churchill: A Life by Martin Gilbert

Though many a biography of him has been attempted, Gilbert’s is the final authority on Winston Churchill — considered by many to be Britain’s greatest prime minister ever. A dexterous balance of in-depth research and intimately drawn details makes this biography a perfect tribute to the mercurial man who led Britain through World War II.

Just what those circumstances are occupies much of Bodanis's book, which pays homage to Einstein and, just as important, to predecessors such as Maxwell, Faraday, and Lavoisier, who are not as well known as Einstein today. Balancing writerly energy and scholarly weight, Bodanis offers a primer in modern physics and cosmology, explaining that the universe today is an expression of mass that will, in some vastly distant future, one day slide back to the energy side of the equation, replacing the \'dominion of matter\' with \'a great stillness\'--a vision that is at once lovely and profoundly frightening.

Without sliding into easy psychobiography, Bodanis explores other circumstances as well; namely, Einstein's background and character, which combined with a sterling intelligence to afford him an idiosyncratic view of the way things work--a view that would change the world. --Gregory McNamee

6. E=mc²: A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation by David Bodanis

This “biography of the world’s most famous equation” is a one-of-a-kind take on the genre: rather than being the story of Einstein, it really does follow the history of the equation itself. From the origins and development of its individual elements (energy, mass, and light) to their ramifications in the twentieth century, Bodanis turns what could be an extremely dry subject into engaging fare for readers of all stripes.

7. Enrique's Journey by Sonia Nazario

When Enrique was only five years old, his mother left Honduras for the United States, promising a quick return. Eleven years later, Enrique finally decided to take matters into his own hands in order to see her again: he would traverse Central and South America via railway, risking his life atop the “train of death” and at the hands of the immigration authorities, to reunite with his mother. This tale of Enrique’s perilous journey is not for the faint of heart, but it is an account of incredible devotion and sharp commentary on the pain of separation among immigrant families.

8. Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera

Herrera’s 1983 biography of renowned painter Frida Kahlo, one of the most recognizable names in modern art, has since become the definitive account on her life. And while Kahlo no doubt endured a great deal of suffering (a horrific accident when she was eighteen, a husband who had constant affairs), the focal point of the book is not her pain. Instead, it’s her artistic brilliance and immense resolve to leave her mark on the world — a mark that will not soon be forgotten, in part thanks to Herrera’s dedicated work.

9. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

Perhaps the most impressive biographical feat of the twenty-first century, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is about a woman whose cells completely changed the trajectory of modern medicine. Rebecca Skloot skillfully commemorates the previously unknown life of a poor black woman whose cancer cells were taken, without her knowledge, for medical testing — and without whom we wouldn’t have many of the critical cures we depend upon today.

10. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

Christopher McCandless, aka Alexander Supertramp, hitchhiked to Alaska and disappeared into the Denali wilderness in April 1992. Five months later, McCandless was found emaciated and deceased in his shelter — but of what cause? Krakauer’s biography of McCandless retraces his steps back to the beginning of the trek, attempting to suss out what the young man was looking for on his journey, and whether he fully understood what dangers lay before him.

11. Let Us Now Praise Famous Men: Three Tenant Families by James Agee

"Let us now praise famous men, and our fathers that begat us.” From this line derives the central issue of Agee and Evans’ work: who truly deserves our praise and recognition? According to this 1941 biography, it’s the barely-surviving sharecropper families who were severely impacted by the American “Dust Bowl” — hundreds of people entrenched in poverty, whose humanity Evans and Agee desperately implore their audience to see in their book.

12. The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann

Another mysterious explorer takes center stage in this gripping 2009 biography. Grann tells the story of Percy Fawcett, the archaeologist who vanished in the Amazon along with his son in 1925, supposedly in search of an ancient lost city. Parallel to this narrative, Grann describes his own travels in the Amazon 80 years later: discovering firsthand what threats Fawcett may have encountered, and coming to realize what the “Lost City of Z” really was.

13. Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang

Though many of us will be familiar with the name Mao Zedong, this prodigious biography sheds unprecedented light upon the power-hungry “Red Emperor.” Chang and Halliday begin with the shocking statistic that Mao was responsible for 70 million deaths during peacetime — more than any other twentieth-century world leader. From there, they unravel Mao’s complex ideologies, motivations, and missions, breaking down his long-propagated “hero” persona and thrusting forth a new, grislier image of one of China’s biggest revolutionaries.

14. Mad Girl's Love Song: Sylvia Plath and Life Before Ted by Andrew Wilson by Andrew Wilson

Titled after one of her most evocative poems, this shimmering bio of Sylvia Plath takes an unusual approach. Instead of focusing on her years of depression and tempestuous marriage to poet Ted Hughes, it chronicles her life before she ever came to Cambridge. Wilson closely examines her early family and relationships, feelings and experiences, with information taken from her meticulous diaries — setting a strong precedent for other Plath biographers to follow.

15. The Minds of Billy Milligan by Daniel Keyes

What if you had twenty-four different people living inside you, and you never knew which one was going to come out? Such was the life of Billy Milligan, the subject of this haunting biography by the author of Flowers for Algernon . Keyes recounts, in a refreshingly straightforward style, the events of Billy’s life and how his psyche came to be “split”... as well as how, with Keyes’ help, he attempted to put the fragments of himself back together.

16. Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder

This gorgeously constructed biography follows Paul Farmer, a doctor who’s worked for decades to eradicate infectious diseases around the globe, particularly in underprivileged areas. Though Farmer’s humanitarian accomplishments are extraordinary in and of themselves, the true charm of this book comes from Kidder’s personal relationship with him — and the sense of fulfillment the reader sustains from reading about someone genuinely heroic, written by someone else who truly understands and admires what they do.

17. Napoleon: A Life by Andrew Roberts

Here’s another bio that will reshape your views of a famed historical tyrant, though this time in a surprisingly favorable light. Decorated scholar Andrew Roberts delves into the life of Napoleon Bonaparte, from his near-flawless military instincts to his complex and confusing relationship with his wife. But Roberts’ attitude toward his subject is what really makes this work shine: rather than ridiculing him ( as it would undoubtedly be easy to do ), he approaches the “petty tyrant” with a healthy amount of deference.

18. The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson IV by Robert A. Caro

Lyndon Johnson might not seem as intriguing or scandalous as figures like Kennedy, Nixon, or W. Bush. But in this expertly woven biography, Robert Caro lays out the long, winding road of his political career, and it’s full of twists you wouldn’t expect. Johnson himself was a surprisingly cunning figure, gradually maneuvering his way closer and closer to power. Finally, in 1963, he got his greatest wish — but at what cost? Fans of Adam McKay’s Vice , this is the book for you.

19. Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline Fraser

Anyone who grew up reading Little House on the Prairie will surely be fascinated by this tell-all biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Caroline Fraser draws upon never-before-published historical resources to create a lush study of the author’s life — not in the gently narrated manner of the Little House series, but in raw and startling truths about her upbringing, marriage, and volatile relationship with her daughter (and alleged ghostwriter) Rose Wilder Lane.

20. Prince: A Private View by Afshin Shahidi

Compiled just after the superstar’s untimely death in 2016, this intimate snapshot of Prince’s life is actually a largely visual work — Shahidi served as his private photographer from the early 2000s until his passing. And whatever they say about pictures being worth a thousand words, Shahidi’s are worth more still: Prince’s incredible vibrance, contagious excitement, and altogether singular personality come through in every shot.

21. Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout by Lauren Redniss

Could there be a more fitting title for a book about the husband-wife team who discovered radioactivity? What you may not know is that these nuclear pioneers also had a fascinating personal history. Marie Sklodowska met Pierre Curie when she came to work in his lab in 1891, and just a few years later they were married. Their passion for each other bled into their passion for their work, and vice-versa — and in almost no time at all, they were on their way to their first of their Nobel Prizes.

22. Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter by Kate Clifford Larson

She may not have been assassinated or killed in a mysterious plane crash, but Rosemary Kennedy’s fate is in many ways the worst of “the Kennedy Curse.” As if a botched lobotomy that left her almost completely incapacitated weren’t enough, her parents then hid her away from society, almost never to be seen again. Yet in this new biography, penned by devoted Kennedy scholar Kate Larson, the full truth of Rosemary’s post-lobotomy life is at last revealed.

23. Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford

This appropriately lyrical biography of brilliant Jazz Age poet and renowned feminist, Edna St. Vincent Millay, is indeed a perfect balance of savage and beautiful. While Millay’s poetic work was delicate and subtle, the woman herself was feisty and unpredictable, harboring unusual and occasionally destructive habits that Milford fervently explores.

24. Shelley: The Pursuit by Richard Holmes

Holmes’ famous philosophy of “biography as pursuit” is thoroughly proven here in his first full-length biographical work. Shelley: The Pursuit details an almost feverish tracking of Percy Shelley as a dark and cutting figure in the Romantic period — reforming many previous historical conceptions about him through Holmes’ compelling and resolute writing.

25. Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life by Ruth Franklin

Another Gothic figure has been made newly known through this work, detailing the life of prolific horror and mystery writer Shirley Jackson. Author Ruth Franklin digs deep into the existence of the reclusive and mysterious Jackson, drawing penetrating comparisons between the true events of her life and the dark nature of her fiction.

26. The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit by Michael Finkel

Fans of Into the Wild and The Lost City of Z will find their next adventure fix in this 2017 book about Christopher Knight, a man who lived by himself in the Maine woods for almost thirty years. The tale of this so-called “last true hermit” will captivate readers who have always fantasized about escaping society, with vivid descriptions of Knight’s rural setup, his carefully calculated moves and how he managed to survive the deadly cold of the Maine winters.

27. Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

The man, the myth, the legend: Steve Jobs, co-founder and CEO of Apple, is properly immortalized in Isaacson’s masterful biography. It divulges the details of Jobs’ little-known childhood and tracks his fateful path from garage engineer to leader of one of the largest tech companies in the world — not to mention his formative role in other legendary companies like Pixar, and indeed within the Silicon Valley ecosystem as a whole.

28. Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand

Olympic runner Louis Zamperini was just twenty-six when his US Army bomber crashed and burned in the Pacific, leaving him and two other men afloat on a raft for forty-seven days — only to be captured by the Japanese Navy and tortured as a POW for the next two and a half years. In this gripping biography, Laura Hillenbrand tracks Zamperini’s story from beginning to end… including how he embraced Christian evangelism as a means of recovery, and even came to forgive his tormentors in his later years.

29. Vera (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov) by Stacy Schiff

Everyone knows of Vladimir Nabokov — but what about his wife, Vera, whom he called “the best-humored woman I have ever known”? According to Schiff, she was a genius in her own right, supporting Vladimir not only as his partner, but also as his all-around editor and translator. And she kept up that trademark humor throughout it all, inspiring her husband’s work and injecting some of her own creative flair into it along the way.

30. Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare by Stephen Greenblatt

William Shakespeare is a notoriously slippery historical figure — no one really knows when he was born, what he looked like, or how many plays he wrote. But that didn’t stop Stephen Greenblatt, who in 2004 turned out this magnificently detailed biography of the Bard: a series of imaginative reenactments of his writing process, and insights on how the social and political ideals of the time would have influenced him. Indeed, no one exists in a vacuum, not even Shakespeare — hence the conscious depiction of him in this book as a “will in the world,” rather than an isolated writer shut up in his own musty study.

If you're looking for more inspiring nonfiction, check out this list of 30 engaging self-help books , or this list of the last century's best memoirs !

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50 Must-Read Biographies

Find your next favorite biography with this list of 50 must-read best biographies featuring people from literature, science, history, and more.

Rebecca Hussey

Rebecca holds a PhD in English and is a professor at Norwalk Community College in Connecticut. She teaches courses in composition, literature, and the arts. When she’s not reading or grading papers, she’s hanging out with her husband and son and/or riding her bike and/or buying books. She can't get enough of reading and writing about books, so she writes the bookish newsletter "Reading Indie," focusing on small press books and translations. Newsletter: Reading Indie Twitter: @ofbooksandbikes

View All posts by Rebecca Hussey

The best biographies give us a satisfying glimpse into a great person’s life, while also teaching us about the context in which that person lived. Through biography, we can also learn history, psychology, sociology, politics, philosophy, and more. Reading a great biography is both fun and educational. What’s not to love?

Below I’ve listed 50 of the best biographies out there. You will find a mix of subjects, including important figures in literature, science, politics, history, art, and more. I’ve tried to keep this list focused on biography only, so there is little in the way of memoir or autobiography. In a couple cases, authors have written about their family members, but for the most part, these are books where the focus is on the biographical subject, not the author.

The first handful are group biographies, and after that, I’ve arranged them alphabetically by subject. Book descriptions come from Goodreads.

Take a look and let me know about your favorite biography in the comments!

All We Know: Three Lives by Lisa Cohen

“In  All We Know , Lisa Cohen describes their [Esther Murphy, Mercedes de Acosta, and Madge Garland’s] glamorous choices, complicated failures, and controversial personal lives with lyricism and empathy. At once a series of intimate portraits and a startling investigation into style, celebrity, sexuality, and the genre of biography itself,  All We Know  explores a hidden history of modernism and pays tribute to three compelling lives.”

Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly

“Set amid the civil rights movement, the never-before-told true story of NASA’s African-American female mathematicians who played a crucial role in America’s space program. Before Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of professionals worked as ‘Human Computers,’ calculating the flight paths that would enable these historic achievements. Among these were a coterie of bright, talented African-American women.”

The Life You Save May Be Your Own: An American Pilgrimage by Paul Elie

“In the mid-twentieth century four American Catholics came to believe that the best way to explore the questions of religious faith was to write about them – in works that readers of all kinds could admire.  The Life You Save May Be Your Own  is their story – a vivid and enthralling account of great writers and their power over us.”

The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester

“As definitions were collected, the overseeing committee, led by Professor James Murray, discovered that one man, Dr. W. C. Minor, had submitted more than ten thousand. When the committee insisted on honoring him, a shocking truth came to light: Dr. Minor, an American Civil War veteran, was also an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane.”

The Wives of Henry VIII by Antonia Fraser

“In a sweeping narrative, Fraser traces the cultural, familial and political roots of each of Henry’s queens, pushes aside the stereotypes that have long defined them, and illuminates the complex character of each.”

John Adams by David McCullough

“In this powerful, epic biography, David McCullough unfolds the adventurous life-journey of John Adams, the brilliant, fiercely independent, often irascible, always honest Yankee patriot — ‘the colossus of independence,’ as Thomas Jefferson called him.”

A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea: One Refugee’s Incredible Story of Love, Loss, and Survival by Melissa Fleming

“Emotionally riveting and eye-opening,  A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea  is the incredible story of a young woman, an international crisis, and the triumph of the human spirit. Melissa Fleming shares the harrowing journey of Doaa Al Zamel, a young Syrian refugee in search of a better life.”

At Her Majesty’s Request: An African Princess in Victorian England by Walter Dean Myers

“One terrifying night in 1848, a young African princess’s village is raided by warriors. The invaders kill her mother and father, the King and Queen, and take her captive. Two years later, a British naval captain rescues her and takes her to England where she is presented to Queen Victoria, and becomes a loved and respected member of the royal court.”

John Brown by W.E.B. Du Bois

“ John Brown is W. E. B. Du Bois’s groundbreaking political biography that paved the way for his transition from academia to a lifelong career in social activism. This biography is unlike Du Bois’s earlier work; it is intended as a work of consciousness-raising on the politics of race.”

Invisible: The Forgotten Story of the Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down America’s Most Powerful Mobster by Stephen L. Carter

“[Eunice Hunton Carter] was black and a woman and a prosecutor, a graduate of Smith College and the granddaughter of slaves, as dazzlingly unlikely a combination as one could imagine in New York of the 1930s ― and without the strategy she devised, Lucky Luciano, the most powerful Mafia boss in history, would never have been convicted.”

Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang

“An engrossing record of Mao’s impact on China, an unusual window on the female experience in the modern world, and an inspiring tale of courage and love, Jung Chang describes the extraordinary lives and experiences of her family members.”

Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff

“Her palace shimmered with onyx, garnet, and gold, but was richer still in political and sexual intrigue. Above all else, Cleopatra was a shrewd strategist and an ingenious negotiator. Though her life spanned fewer than forty years, it reshaped the contours of the ancient world.”

Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson

“Einstein was a rebel and nonconformist from boyhood days, and these character traits drove both his life and his science. In this narrative, Walter Isaacson explains how his mind worked and the mysteries of the universe that he discovered.”

Enrique’s Journey: The Story of a Boy’s Dangerous Odyssey to Reunite with His Mother by Sonia Nazario

“In this astonishing true story, award-winning journalist Sonia Nazario recounts the unforgettable odyssey of a Honduran boy who braves unimaginable hardship and peril to reach his mother in the United States.”

The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann

“After stumbling upon a hidden trove of diaries, New Yorker writer David Grann set out to solve ‘the greatest exploration mystery of the 20th century’: What happened to the British explorer Percy Fawcett & his quest for the Lost City of Z?”

Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman

“Amanda Foreman draws on a wealth of fresh research and writes colorfully and penetratingly about the fascinating Georgiana, whose struggle against her own weaknesses, whose great beauty and flamboyance, and whose determination to play a part in the affairs of the world make her a vibrant, astonishingly contemporary figure.”

Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik Ping Zhu

“Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg never asked for fame she was just trying to make the world a little better and a little freer. But along the way, the feminist pioneer’s searing dissents and steely strength have inspired millions. [This book], created by the young lawyer who began the Internet sensation and an award-winning journalist, takes you behind the myth for an intimate, irreverent look at the justice’s life and work.”

Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston by Valerie Boyd

“A woman of enormous talent and remarkable drive, Zora Neale Hurston published seven books, many short stories, and several articles and plays over a career that spanned more than thirty years. Today, nearly every black woman writer of significance—including Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, and Alice Walker—acknowledges Hurston as a literary foremother.”

Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life by Ruth Franklin

“ Shirley Jackson  reveals the tumultuous life and inner darkness of the literary genius behind such classics as ‘The Lottery’ and  The Haunting of Hill House .”

The Path to Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert A. Caro

“This is the story of the rise to national power of a desperately poor young man from the Texas Hill Country. The Path to Power reveals in extraordinary detail the genesis of the almost superhuman drive, energy, and ambition that set LBJ apart.”

The Life of Samuel Johnson   by James Boswell

“Poet, lexicographer, critic, moralist and Great Cham, Dr. Johnson had in his friend Boswell the ideal biographer. Notoriously and self-confessedly intemperate, Boswell shared with Johnson a huge appetite for life and threw equal energy into recording its every aspect in minute but telling detail.”

Barbara Jordan: American Hero by Mary Beth Rogers

“Barbara Jordan was the first African American to serve in the Texas Senate since Reconstruction, the first black woman elected to Congress from the South, and the first to deliver the keynote address at a national party convention. Yet Jordan herself remained a mystery.”

Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera

“This engrossing biography of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo reveals a woman of extreme magnetism and originality, an artist whose sensual vibrancy came straight from her own experiences: her childhood near Mexico City during the Mexican Revolution; a devastating accident at age eighteen that left her crippled and unable to bear children.”

Florynce “Flo” Kennedy: The Life of a Black Feminist Radical by Sherie M. Randolph

“Often photographed in a cowboy hat with her middle finger held defiantly in the air, Florynce ‘Flo’ Kennedy (1916–2000) left a vibrant legacy as a leader of the Black Power and feminist movements. In the first biography of Kennedy, Sherie M. Randolph traces the life and political influence of this strikingly bold and controversial radical activist.”

The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit by Michael Finkel

“In 1986, a shy and intelligent twenty-year-old named Christopher Knight left his home in Massachusetts, drove to Maine, and disappeared into the forest. He would not have a conversation with another human being until nearly three decades later, when he was arrested for stealing food.”

The Lady and the Peacock: The Life of Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma by Peter Popham

“Peter Popham … draws upon previously untapped testimony and fresh revelations to tell the story of a woman whose bravery and determination have captivated people around the globe. Celebrated today as one of the world’s greatest exponents of non-violent political defiance since Mahatma Gandhi, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize only four years after her first experience of politics.”

Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo”   by Zora Neale Hurston

“In 1927, Zora Neale Hurston went to Plateau, Alabama, just outside Mobile, to interview eighty-six-year-old Cudjo Lewis. Of the millions of men, women, and children transported from Africa to America as slaves, Cudjo was then the only person alive to tell the story of this integral part of the nation’s history.”

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

“Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine.”

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin

“Acclaimed historian Doris Kearns Goodwin illuminates Lincoln’s political genius in this highly original work, as the one-term congressman and prairie lawyer rises from obscurity to prevail over three gifted rivals of national reputation to become president.”

The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke by Jeffrey C. Stewart

“A tiny, fastidiously dressed man emerged from Black Philadelphia around the turn of the century to mentor a generation of young artists including Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Jacob Lawrence and call them the New Negro — the creative African Americans whose art, literature, music, and drama would inspire Black people to greatness.”

Warrior Poet: A Biography of Audre Lorde by Alexis De Veaux

“Drawing from the private archives of the poet’s estate and numerous interviews, Alexis De Veaux demystifies Lorde’s iconic status, charting her conservative childhood in Harlem; her early marriage to a white, gay man with whom she had two children; her emergence as an outspoken black feminist lesbian; and her canonization as a seminal poet of American literature.”

Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary by Juan Williams

“Thurgood Marshall stands today as the great architect of American race relations, having expanded the foundation of individual rights for all Americans. His victory in the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954, the landmark Supreme Court case outlawing school segregation, would have him a historic figure even if he had not gone on to become the first African-American appointed to the Supreme Court.”

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

“In April 1992 a young man from a well-to-do family hitchhiked to Alaska and walked alone into the wilderness north of Mt. McKinley. His name was Christopher Johnson McCandless. He had given $25,000 in savings to charity, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, burned all the cash in his wallet, and invented a new life for himself.”

The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk by Randy Shilts

“ The Mayor of Castro Street  is Shilts’s acclaimed story of Harvey Milk, the man whose personal life, public career, and tragic assassination mirrored the dramatic and unprecedented emergence of the gay community in America during the 1970s.”

Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford

“The most famous poet of the Jazz Age, Millay captivated the nation: She smoked in public, took many lovers (men and women, single and married), flouted convention sensationally, and became the embodiment of the New Woman.”

How to Live: A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at An Answer by Sarah Bakewell

This book is “a vivid portrait of Montaigne, showing how his ideas gave birth to our modern sense of our inner selves, from Shakespeare’s plays to the dilemmas we face today.”

The Silent Woman: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes by Janet Malcolm

“From the moment it was first published in The New Yorker, this brilliant work of literary criticism aroused great attention. Janet Malcolm brings her shrewd intelligence to bear on the legend of Sylvia Plath and the wildly productive industry of Plath biographies.”

Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley   by Peter Guralnick

“Based on hundreds of interviews and nearly a decade of research, [this book] traces the evolution not just of the man but of the music and of the culture he left utterly transformed, creating a completely fresh portrait of Elvis and his world.

Mrs. Robinson’s Disgrace: The Private Diary of a Victorian Lady by Kate Summerscale

“Kate Summerscale brilliantly recreates the Victorian world, chronicling in exquisite and compelling detail the life of Isabella Robinson, wherein the longings of a frustrated wife collided with a society clinging to rigid ideas about sanity, the boundaries of privacy, the institution of marriage, and female sexuality.”

Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare by Stephen Greenblatt

“A young man from a small provincial town moves to London in the late 1580s and, in a remarkably short time, becomes the greatest playwright not of his age alone but of all time. How is an achievement of this magnitude to be explained?”

The Invisible Woman: The Story of Charles Dickens and Nelly Ternan by Claire Tomalin

“When Charles Dickens and Nelly Ternan met in 1857, she was 18: a professional actress performing in his production of  The Frozen Deep . He was 45: a literary legend, a national treasure, married with ten children. This meeting sparked a love affair that lasted over a decade, destroying Dickens’s marriage and ending with Nelly’s near-disappearance from the public record.”

Sojourner Truth: A Life, A Symbol by Nell Irvin Painter

“Slowly, but surely, Sojourner climbed from beneath the weight of slavery, secured respect for herself, and utilized the distinction of her race to become not only a symbol for black women, but for the feminist movement as a whole.”

The Black Rose by Tananarive Due

“Born to former slaves on a Louisiana plantation in 1867, Madam C.J. Walker rose from poverty and indignity to become America’s first black female millionaire, the head of a hugely successful beauty company, and a leading philanthropist in African American causes.”

Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow

“With a breadth and depth matched by no other one-volume life, [Chernow] carries the reader through Washington’s troubled boyhood, his precocious feats in the French and Indian Wars, his creation of Mount Vernon, his heroic exploits with the Continental Army, his presiding over the Constitutional Convention and his magnificent performance as America’s first president.”

Ida: A Sword Among Lions by Paula J. Giddings

“ Ida: A Sword Among Lions  is a sweeping narrative about a country and a crusader embroiled in the struggle against lynching: a practice that imperiled not only the lives of black men and women, but also a nation based on law and riven by race.”

Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline Fraser

“But the true saga of [Wilder’s] life has never been fully told. Now, drawing on unpublished manuscripts, letters, diaries, and land and financial records, Caroline Fraser—the editor of the Library of America edition of the Little House series—masterfully fills in the gaps in Wilder’s biography.”

Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Her Daughter Mary Shelley by Charlotte Gordon

“Although mother and daughter, these two brilliant women never knew one another – Wollstonecraft died of an infection in 1797 at the age of thirty-eight, a week after giving birth. Nevertheless their lives were so closely intertwined, their choices, dreams and tragedies so eerily similar, it seems impossible to consider one without the other.”

Virginia Woolf by Hermione Lee

“Subscribing to Virginia Woolf’s own belief in the fluidity and elusiveness of identity, Lee comes at her subject from a multitude of perspectives, producing a richly layered portrait of the writer and the woman that leaves all of her complexities and contradictions intact.”

Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable

“Of the great figures in twentieth-century American history perhaps none is more complex and controversial than Malcolm X. Constantly rewriting his own story, he became a criminal, a minister, a leader, and an icon, all before being felled by assassins’ bullets at age thirty-nine.”

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand

“On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared. It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane’s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard. So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War.”

Want to read more about great biographies? Check out this post on presidential biographies , this list of biographies and memoirs about remarkable women , and this list of 100 must-read musician biographies and memoirs .

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Best Biographies

Discover the lives of remarkable individuals through the best biographies, chosen from a wide array of reputable literary sources and biography enthusiasts. these compelling reads offer intimate portraits and have earned accolades across numerous literary discussions..

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The 30 best biographies to add to your reading list

Some stories involve incredible, larger-than-life characters. these are the best biographies ever written..

Writing a great biography is no easy task. The author is charged with capturing some of the most iconic and influential people on the planet, folks that often have larger than life personas. To capture that in words is a genuine challenge that the best biographers relish.

The very best biographies don't just hold a mirror up to these remarkable characters. Instead, they show us a different side of them, or just how a certain approach of philosophy fueled their game-changing ways. Biographies inform, for certain, but they entertain and inspire to no end as well.

Below, we gathered a comprehensive list of the best biographies ever written. Some of these biographies were selected because of the subject matter and others were chosen because of the biographer. It’s often said that reading biographies is the best way to gain new knowledge, so we suggest you start with these great selections. If you love history, you’ll certainly want to include these best history books to your home library.

The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert Caro

The former parks commissioner of New York, Robert Moses was a man who got power, loved power, and was transformed by power. This 1,000-plus page biography could be the definitive study of power and legacy. It’s a great learning tool of mostly what not to be and who not to become.

Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi

Totto-Chan is a special figure in modern Japanese culture and is on the same celebrity status level as Oprah is to us here in the United States. The book describes the childhood in pre-World War II Japan of a misunderstood girl who suffered from attention disorders and excessive energy and who later was mentored by a very special school principal who truly understood her. The book has sold more than 5 million copies in Japan.

Eisenhower in War and Peace by Jean Edward Smith

The man who was responsible for winning World War II, twice prevented the use of nuclear weapons, and attempted to keep our soldiers out of Vietnam, all while making it look easy, is none other than Dwight D. Eisenhower. This biography is a history lesson as well as an opportunity to get inside the mind of a brilliant man.

Edison: A Biography by Matthew Josephson

This particular biography dates back more than 50 years, which means it was written without the worry of being politically correct or controversial, but instead focused on providing a conclusive picture of the man. Modern enough to be historically accurate, this biography details a lot of the little-known facts about Mr. Edison in addition to his accomplishments, as well as his failures.

Empire State of Mind: How Jay-Z Went from Street Corner to Corner Office by Zach O’Malley Greenburg

Empire State of Mind is both an unofficial biography of the rap mogul Jay-Z as well as a business book. It shows how the rapper hustled his way to the top of the music industry to become one of the most powerful and influential people in music.

Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman by Jon Krakauer

The story of the professional football player who gave up a $3 million NFL contract to join the Army Rangers after 9/11, only to die under suspicious circumstances in the hills of Afghanistan, is a book about everything that is right and wrong with the U.S. military. Pat Tillman wasn’t perfect, but he was a man we could all learn something from. His incredible story is one of bravery and selflessness -- and will forever be tied to the aftermath of the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Titan: The Life of John. D. Rockefeller Sr. by Ron Chernow

Ron Chernow has written some of the best biographies of our time. In this 832-page biography of John. D. Rockefeller, he shares the main lessons you would take away from someone like Rockefeller, a strangely stoic, incredibly resilient, and -- despite his reputation as a robber baron -- humble and compassionate man. Most successful people get worse as they age, but Rockefeller instead became more open-minded and more generous. The biography also details his wrongdoings and permits you the opportunity to make your own judgment on Rockefeller’s character.

Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow

Another example of Chernow’s brilliance in biographical writing is given in his biography of George Washington. Today, we study Washington not only for his against-the-odds military victory over a superior British Army but also for his strategic vision, which is partially responsible for many of the most enduring American institutions and practices. It’s another long read of the type Chernow is famous for, but it's also a page-turner. Although it’s intimidating to look at, the reading time goes by quickly.

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

Walter Isaacson has written some of the greatest biographies in contemporary literature. Our modern-day genius, Steve Jobs, will forever be remembered as the mastermind who brought us Apple. This biography shows Jobs at his best, which includes illustrations of his determination and creativity but also details the worst of him, including his tyrannical and vicious ways of running a business (and his family). From this book, you will learn to appreciate the man for the genius that he was, but it will most likely not inspire you to follow in his path.

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford

Most depictions show the Mongols as bloodthirsty pillagers, but in this biography, we are also shown how they introduced many progressive advances to their conquered nations. You will learn how Genghis Khan abolished torture, permitted universal religious freedom, and destroyed existing feudal systems.

Dostoevsky: A Writer in His Time by Joseph Frank

his five-volume retelling of the life and times of Russian literary giant Fyodor Dostoevsky is considered the best biography available on the subject. The mammoth exploration sheds light on Dostoevsky's works, ideology, and historical context. For those who are not specifically interested in the famous author, the also book paints a picture of 19th-century Russia.

Leonardo da Vinci: The Marvelous Works of Nature and Man by Martin Kemp

Kemp’s account of da Vinci’s life and work is considered the go-to biography of the famous Renaissance figure. This incredible book sheds light on one of the most creative figures who ever lived, guiding readers through a fully integrated account of his scientific, artistic, and technological works, as well as the life events that helped form the man that made them.

Mercury: An Intimate Biography of Freddie Mercury by Leslie-Ann Jones

After the massive success of the movie recently released about rock legend Freddie Mercury and his band, Queen, you might be interested in learning more about the frontman. This biography draws from hundreds of interviews with key figures in his life to create a revealing glimpse into Mercury’s life.

Empire: The Life, Legend, and Madness of Howard Hughes by Donald Barlett

This is an epic biography of an epic man. It shows the heights of his incredible success as well as the depths of his inner struggles. Readers learn about the tough but eccentric figure in a story that details his incredible success as an aviator, film producer, and more.

Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges

The brilliant mathematician, cytologist, and computer pioneer Alan Turing is beautifully depicted in this biography. It covers his heroic code-breaking efforts during World War II , his computer designs and contributions to mathematical biology in the years following, and the vicious persecution that befell him in the 1950s when homosexual acts were still a crime and punishable by law.

Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow

Of course, we couldn’t highlight Ron Chernow’s best works without including his biography on Alexander Hamilton , which is not only the inspiration for a hit Broadway musical but also a work of creative genius itself. Another more than 800-page book (an ongoing theme for Chernow biographies), this book details every knowable moment of the youngest Founding Father’s life, from his role in the Revolutionary War and early American government to his sordid affair with Maria Reynolds. If you’ve seen the musical, this book will help answer a lot of those burning questions that you may have.

Frida: The Biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera

The focal point of this biography is not the suffering that was endured by Frida Kahlo, but instead, her artistic brilliance and her immense resolve to leave her mark on the world. Herrera’s 1983 biography of one of the most recognizable names in modern art has since become the definitive account of her life.

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

Recommended reading for any adventurer or explorer -- the story of Christopher McCandless, aka Alexander Supertramp, who hitchhiked to Alaska and disappeared into the Denali wilderness in April 1992 only to have his remains discovered in his shelter five months later -- Into the Wild retraces his steps along the trek, attempting to discover what the young man was looking for on his journey. Krakauer delivers one of the best biography books in recent memory.

Prince: A Private View by Afshin Shahidi

Compiled after the superstar’s untimely death in 2016, this intimate snapshot into the life of Prince is largely visual. The author served as the musician’s private photographer from the early 2000s until his passing. You already know the expression, “a picture is worth a thousand words,” and in this case, they are worth a lot more.

Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter by Kate Clifford Larson

The “Kennedy Curse” didn’t bring forth an assassination or a mysterious plane crash for Rosemary Kennedy, although her fate might have been the worst of them all. As if her botched lobotomy that left her almost completely incapacitated weren’t enough, her parents then hid her away from society, almost never to be seen again. Penned by Kennedy scholar Kate Larson, the full truth of her post-lobotomy life is finally revealed.

Trump Revealed: The Definitive Biography of the 45th President by Michael Kranish and Marc Fisher

Love him or hate him, Donald Trump is likely the most divisive U.S. president of modern times. The comprehensive biography of Trump is reported by a team of award-winning Washington Post journalists and co-authored by investigative political reporter Michael Kranish and senior editor Marc Fisher. The book gives the reader an insight into Trump, from his upbringing in Queens to his turbulent careers in real estate and entertainment to his astonishing rise as the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination.

Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang

Most are familiar with the revolutionary Mao Zedong. This carefully curated biography by Jung Chang digs deeper into the life of the "Red Emperor." You won't find these interviews and stories about the world leader in history books alone. This extensive account of the man known simply as Mao begins with a horrific statistic: He was responsible for the deaths of more than 70 million people during his regime.

A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II by Sonia Purnell 

Biographies often give us the stories of people we know and love, but they can also reveal new stories about people that may have been lost to history. In her bestseller, Sonia Purnell tells the story of Virginia Hall, a prolific and heroic spy from World War II who took down the Axis Powers on one leg. 

Black Boy by Richard Wright

A standard biography is usually given by a historian after years and years of research and writing, but sometimes it’s better to go straight to the source. In his memoir, Richard Wright details his life as he recalls it as a black American in the 20th century. Black Boy is a harsh, painful, beautiful, and revealing read about race in the United States -- and about a towering figure of literature. 

Leonardo Da Vinci by Walter Isaacson

Isaacson represents the gold standard for contemporary biographers, and his tome on Leonardo da Vinci was a bestseller for a reason. Isaacson is able to show a detailed, intimate portrait of the most famous painter of all time from centuries away.

Shoe Dog by Phil Knight

Want to know how the biggest sports company of all time came to be? Hear it from the man himself. Phil Knight’s book takes you through how his little sneaker company in Oregon became the worldwide leader in sportswear. 

The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley

One of the most famous biographies ever, The Autobiography of Malcolm X remains a classic and an important read. Malcolm X’s politics, though controversial at the time and today, is a valuable and provocative perspective that will make you reconsider how you think about America and the American Dream. 

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

Long before becoming Jon Stewart’s successor on The Daily Show, Trevor Noah lived many, many lifetimes. Born to apartheid South Africa, Noah’s story is one of perseverance and triumph, and one that he manages to make funny by some sort of magic trick. 

The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl by Issa Rae

Of course, today, you know Issa Rae as the writer, actor, and star of HBO’s Insecure, but before her hit show came her webseries and book of the same name, The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl. Rae’s memoir wrestles with the idea of being an introvert in a world that considers Black people inherently cool.

Robin by Davie Itzkoff

One of the most beloved comedians and actors of all time, Robin Williams' passing in 2014 shook fans across generations. In his book, New York Times culture reporter Dave Itzkoff covers the life, work, and emotions of one of the most complicated and misunderstood comedians ever. Oh captain, my captain...

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Mark Stock is a writer from Portland, Oregon. He fell into wine during the Recession and has been fixated on the stuff since. He spent years making, selling, and sipping Pinot Noir in the Dundee Hills before a full return to his journalistic roots in 2016. He's helplessly tied to European soccer, casting for trout, and grunge rock. In addition to The Manual, he writes for SevenFifty Daily , Sip Northwest , The Somm Journal , The Drake , Willamette Week , Travel Oregon , and more. He has a website and occasionally even updates it: markastock.com .

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Summer is the time of year that a lot of people look forward to. The days are warm and long. For outdoor activities, there's a long and never-ending list. Grilling, camping, and running outside in the sunshine are great starters. But for most, it means enjoying activities involving bodies of water. Summer means it's time for spritzes, swim trunks, and some water fights. One never grows out of such things, especially when you have top-notch equipment and it's scorching outside.

This kind of battle is fun, refreshing, and a healthy way to combat your friends. So why don't you invite your family or best buddies over (it's also a fun team-building experience, looking at your corporate world) for a water gun match this summer? Indeed, they will be eager to get on the battlefield with you. If you want to sharpen your aiming skills in time for the fight, we've compiled a list of the best water guns for men this 2023.

It's never too late to be a kid. Sure, technically it is, but that's your adult brain at work. With the right state of imagination and a few helpful tools, you can relive your youth.

A great way to do so is by way of our favorite kind of weapon: the fake one. Nerf guns have ruled the category for generations, with their signature soft ammo and inventive designs. Best, they don't hurt anybody involved in a shootout. They'll take you straight back to the playground, with the sound of an ice cream truck and the distance and laughter all around. It's a healthy kind of battle, one that involves lots of exercise and carefree joy. Best, you're also an adult, so if you feel like having a beer or staying out a little later when the battle is over, you can.

Shopping for the best gifts for men can at times seem like a daunting task, whether it be for a birthday, an anniversary, or any gift in between. So, we decided to help you out and lend you a hand and make gift-giving a little less stressful with a thoughtfully curated list of tried-and-true gifts suited for men. And at times, no matter how well or how long you have known someone, you just don't know where to look.

From small everyday carry items and others from the cool tech world to experiences that help you disconnect to reconnect, we offer you a gift guide for every guy on your list or some nice ways to treat yourself, too. Ahead, you will find a list of the best practical gifts for every type of guy. With that being said, here are the best gifts for men in 2023.

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Nonfiction Books » Best Biographies

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Last updated: September 14, 2024

Whether you're looking for new biographies , or outstanding works written decades or even centuries ago, we have some recommendations. To help find a book about a specific person or group of people, we've set up the following lists:

The best historical biographies Some of our favourite philosophical biographies Lives of the classical composers The best literary biographies (Separately, we also have a section with interviews dedicated to specific literary figures , including, for example, an interview on Shakespeare’s life , recommended by James Shapiro of Columbia University). The lives of scientists Artists' lives

Five Biographies of Artists , recommended by Sue Prideaux

Caravaggio: a life sacred and profane by andrew graham-dixon, tove jansson: life, art, words by boel westin, young rembrandt by onno blom, surreal spaces: the life and art of leonora carrington by joanna moorhead, studio of the south: van gogh in provence by martin bailey.

From the Baroque painter who killed a man in Rome during the Counter-Reformation to the surrealist artist who left Britain and died in Mexico City in 2011, award-winning biographer Sue Prideaux talks to us about her favorite biographies of artists. Her new biography of Paul Gauguin, Wild Thing , is out this week and has been longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize.

The Best Memoirs: The 2024 NBCC Autobiography Shortlist , recommended by May-lee Chai

I would meet you anywhere: a memoir by susan kiyo ito, secret harvests: a hidden story of separation and the resilience of a family farm by david mas masumoto, rotten evidence: reading and writing in an egyptian prison by ahmed naji, translated by katharine halls, how to say babylon: a memoir by safiya sinclair, story of a poem: a memoir by matthew zapruder.

It's been a "phenomenal" year for autobiographical writing, says May-lee Chai —the award-winning author and chair of the judges for this year's National Book Critics Circle prize for autobiography. Here she offers us a tour of the five memoirs that made their 2024 shortlist.

It’s been a “phenomenal” year for autobiographical writing, says May-lee Chai—the award-winning author and chair of the judges for this year’s National Book Critics Circle prize for autobiography. Here she offers us a tour of the five memoirs that made their 2024 shortlist.

The Best Biographies of 2023: The National Book Critics Circle Shortlist , recommended by Elizabeth Taylor

G-man: j. edgar hoover and the making of the american century by beverly gage, the grimkés: the legacy of slavery in an american family by kerri k. greenidge, mr. b: george balanchine’s twentieth century by jennifer homans, metaphysical animals: how four women brought philosophy back to life by clare mac cumhaill & rachael wiseman, up from the depths: herman melville, lewis mumford, and rediscovery in dark times by aaron sachs.

Talented biographers examine the interplay between individual qualities and greater social forces, explains Elizabeth Taylor —chair of the judges for the 2023 National Book Critics Circle award for biography. Here, she offers us an overview of their five-book shortlist, including a garlanded account of the life of J. Edgar Hoover and a group biography of post-war female philosophers.

Talented biographers examine the interplay between individual qualities and greater social forces, explains Elizabeth Taylor—chair of the judges for the 2023 National Book Critics Circle award for biography. Here, she offers us an overview of their five-book shortlist, including a garlanded account of the life of J. Edgar Hoover and a group biography of post-war female philosophers.

Notable Memoirs of 2023 , recommended by Cal Flyn

Stay true by hua hsu, still pictures: on photography and memory by janet malcolm, pageboy: a memoir by elliot page, the light room: on art and care by kate zambreno, o brother by john niven.

Five Books deputy editor Cal Flyn selects the best recent autobiographical writing in this round-up of notable memoirs of 2023—taking in new work from such literary giants as Janet Malcolm and Annie Ernaux, the writer other writers are raving about, and a humorous debut depicting life in a haunted antiquarian bookshop.

The Best Literary Biographies , recommended by Lyndall Gordon

Selected essays by t s eliot, the ballad of dorothy wordsworth by frances wilson, reading chekhov by janet malcolm, lost in translation by eva hoffman, jane's fame by claire harman.

The inner life is a mystery but the best biographies expose the hidden kernel of a person, says literary biographer and academic, Lyndall Gordon . She picks five books that push the boundaries of the genre.

The inner life is a mystery but the best biographies expose the hidden kernel of a person, says literary biographer and academic, Lyndall Gordon. She picks five books that push the boundaries of the genre.

Award Winning Biographies of 2022 , recommended by Sophie Roell

All the frequent troubles of our days: the true story of the woman at the heart of the german resistance to hitler by rebecca donner, the last king of america: the misunderstood reign of george iii by andrew roberts, burning boy: the life and work of stephen crane by paul auster, the escape artist: the man who broke out of auschwitz to warn the world by jonathan freedland, super-infinite: the transformations of john donne by katherine rundell, chasing me to my grave: an artist's memoir of the jim crow south by winfred rembert.

In telling stories of lives that are often very different from our own and yet connected to us by our common humanity, biographies are some of the most compelling nonfiction books around. Five Books editor Sophie Roell rounds up some of the biographies that have won or been shortlisted for prizes in 2022.

The Best Memoirs: The 2022 NBCC Autobiography Shortlist , recommended by Marion Winik

A little devil in america: notes in praise of black performance by hanif abdurraqib, gay bar: why we went out by jeremy atherton lin, a farewell to gabo and mercedes: a son's memoir of gabriel garcía márquez and mercedes barcha by rodrigo garcia, a ghost in the throat by doireann ní ghríofa, concepcion: an immigrant family’s fortunes by albert samaha.

Autobiography is evolving; increasingly we find the field dominated by 'genre-fluid' books that plait memoir together with strands of cultural criticism, history, journalism or even poetry. Here, Marion Winik , the memoirist and critic, talks us through the five books that have been shortlisted in the National Book Critic's Circle autobiography category—and describes the face of memoir in 2022.

Autobiography is evolving; increasingly we find the field dominated by 'genre-fluid' books that plait memoir together with strands of cultural criticism, history, journalism or even poetry. Here, Marion Winik, the memoirist and critic, talks us through the five books that have been shortlisted in the National Book Critic's Circle autobiography category—and describes the face of memoir in 2022.

The Best Biographies: the 2021 NBCC Shortlist , recommended by Elizabeth Taylor

Stranger in the shogun's city: a japanese woman and her world by amy stanley, the price of peace: money, democracy, and the life of john maynard keynes by zachary d. carter, the dead are arising: the life of malcolm x by les payne & tamara payne, red comet: the short life and blazing art of sylvia plath by heather clark, the equivalents: a story of art, female friendship, and liberation in the 1960s by maggie doherty.

Elizabeth Taylor , the author, critic and chair of the National Book Critics' Circle biography committee, discusses their 2021 shortlist for the title of the best biography—including a revelatory new book about the life of Malcolm X, a group biography of artists in the 1960s, and a book built from a cache of letters written in Japan's shogun era.

Elizabeth Taylor, the author, critic and chair of the National Book Critics’ Circle biography committee, discusses their 2021 shortlist for the title of the best biography—including a revelatory new book about the life of Malcolm X, a group biography of artists in the 1960s, and a book built from a cache of letters written in Japan’s shogun era.

The Best of Biography: the 2020 NBCC Shortlist , recommended by Elizabeth Taylor

Gods of the upper air: how a circle of renegade anthropologists reinvented race, sex, and gender in the twentieth century by charles king, the queen: the forgotten life behind an american myth by josh levin, l.e.l.: the lost life and scandalous death of letitia elizabeth landon, the celebrated "female byron" by lucasta miller, our man: richard holbrooke and the end of the american century by george packer, a woman of no importance: the untold story of the american spy who helped win world war ii by sonia purcell.

How do you find the perfect subject for a biography? “Pick a real bitch, or real bastard, and make sure they're dead,” a famous biographer once told Elizabeth Taylor . The author, critic and chair of the National Book Critics' Circle biography committee talks us through the books that made their 2020 shortlist.

How do you find the perfect subject for a biography? “Pick a real bitch, or real bastard, and make sure they're dead,” a famous biographer once told Elizabeth Taylor. The author, critic and chair of the National Book Critics' Circle biography committee talks us through the books that made their 2020 shortlist.

The Best Fashion Biographies , recommended by Justine Picardie

The allure of chanel by paul morand, dior by dior by christian dior, shocking life by elsa schiaparelli, the unexpurgated beaton by cecil beaton (author), hugo vickers (editor), diana vreeland by eleanor dwight.

Justine Picardie , editor-in-chief of Harper's Bazaar UK and author of Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life , chooses her favourite fashion biographies, and considers whether fashion and art are inextricably linked.

Justine Picardie, editor-in-chief of Harper’s Bazaar UK and author of Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life , chooses her favourite fashion biographies, and considers whether fashion and art are inextricably linked.

We ask experts to recommend the five best books in their subject and explain their selection in an interview.

This site has an archive of more than one thousand seven hundred interviews, or eight thousand book recommendations. We publish at least two new interviews per week.

Five Books participates in the Amazon Associate program and earns money from qualifying purchases.

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The Best Reviewed Memoirs and Biographies of 2022

Featuring buster keaton, jean rhys, bernardine evaristo, kate beaton, and more.

We’ve come to the end of another bountiful literary year, and for all of us review rabbits here at Book Marks, that can mean only one thing: basic math, and lots of it.

Yes, using reviews drawn from more than 150 publications, over the next two weeks we’ll be calculating and revealing the most critically-acclaimed books of 2022, in the categories of (deep breath): Fiction ; Nonfiction ; Memoir and Biography; Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror; Short Story Collections; Essay Collections; Poetry; Mystery and Crime; Graphic Literature ; and Literature in Translation .

Today’s installment: Memoir and Biography .

Brought to you by Book Marks , Lit Hub’s “Rotten Tomatoes for books.”

1. We Don’t Know Ourselves by Fintan O’Toole (Liveright) 17 Rave • 4 Positive • 1 Mixed • 1 Pan

“One of the many triumphs of Fintan O’Toole’s We Don’t Know Ourselves is that he manages to find a form that accommodates the spectacular changes that have occurred in Ireland over the past six decades, which happens to be his life span … it is not a memoir, nor is it an absolute history, nor is it entirely a personal reflection or a crepuscular credo. It is, in fact, all of these things helixed together: his life, his country, his thoughts, his misgivings, his anger, his pride, his doubt, all of them belonging, eventually, to us … O’Toole, an agile cultural commentator, considers himself to be a representative of the blank slate on which the experiment of change was undertaken, but it’s a tribute to him that he maintains his humility, his sharpness and his enlightened distrust …

O’Toole writes brilliantly and compellingly of the dark times, but he is graceful enough to know that there is humor and light in the cracks. There is a touch of Eduardo Galeano in the way he can settle on a telling phrase … But the real accomplishment of this book is that it achieves a conscious form of history-telling, a personal hybrid that feels distinctly honest and humble at the same time. O’Toole has not invented the form, but he comes close to perfecting it. He embraces the contradictions and the confusion. In the process, he weaves the flag rather than waving it.”

–Colum McCann ( The New York Times Book Review )

2. Thin Places: A Natural History of Healing and Home by Kerri Ní Dochartaigh (Milkweed)

12 Rave • 7 Positive • 2 Mixed

“Assured and affecting … A powerful and bracing memoir … This is a book that will make you see the world differently: it asks you to reconsider the animals and insects we often view as pests – the rat, for example, and the moth. It asks you to look at the sea and the sky and the trees anew; to wonder, when you are somewhere beautiful, whether you might be in a thin place, and what your responsibilities are to your location.It asks you to show compassion for people you think are difficult, to cultivate empathy, to try to understand the trauma that made them the way they are.”

–Lynn Enright ( The Irish Times )

3. Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton (Drawn & Quarterly)

14 Rave • 4 Positive

“It could hardly be more different in tone from [Beaton’s] popular larky strip Hark! A Vagrant … Yes, it’s funny at moments; Beaton’s low-key wryness is present and correct, and her drawings of people are as charming and as expressive as ever. But its mood overall is deeply melancholic. Her story, which runs to more than 400 pages, encompasses not only such thorny matters as social class and environmental destruction; it may be the best book I have ever read about sexual harassment …

There are some gorgeous drawings in Ducks of the snow and the starry sky at night. But the human terrain, in her hands, is never only black and white … And it’s this that gives her story not only its richness and depth, but also its astonishing grace. Life is complex, she tell us, quietly, and we are all in it together; each one of us is only trying to survive. What a difficult, gorgeous and abidingly humane book. It really does deserve to win all the prizes.”

–Rachel Cooke ( The Guardian )

4. Stay True by Hua Hsu (Doubleday)

14 Rave • 3 Positive

“… quietly wrenching … To say that this book is about grief or coming-of-age doesn’t quite do it justice; nor is it mainly about being Asian American, even though there are glimmers of that too. Hsu captures the past by conveying both its mood and specificity … This is a memoir that gathers power through accretion—all those moments and gestures that constitute experience, the bits and pieces that coalesce into a life … Hsu is a subtle writer, not a showy one; the joy of Stay True sneaks up on you, and the wry jokes are threaded seamlessly throughout.”

–Jennifer Szalai ( The New York Times )

5.  Manifesto: On Never Giving Up by Bernardine Evaristo (Grove)

13 Rave • 4 Positive

“Part coming-of-age story and part how-to manual, the book is, above all, one of the most down-to-earth and least self-aggrandizing works of self-reflection you could hope to read. Evaristo’s guilelessness is refreshing, even unsettling … With ribald humour and admirable candour, Evaristo takes us on a tour of her sexual history … Characterized by the resilience of its author, it is replete with stories about the communities and connections Evaristo has cultivated over forty years … Invigoratingly disruptive as an artist, Evaristo is a bridge-builder as a human being.”

–Emily Bernard ( The Times Literary Supplement )

1. Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne by Katherine Rundell (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

14 Rave • 4 Positive • 1 Mixed

“Rundell is right that Donne…must never be forgotten, and she is the ideal person to evangelise him for our age. She shares his linguistic dexterity, his pleasure in what TS Eliot called ‘felt thought’, his ability to bestow physicality on the abstract … It’s a biography filled with gaps and Rundell brings a zest for imaginative speculation to these. We know so little about Donne’s wife, but Rundell brings her alive as never before … Rundell confronts the difficult issue of Donne’s misogyny head-on … This is a determinedly deft book, and I would have liked it to billow a little more, making room for more extensive readings of the poems and larger arguments about the Renaissance. But if there is an overarching argument, then it’s about Donne as an ‘infinity merchant’ … To read Donne is to grapple with a vision of the eternal that is startlingly reinvented in the here and now, and Rundell captures this vision alive in all its power, eloquence and strangeness”

–Laura Feigel ( The Guardian )

2. The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World by Jonathan Freedland (Harper)

12 Rave • 3 Positive

“Compelling … We know about Auschwitz. We know what happened there. But Freedland, with his strong, clear prose and vivid details, makes us feel it, and the first half of this book is not an easy read. The chillingly efficient mass murder of thousands of people is harrowing enough, but Freedland tells us stories of individual evils as well that are almost harder to take … His matter-of-fact tone makes it bearable for us to continue to read … The Escape Artist is riveting history, eloquently written and scrupulously researched. Rosenberg’s brilliance, courage and fortitude are nothing short of amazing.”

–Laurie Hertzel ( The Star Tribune )

3. I Used to Live Here Once: The Haunted Life of Jean Rhys by Miranda Seymour (W. W. Norton & Company)

11 Rave • 4 Positive • 1 Pan

“…illuminating and meticulously researched … paints a deft portrait of a flawed, complex, yet endlessly fascinating woman who, though repeatedly bowed, refused to be broken … Following dismal reviews of her fourth novel, Rhys drifted into obscurity. Ms. Seymour’s book could have lost momentum here. Instead, it compellingly charts turbulent, drink-fueled years of wild moods and reckless acts before building to a cathartic climax with Rhys’s rescue, renewed lease on life and late-career triumph … is at its most powerful when Ms. Seymour, clear-eyed but also with empathy, elaborates on Rhys’s woes …

Ms. Seymour is less convincing with her bold claim that Rhys was ‘perhaps the finest English woman novelist of the twentieth century.’ However, she does expertly demonstrate that Rhys led a challenging yet remarkable life and that her slim but substantial novels about beleaguered women were ahead of their time … This insightful biography brilliantly shows how her many battles were lost and won.”

–Malcolm Forbes ( The Wall Street Journal )

4. The Facemaker: A Visionary Surgeon’s Battle to Mend the Disfigured Soldiers of World War I by Lindsey Fitzharris (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

9 Rave • 5 Positive • 1 Mixed

“Grisly yet inspiring … Fitzharris depicts her hero as irrepressibly dedicated and unfailingly likable. The suspense of her narrative comes not from any interpersonal drama but from the formidable challenges posed by the physical world … The Facemaker is mostly a story of medical progress and extraordinary achievement, but as Gillies himself well knew—grappling daily with the unbearable suffering that people willingly inflicted on one another—failure was never far behind.”

5. Buster Keaton: A Filmmaker’s Life by James Curtis (Knopf)

8 Rave • 6 Positive • 1 Mixed

“Keaton fans have often complained that nearly all biographies of him suffer from a questionable slant or a cursory treatment of key events. With Buster Keaton: A Filmmaker’s Life —at more than 800 pages dense with research and facts—Mr. Curtis rectifies that situation, and how. He digs deep into Keaton’s process and shows how something like the brilliant two-reeler Cops went from a storyline conceived from necessity—construction on the movie lot encouraged shooting outdoors—to a masterpiece … This will doubtless be the primary reference on Keaton’s life for a long time to come … the worse Keaton’s life gets, the more engrossing Mr. Curtis’s book becomes.”

–Farran Smith Nehme ( The Wall Street Journal )

Our System:

RAVE = 5 points • POSITIVE = 3 points • MIXED = 1 point • PAN = -5 points

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25 Best Biographies: The Life Stories Every Man Should Read

Read them. Learn from them. Return to them.

Nothing tells us more about how to be alive now than learning from those who have gone before. And nothing captures their triumphs and disasters better than a book. We invited 25 writers to recommend a biography they love. Here are their picks of 25 lives well lived, 25 lives well told. Read them. Learn from them. Return to them.

1 | How To Live: A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty-One Attempts at an Answer by Sarah Bakewell (Vintage, 2010)

Recommended by Nick Hornby:

Sarah Bakewell’s book is a biography with a difference. Like every great life in the arts, Montaigne’s is hundreds of years long. He happens to have died in 1592, but his influence is everywhere: in Hamlet’s soliloquies, in every newspaper, on every blog. Montaigne, for better or for worse, invented the personal essay — really — and this singular book explores some of the ideas these essays raised, and traces Montaigne’s survival from generation to generation.

There’s a more conventional biography in here, too, but Bakewell manages to thread it into a philosophical self-help book about grief, conviviality, work, originality and a lot of other subjects that Montaigne wanted us to think about. As a consequence, How To Live is original, accessible, thoughtful, useful, and more fun than you’d ever have thought a 16th-century essayist could be.

I’d like to read a similar book about Elvis, or Shakespeare, or Dickens, or Jane Austen; sometimes the true greatness only emerges years, centuries even, after the last breath has been drawn.

Funny Girl by Nick Hornby is out now (Viking)

2 | Becoming a Poet: Elizabeth Bishop with Marianne Moore and Robert Lowell by David Kalstone (University of Michigan, 1989)

Recommended by Colm Tóibín:

Becoming a Poet by David Kalstone, is the story of the relationship between three poets: Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Lowell and Marianne Moore. Using letters and drafts of poems, he shows how Lowell and Moore did everything they could to influence and help and often patronise Elizabeth Bishop. Moore and her eccentric mother even rewrote one of Bishop’s poems for her, just as Lowell made one of Bishop’s stories into a poem, and later, without her permission, one of her letters into a sonnet.

Kalstone, who died in 1986, three years before the book was published, was a scholar with a light touch, a critic with a real interest in what lay behind poetic influence and inspiration. The book manages to tell the story of three sensibilities, and then shows us Bishop’s efforts to float away from her two mentors by writing slowly and meticulously about her childhood in Nova Scotia — some poems took her more than twenty years to complete — and then about Key West, where she lived for a decade, and then later her life in Brazil.

Kalstone’s style is elegant: he manages to make careful and sober judgements. His book is one of the great biographies.

Nora Webster by Colm Tóibín is out now (Viking)

3 | Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion, and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson by SC Gwynne (Scribner, 2014)

Recommended by Richard Ford:

I’m generally bored rigid by the Civil War. A boyhood in Mississippi will do that to you (or else turn you into a Republican). But SC Gwynne’s superb biography of Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson is a revelation — as is Jackson himself.

Gwynne is an especially informed and felicitous writer, while Jackson poses a challenge to the most resourceful student of human character. Jackson was a compendium of glaring opposites: a pious and uxorious homebody and failed science teacher, who transformed himself (in an absurd and bad cause) into the fiercest and most ingenious of battlefield generals.

A biography of his life, then, needs to, if not reconcile Jackson’s incongruities then at least to get them into the shapely sentences, yet Gwynne is truly remarkable at this.

Don’t let the title throw you off: this is a riveting book.

Let Me Be Frank With You by Richard Ford is now (Bloomsbury)

4 | Elia Kazan: A Life by Elia Kazan (Da Capo, 1988)

​Recommended by John Lahr:

Elia Kazan’s autobiography A Life is my favourite book on American theatre.

Kazan was a dynamo. Scratch anywhere in modern American theatre and you’ll find him. As an actor with The Group Theatre, he shouted “Strike, Strike, Strike!” in Clifford Odets’s Waiting for Lefty , the polemical anthem which launched Odets and The Group into stardom in the Thirties.

As a director, his psychological insight and sense of narrative structure helped to shape the most important plays of mid-century theatre: Thornton Wilder’s The Skin of Our Teeth , Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof ; Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman .

As if that weren’t enough, he co-founded the Actors Studio, which revolutionised acting, and was the first co-artistic director of Lincoln Centre. All the forces in American theatre come together, one way or another, in him.

At the centre of this furious energy and appetite for life was a combative outsider’s rage. His memoir is unique for its honesty, intimacy, and insight into all the great talents with whom he worked and into his own legendary struggle to be an artist and to be true to his political principles.

The scope of Kazan’s influence, the complexity of his personality and his psychological acumen place this memoir in a class by itself.

Nobody in 20th-century theatre had Kazan’s career, and no memoirist has left a more unabashed witness to the brilliance and barbarity of American individualism.

Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh by John Lahr is out now (Bloomsbury)

5 | The Life of Samuel Johnson LLD by James Boswell (1791)

Recommended by Adam Gopnik:

When it comes to biographies, I always return, in a shamelessly unimaginative spirit, to James Boswell’s The Life of Samuel Johnson .

The most unoriginal of choices, this dramatic biography of the life of a miscellaneous journalist remains the most original of books — in many ways the most original (and still inimitable) book in all the English language.

Instead of the slow-crawl, dutiful chronicling of the life of a great man, piety after piety and year after year, it is a collection of hyper-dramatised vignettes, sometimes comic — “I asked Dr. Johnson whether he thought any man of a modern age could have written such poems? Johnson replied, ‘Yes, Sir, many men, many women, and many children’” — sometimes passionate — “‘I am afraid I may be one of those who shall be damned’ (looking dismally). Dr. Adams: ‘What do you mean by damned?’ Johnson: (passionately and loudly) ‘Sent to Hell, Sir, and punished everlastingly’” — but always utterly alive.

I’ve been reading in it every night for 30 plus years, and never get even slightly bored, though I’ve sometimes wondered why Boswell’s dramatic technique remains so rarely imitated, even in biographies written by intimates of their subjects.

Winter by Adam Gopnik is out now (Quercus)

6 | Wilfred Owen by Dominic Hibberd (W&N, 2002)

Recommended by Philip Hoare:

In 2014 we were bombarded with more books about the World War I than bombs that fell in the trenches, so I dug out Dominic Hibberd’s brilliant Wilfred Owen .

Building on Jon Stallworthy’s wonderful first biography of 1974 (sadly, Stallworthy died last year), Hibberd brings a startling, if not counterfactual, new focus to bear on our most celebrated war poet. In 1914, Owen was a perfume salesman in Bordeaux, sporting a floppy fringe and hanging out with decadent anarchist poets. When he did enlist, the following year, it was not to fight for his country, but for poetry.

Hibberd’s biography was the first to deal openly with Owen’s sexuality. He shows that the power of Owen’s poems lies in his passion for the men under his command. Like many of my generation, Owen’s was the authentic voice of protest.

Indeed, his poems only became widely popular in the Sixties, when they were evoked in the opposition to Vietnam. Until Jane Potter’s much-anticipated edition of Owen’s letters emerges later this year, the anniversary of the Great War will have not produced any account so compelling as Owen’s verse, or as revealing as Hibberd’s prose.

The Sea Inside by Philip Hoare is out now (Fourth Estate)

7 | Chapter and Verse by Bernard Sumner (Bantam, 2014)

Recommended Irvine Welsh:

A biography should be able to spring surprises, even if you know the subject.

Bernard Sumner’s Chapter and Verse contained poignantly rendered family tragedies, told with warm humour and without a hint of self-pity, that the wider world and even close friends were often previously unaware of.

As well as showing a life saved and made by rock’n’roll, it illustrates somebody almost effortlessly negotiating the rapids of success and stardom, armed only with street smarts and laconic Manc wit.

The passage on a bitter council co-worker’s view on weight gain alone makes it essential. It's a must-read for all Joy Division and New Order fans.

A Decent Ride by Irvine Welsh is out 16 April (Cape)

8 | The Perfect Stranger by PJ Kavanagh (Carcanet, 1966)

​Recommended by David Nicholls:

I’ve read some wonderful memoirs over the years, from Blake Morrison’s classic And When Did You Last See Your Father? to, more recently, Damian Barr’s frank and touching Maggie and Me . But if I had to choose one, I think I’d go for The Perfect Stranger by PJ Kavanagh.

It’s a classic coming-of-age story following the young writer’s adventures from a Butlin’s holiday camp to Paris, Korea, Barcelona and Oxford, where he meets the “perfect stranger” of the title.

Funny, poetical, ultimately heartbreaking, it’s a lost classic, out of print for many years but due for republication soon.

Us by David Nicholls is out now (Hodder & Stoughton)

9 | Ever, Dirk: The Bogarde Letters edited by John Coldstream (W&N, 2008)

​Recommended by David Thomson

This is a life as told through the letters of Dirk Bogarde: a great actor, a fair writer of novels and memoirs, a man with a natural talent for gardens and houses and a seething enthusiasm for gossip and friendship.

He was gay (but not inclined to admit it), yet some of his most stimulating friendships were with women he adored. As edited (superbly) by John Coldstream, this book gives you the sound of his voice, the pleasure of having him as your host and the fascination of witty, personal letters that are hideously misspelled!

Yet through all the gaiety and humour, you perceive someone always acting and trying to hide a chill and a loneliness that emerge in real biographies of him. Instead, he wanted to be good company and “ever, Dirk”.

What more do you expect from a true biography than a sense of the act he was putting on? I’m not sure honesty makes for good biography or great actors.

Why Acting Matters by David Thomson is out on 23 April (Yale)

10 | Edie: An American Biography by Jean Stein (Cape, 1982)

Recommended by Andrew O'Hagan:

I find it hard to choose my favourite biography because I love so many. It could easily be James Boswell’s Life of Johnson , a deathless book filled with drama and comedy. (It’s a classic because it makes you realise what the art of biography means.) But what about Richard Ellmann’s biography of Oscar Wilde, Fred Laurence Guiles’ of Marilyn Monroe, Hilary Spurling’s two-volume masterpiece on Matisse, or Miranda Carter’s account of the lives of Anthony Blunt?

Whatever it is that makes a great biography, the element is in short supply. Yet the book I’ve decided to choose is different from most biographies; it’s more edited than authored, and it happens to be about a person who is quite marginal.

Edie by Jean Stein is the story of Andy Warhol’s associate Edie Sedgwick as told by those who knew her. Edie was a beautiful young socialite who made a splash in the underground art scene before dying of a drug overdose at the age of 28. It might not sound like much of a life, but great biographies are often a record of a period as much as a person, and Stein’s book is a brilliant book about the Sixties.

It also cuts to the core of what we now understand to be a general obsession with celebrity. The book is the first and best of what is called “oral biography”: the story is told through hundreds of interviews and is orchestrated with terrific brio.

The Illuminations by Andrew O’Hagan is out on 5 February (Faber)

11 | A Strong Song Tows Us: The Life of Basil Bunting by Richard Burton (2013, Infinite ideas)

Recommended by Iain Sinclair:

A culture, at any given time, can be judged by its poets. And by the way those poets are appreciated or ignored. In the ground beside a Quaker Meeting House, near Sedbergh, is the plain stone that serves as a memorial to the Northumbrian poet Basil Bunting. Bunting did not look for a biography. He kept predatory academics and gossipmongers at arm’s length. He burnt letters. The story, in so far as he wanted to tell it, was a single poem, Briggflatts: the myth of self as a memory-song or river echo. “Descant on Rawthey’s madrigal.”

But we want the mystery unpacked and explained. Richard Burton, in A Strong Song Tows Us , has been diligent. Bunting in prison as a conscientious objector during the First World War. Carousing with Hemingway in Paris. Hanging out with Ezra Pound in Rapallo. Diplomat and spy in Persia. Rescued from newspaper drudgery by young Tom Pickard. Feted by Allen Ginsberg. A man acclaimed, then reforgotten. Here is a life that covers most of the 20th century. It comes back in the end, to the sound heard in Briggflatts: the mason’s mallet spelling out a name for a gravestone.

London Overground: A Day’s Walk Around the Ginger Line by Iain Sinclair is out on 4 June (Hamish Hamilton)

12 | Anyone Who Had a Heart: My Life and Music by Burt Bacharach with Robert Greenfield (Harper, 2013)

Recommended by Mick Brown:

“I Say A Little Prayer”, “Walk on By”, “The Look of Love”, “This Guy’s in Love With You” – Burt Bacharach has been responsible for writing and producing some of the most memorable, and romantic, songs in post-war popular music, but he is also a highly entertaining, and surprisingly candid, raconteur. The Broadway lyricist Sammy Cahn once said of Bacharach that he was the only songwriter who didn’t look like a dentist. Rather, he was the epitome of cool, an urbane ladykiller as smooth as his orchestral arrangements, who plied his trade in a world of rapacious agents, self-destructive singers, broads, highballs and frequent dinners at Italian joints “where Sinatra liked to hang out”. This autobiography is vividly illuminating on the craft of the songwriter, Bacharach’s oddly distanced relationship with his lyricist Hal David, and the hurly-burly of life around New York's Brill Building — a kind of hit factory of Sixties pop music. It also spares nothing of an energetic love life featuring such walk-on players as the wonderfully named Slim Brandy (real name Shirley Orenstein), who danced in the line at the Sands Hotel in Vegas, and Tracy Fisher, a showgirl who owned a poodle named Killer and who, Bacharach notes laconically, “eventually wound up living with some low-level hood, who killed her on a boat.” Bacharach floats across the pages, radiating charm and talent as seemingly effortless as his melodies.

Tearing Down The Wall of Sound: The Rise and Fall of Phil Spector by Mick Brown is out now (Bloomsbury)

13 | Félix Fénéon, Aesthete and Anarchist in Fin-de-Siecle Paris by Joan Ungersma Halperin (Yale, 1989)

Recommended by Tom McCarthy:

This is an extraordinary biography (it took 25 years to write) of an extraordinary person. Félix Fénéon was an immaculately-dressed man-about-the-boulevards; a brilliant art critic who championed the Post-Impressionists at a time when the Academy dismissed them as irrelevant; editor of several literary magazines; and bomb-throwing anarchist who liked planting incendiary devices in flowerpots on the windowsills of restaurants packed with politicians and diplomats. When put on trial for acts of which he was self-evidently guilty, he charmed his way off the hook, and even had the jury rolling in their chairs (”It is alleged that I was seen talking with the German terrorist Kampfmeyer ‘behind a lamppost?’ But a lamp-post is round…”). Here is the outline of his “psychological novel” The Muzzled Woman : 1st Part: Uh! 2nd Part: Two purplish butterflies alight on Jacqueline’s zygomatic muscle. 3rd Part: Paul's Sa’s bed. 4th Part: The menacing eye of the lewd druggist. Did he actually write it? Of course not. Who needs to when the outline is that good? Later in life, he pioneered the three-line news-haiku, otherwise known as fait divers: It was his turn at nine-pins when a cerebral haemorrhage felled M. André, 75, of Levallois. While his ball was rolling, he ceased to be.

Satin Island by Tom McCarthy is out on 12 March (Vintage)

14 | The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert A Caro (1982- Knopf)

Recommended by Mark Lawson:

Most biographers devote a short part of their own life to a long stretch of somebody else’s, but US writer Robert A Caro has achieved more than a 1:1 ratio. President Lyndon Baines Johnson had a 32-year political career, culminating in the White House after JFK’s assassination; and Caro has so far spent four decades describing that CV. Starting work shortly after LBJ’s death in 1973, he published the first volume, The Path to Power , in 1982 and three more have appeared at intervals of roughly a decade, with the concluding fifth book (presidency and post presidency) currently under-way. The cumulative result is the greatest work ever written about the motives, tactics and consequences of elective power. Anyone contemplating taking a position from tennis club treasurer to Mayor of London should read the third book, <Master of the Senate>, a riveting account of beguiling rivals and opponents to do what you want. And, although there had been thousands of accounts of the Kennedy assassination by the time that Caro published The Passage of Power in 2012, his version, told from the viewpoint of Johnson on the floor of the following car, is the most intense and affecting. Caro never denies the vulgarity and corruption that were a part of LBJ but also shows that he did more to shape American society than JFK had. The Deaths by Mark Lawson is out now (Picador)

15 | Isak Dinesen: The Life of a Storyteller by Judith Thurman (St Martins, 1995)

Recommended Adam Thirlwell:

So often I’m distrustful of biography as a form, and especially the biographies of writers — all those novels reduced to psychosomatic neuroses! But I love Judith Thurman’s of Isak Dinesen. Now, I understand, Dinesen is not — not any more — the most famous of names. She was the author of the memoir Out of Africa , and a sequence of Gothic tales that’s unlike any other fiction in the 20th century. But then, Dinesen was unlike any other author. She was born into the Danish aristocracy. Her real name was Karen Dinesen; she published fiction in English as Isak Dinesen, then in Danish as Karen Blixen – which is also the name on her tombstone. But she was known in Denmark simply as Baronessen, the Baroness. And you need to read this biography not only for the outré details – like the dinner she once had with Carson McCullers, Arthur Miller, and Marilyn Monroe (Monroe, she said, reminded her of a lion cub) – but for the elegance of Thurman’s composition, which transforms a life into a patterned process. And that, amigos, is what biography should be.

Lurid and Cute by Adam Thirlwell is out now (Cape)

16 | Clothes Clothes Clothes, Music Music Music, Boys Boys Boys by Viv Albertine (Faber, 2014)

Recommended by Mark Ellen:

This is the most gripping and evocative rock memoir I’ve ever read. It opens like a black and white movie about a broken-home childhood in the late-Fifties, becomes a Grimm’s Fairy Tale of outrageous teenage adventure, then a punk pantomime with her game-changing all-girl band The Slits, then a brutally honest attempt to make sense of marriage, motherhood and middle-age with clothes, music and boys the three irresistible forces that steer her path and fire her imagination. Every split-second is so vivid and powerfully observed: the less than fragrant sex (Pistols, Mick Jones, Johnny Thunders), the head-warping drug episodes, the emotional highs and menstrual miseries of being a girl in a ballet dress playing electric guitar. Here’s a taste, Viv has run away with a friend to Amsterdam and is about to spend the night with a junkie (it’s 1970, she’s 15): “Out of the gloom a double mattress begins to materialise and, lounging on it, languishing behind a veil of smoke from a joint like the caterpillar in Alice In Wonderland , is an angelic boy with long golden ringlets. He looks us over and smiles.” That’s nothing: wait till she’s on tour with The Clash...

Rock Stars Stole My Life!: A Big Bad Love Affair With Music by Mark Ellen is out in paperback on 8 May (Coronet Books)

17 | Ball of Fire by Fred Trueman (Aldine, 1976)

Recommended by Richard Benson:

For a sport that prides itself on its chivalry, fair play and liking for cucumber sandwiches, cricket produces an awful lot of autobiographies with dodgy exposes and anger-management issues. Who can forget, for example, Ian Botham’s Eighties masterpiece Don’t Tell Kath , or Kevin Pietersen’s KP last year? Fred Trueman’s Ball of Fire, written with a ghost writer in 1976, is the snorty king of them all, a spectacular 150-page venting of arrogance, resentment, and Yorkshire chippiness. Trueman, active between 1949 and 1968, was arguably England’s greatest-ever fast bowler, controversial and aggressive. He later enjoyed a successful TV career as presenter and pundit. Ball of Fire features great anecdotes from his cricketing career, several blood-soaked, since this was a man who settled scores by breaking opponents’ jaws with bouncers. But it’s the drama (sample chapter titles: “The Curse of the Truemans”, “The White English Bastard”, “I Could Have Been Skipper!”) and furious showing off (“I bowled faster over a longer period than anyone else on earth”; “Some of those old-timers talked a load of old cock!”) that make it. Reading like a combination of Morrissey and Roy Keane, it’s as good an antidote to bland sports autobiographies as you’ll ever read. The Valley: A Hundred Years in the Life of a Family by Richard Benson is out now (Bloomsbury)

18 | James Joyce by Richard Ellmann (Oxford, 1959)

Recommended by Kevin Maher:

Over 800 pages of clear-cut analysis and no-nonsense insight, this is the book for anyone who’s made it as far as the third chapter of James Joyce’s Ulysses , glared at the opening words, “Ineluctable modality of the visible..”, and thought, “You know what? Fuck this!”

Because Ellmann’s biography of Joyce is not just a ten-years-in-the-making masterwork in its own right, described by Anthony Burgess as, “the greatest literary biography of the 20th century.” It is also the great calmative that approaches the work of Joyce without pretension, and makes it entirely comprehensible by simply rooting it back into the life of an affable Irish overachiever who once boasted of Ulysses, “I’ve put in so many enigmas and puzzles that it will keep the professors busy for centuries.”

Highlights here include a high-stakes 1902 face-off between Joyce and the much older (and more famous) WB Yeats in a Dublin café (think Michael Mann’s Heat, but with extra rhetorical flourishes) in which the younger man dismisses his elder as a pompous relic. Or the many wildly intimate letters sent between Joyce and eventual wife Nora Barnacle in which the writer expresses his desire to, in so many words, let her do pee-pee and poo-poo all over him.

But mostly what Ellmann gives you is a gorgeous portrait of an artist who was determined to transform his life into literature. And by documenting that life in dense, breathtaking detail, Ellmann brings the literature alive and, thankfully, finally, takes the enigmas and the puzzles to pieces.

Last Night on Earth by Kevin Maher is out on 2 April (Little, Brown)

19 | Penelope Fitzgerald by Hermione Lee (Chatto & Windus, 2013)

Recommended by Alan Hollinghurst:

Penelope Fitzgerald presents a special kind of problem for a biographer.

Known now as one of the finest English novelists of the Seventies and Eighties, she didn’t publish her first book till she was 59, and her last and greatest, The Blue Flower , until she was nearly 80.

For much of her long and difficult life, she was a genius in waiting, and in her famous old age became something of a tease about her own history. She wrote glancingly about her marriage and career in the novels she produced at first at the rate of one a year, and all fans of her fiction will have longed to know more.

In Hermione Lee she has found the supreme biographer, not only tirelessly interested in every detail of Fitzgerald’s life, but with a profound sense of the imaginative compulsions which produced her utterly original novels.

This is a masterpiece worthy of its subject.

The Stranger’s Child by Alan Hollinghurst is out now (Picador)

In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences by Truman Capote (Random House, 1966)

Recommended by David Vann:

I’ve written a portrait of a school shooter, a mass murderer, so I’m biased, but Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood is still the biography I remember most.

It was in some ways a life-destroying act of empathy, and maybe that’s what biography demands: the erasure of the author. I know that I will never write about another murderer.

He’s become a part of my life, made my view of America and of men much darker, and if I could go back, I would not have written the book. And I wasn’t very good at it. I became impatient, wanted him out of my life, and finished the book quickly after writing the initial article for Esquire in the US.

What Capote did was remain immersed in that dark place for years. He went beyond any safety. And because of that, what we can find in his book is a part of our humanity, a recognition. This is rare.

In Dave Cullen’s bestselling book, Columbine , by contrast, we have the great lie of American heroes overshadowing any willingness to look at ourselves. He spent ten years, but all wasted.

Aquarium by David Vann is out on 5 March (William Heinemann)

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The best biographies to read in 2023

• Nik Rawlinson

Discover what inspired some of history’s most familiar names with these comprehensive biographies

The best biographies can be inspirational, can provide important life lessons – and can warn us off a dangerous path. They’re also a great way to learn more about important figures in history, politics, business and entertainment. That’s because the best biographies not only reveal what a person did with their life, but what effect it had and, perhaps most importantly, what inspired them to act as they did.

Where both a biography and an autobiography exist, you might be tempted to plump for the latter, assuming you’d get a more accurate and in-depth telling of the subject’s life story. While that may be true, it isn’t always the case. It’s human nature to be vain, and who could blame a celebrity or politician if they covered up their embarrassments and failures when committing their lives to paper? A biographer, so long as they have the proof to back up their claims, may have less incentive to spare their subject’s blushes, and thus produce a more honest account – warts and all.

That said, we’ve steered clear of the sensational in selecting the best biographies for you. Rather, we’ve focused on authoritative accounts of notable names, in each case written some time after their death, when a measured, sober assessment of their actions and impact can be given.

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Best biographies: At a glance

• Best literary biography: Agatha Christie: A Very Elusive Woman by Lucy Worsley | £20
• Best showbiz biography: Let’s Do It: The Authorised Biography of Victoria Wood | £6.78
• Best political biography: Hitler by Ian Kershaw | £14

How to choose the best biography for you

There are so many biographies to choose from that it can be difficult knowing which to choose. This is especially true when there are several competing titles focused on the same subject. Try asking yourself these questions.

Is the author qualified?

Wikipedia contains potted biographies of every notable figure you could ever want to read about. So, if you’re going to spend several hours with a novel-sized profile it must go beyond the basics – and you want to be sure that the author knows what they’re talking about.

That doesn’t mean they need to have been personally acquainted with the subject, as Jasper Rees was with Victoria Wood. Ian Kershaw never met Adolf Hitler (he was, after all, just two years old when Hitler killed himself), but he published his first works on the subject in the late 1980s, has advised on BBC documentaries about the Second World War, and is an acknowledged expert on the Nazi era. It’s no surprise, then, that his biography of the dictator is extensive, comprehensive and acclaimed.

Is there anything new to say?

What inspires someone to write a biography – particularly of someone whose life has already been documented? Sometimes it can be the discovery of new facts, perhaps through the uncovering of previously lost material or the release of papers that had been suppressed on the grounds of national security. But equally, it may be because times have changed so much that the context of previous biographies is no longer relevant. Attitudes, in particular, evolve with time, and what might have been considered appropriate behaviour in the 1950s would today seem discriminatory or shocking. So, an up-to-date biography that places the subject’s actions and motivations within a modern context can make it a worthwhile read, even if you’ve read an earlier work already.

Does it look beyond the subject?

The most comprehensive biographies place their subject in context – and show how that context affected their outlook and actions or is reflected in their work. Lucy Worsley’s new biography of Agatha Christie is a case in point, referencing Christie’s works to show how real life influenced her fiction. Mathew Parker’s Goldeneye does the same for Bond author Ian Fleming – and in doing so, both books enlarge considerably on the biography’s core subject.

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1. Let’s Do It: The Authorised Biography of Victoria Wood by Jasper Rees: Best showbiz biography

Price: £6.78 | Buy now from Amazon

It’s hardly surprising Victoria Wood never got around to writing her own autobiography. Originator of countless sketches, songs, comedy series, films, plays, documentaries and a sitcom, she kept pushing back the mammoth job of chronicling her life until it was too late. Wood’s death in 2016 came as a surprise to many, with the entertainer taking her final bow in private at the end of a battle with cancer she had fought away from the public eye.

In the wake of her death, her estate approached journalist Jasper Rees, who had interviewed her on many occasions, with the idea of writing the story that Wood had not got around to writing herself. With their backing, Rees’ own encounters with Wood, and the comic’s tape-recorded notes to go on, the result is a chunky, in-depth, authoritative account of her life. It seems unlikely that Wood could have written it more accurately – nor more fully – herself.

Looking back, it’s easy to forget that Wood wasn’t a constant feature on British TV screens, that whole years went by when her focus would be on writing or performing on stage, or even that her career had a surprisingly slow start after a lonely childhood in which television was a constant companion. This book reminds us of those facts – and that Wood wasn’t just a talented performer, but a hard worker, too, who put in the hours required to deliver the results.

Let’s Do It, which takes its title from a lyric in one of Wood’s best-known songs, The Ballad of Barry & Freda, is a timely reminder that there are two sides to every famous character: one public and one private. It introduces us to the person behind the personality, and shows how the character behind the characters for which she is best remembered came to be.

Key specs – Length: 592 pages; Publisher: Trapeze; ISBN: 978-1409184119

Let's Do It: The Authorised Biography of Victoria Wood

2. the chief: the life of lord northcliffe, britain’s greatest press baron by andrew roberts: best business biography.

Lord Northcliffe wasn’t afraid of taking risks – many of which paid off handsomely. He founded a small paper called Answers to Correspondents, branched out into comics, and bought a handful of newspapers. Then he founded the Daily Mail, and applied what he’d learned in running his smaller papers on a far grander scale. The world of publishing – in Britain and beyond – was never the same again. The Daily Mail was a huge success, which led to the founding of the Daily Mirror, primarily for women, and his acquisition of the Observer, Times and Sunday Times.

By then, Northcliffe controlled almost half of Britain’s daily newspaper circulation. Nobody before him had ever enjoyed such reach – or such influence over the British public – as he did through his titles. This gave him sufficient political clout to sway the direction of government in such fundamental areas as the establishment of the Irish Free State and conscription in the run-up to the First World War. He was appointed to head up Britain’s propaganda operation during the conflict, and in this position he became a target for assassination, with a German warship shelling his home in Broadstairs. Beyond publishing, he was ahead of many contemporaries in understanding the potential of aviation as a force for good, as a result of which he funded several highly valuable prizes for pioneers in the field.

He achieved much in his 57 years, as evidenced by this biography, but suffered both physical and mental ill health towards the end. The empire that he built may have fragmented since his passing, with the Daily Mirror, Observer, Times and Sunday Times having left the group that he founded, but his influence can still be felt. For anyone who wants to understand how and why titles like the Daily Mail became so successful, The Chief is an essential read.

Key specs – Length: 556 pages; Publisher: Simon & Schuster; ISBN: 978-1398508712

The Chief: The Life of Lord Northcliffe Britain's Greatest Press Baron

3. goldeneye by matthew parker: best biography for cinema fans.

The name Goldeneye is synonymous with James Bond. It was the title of both a film and a video game, a fictional super weapon, a real-life Second World War plan devised by author Ian Fleming, and the name of the Jamaican estate where he wrote one Bond book every year between 1952 and his death in 1964. The Bond film makers acknowledged this in 2021’s No Time To Die, making that estate the home to which James Bond retired, just as his creator had done at the end of the war, 75 years earlier.

Fleming had often talked of his plan to write the spy novel to end all spy novels once the conflict was over, and it’s at Goldeneye that he fulfilled that ambition. Unsurprisingly, many of his experiences there found their way into his prose and the subsequent films, making this biography as much a history of Bond itself as it is a focused retelling of Fleming’s life in Jamaica. It’s here, we learn, that Fleming first drinks a Vesper at a neighbour’s house. Vesper later became a character in Casino Royale and, in the story, Bond devises a drink to fit the name. Fleming frequently ate Ackee fish while in residence; the phonetically identical Aki was an important character in You Only Live Twice.

Parker finds more subtle references, too, observing that anyone who kills a bird or owl in any of the Bond stories suffers the spy’s wrath. This could easily be overlooked, but it’s notable, and logical: Fleming had a love of birds, and Bond himself was named after the ornithologist James Bond, whose book was on Fleming’s shelves at Goldeneye.

So this is as much the biography of a famous fictional character as it is of an author, and of the house that he occupied for several weeks every year. So much of Fleming’s life at Goldeneye influenced his work that this is an essential read for any Bond fan – even if you’ve already read widely on the subject and consider yourself an aficionado. Parker’s approach is unusual, but hugely successful, and the result is an authoritative, wide-ranging biography about one of this country’s best-known authors, his central character, an iconic location and a country in the run-up to – and immediately following – its independence from Britain.

Key specs – Length: 416 pages; Publisher: Windmill Books; ISBN: 978-0099591740

Goldeneye: Where Bond was Born: Ian Fleming's Jamaica

4. hitler by ian kershaw: best political biography.

The latter portion of Adolf Hitler’s life, from his coming to power in 1933 to his suicide in 1945, is minutely documented, and known to a greater or lesser degree by anyone who has passed through secondary education. But what of his earlier years? How did this overlooked art student become one of the most powerful and destructive humans ever to have existed? What were his influences? What was he like?

Kershaw has the answers. This door stopper, which runs to more than 1,000 pages, is an abridged compilation of two earlier works: Hitler 1889 – 1936: Hubris, and Hitler 1936 – 1946: Nemesis. Yet, abridged though it may be, it remains extraordinarily detailed, and the research shines through. Kershaw spends no time warming his engines: Hitler is born by page three, to a social-climbing father who had changed the family name to something less rustic than it had been. As Kershaw points out, “Adolf can be believed when he said that nothing his father had done pleased him so much as to drop the coarsely rustic name of Schicklgruber. ‘Heil Schicklgruber’ would have sounded an unlikely salutation to a national hero.”

There’s no skimping on context, either, with each chapter given space to explore the political, economic and social influences on Hitler’s development and eventual emergence as leader. Kershaw pinpoints 1924 as the year that “can be seen as the time when, like a phoenix arising from the ashes, Hitler could begin his emergence from the ruins of the broken and fragmented volkisch movement to become eventually the absolute leader with total mastery over a reformed, organisationally far stronger, and internally more cohesive Nazi Party”. For much of 1924, Hitler was in jail, working on Mein Kampf and, by the point of his release, the movement to which he had attached himself had been marginalised. Few could have believed that it – and he – would rise again and take over first Germany, then much of Europe. Here, you’ll find out how it happened.

If you’re looking for an authoritative, in-depth biography of one of the most significant figures in modern world history, this is it. Don’t be put off by its length: it’s highly readable, and also available as an audiobook which, although it runs to 44 hours, can be sped up to trim the overall running time.

Key specs – Length: 1,072 pages; Publisher: Penguin; ISBN: 978-0141035888

5. Stalin’s Architect: Power and Survival in Moscow by Deyan Sudjic: Best historical biography

Boris Iofan died in 1976, but his influence can still be felt today – in particular, through the architectural influences evident in many mid-century buildings across Eastern Europe. Born in Odessa in 1891, he trained in architecture and, upon returning to Russia after time spent in Western Europe, gained notoriety for designing the House on the Embankment, a monumental block-wide building containing more than 500 flats, plus the shops and other facilities required to service them.

“Iofan’s early success was based on a sought-after combination of characteristics: he was a member of the Communist Party who was also an accomplished architect capable of winning international attention,” writes biographer Deyan Sudjic. “He occupied a unique position as a bridge between the pre-revolutionary academicians… and the constructivist radicals whom the party saw as bringing much-needed international attention and prestige but never entirely trusted. His biggest role was to give the party leadership a sense of what Soviet architecture could be – not in a theoretical sense or as a drawing, which they would be unlikely to understand, but as a range of built options that they could actually see.”

Having established himself, much of the rest of his life was spent working on his designs for the Palace of the Soviets, which became grander and less practical with every iteration. This wasn’t entirely Iofan’s fault. He had become a favourite of the party elite, and of Stalin himself, who added to the size and ambition of the intended building over the years. Eventually, the statue of Lenin that was destined to stand atop its central tower would have been over 300ft tall, and would have had an outstretched index finger 14ft long. There was a risk that this would freeze in the winter, and the icicles that dropped from it would have been a significant danger to those going into and out of the building below it.

Although construction work began, the Palace of the Soviets was never completed. Many of Iofan’s other buildings remain, though, and his pavilions for the World Expos in Paris and New York are well documented – in this book as well as elsewhere. Lavishly illustrated, it recounts Iofan’s life and examines his work in various stages, from rough outline, through technical drawing, to photographs of completed buildings – where they exist.

Key specs – Length: 320 pages; Publisher: Thames and Hudson; ISBN: 978-0500343555

Stalin's Architect: Power and Survival in Moscow

6. agatha christie: a very elusive woman by lucy worsley: best literary biography.

Agatha Christie died in 1976 but, with more than 70 novels and 150 short stories to her name, she remains one of the best-selling authors of all time. A new biography from historian Lucy Worsley is therefore undoubtedly of interest. It’s comprehensive and highly readable – and opinionated – with short chapters that make it easy to dip into and out of on a break.

Worsley resists the temptation to skip straight to the books. Poirot doesn’t appear until chapter 11 with publication of The Mysterious Affair at Styles, which Christie wrote while working in a Torquay hospital. Today, Poirot is so well known, not only from the books but from depictions in film and television, that it’s easy to overlook how groundbreaking the character was upon his arrival.

As Worsley explains, “by choosing to make Hercule Poirot a foreigner, and a refugee as well, Agatha created the perfect detective for an age when everyone was growing surfeited with soldiers and action heroes. He’s so physically unimpressive that no-one expects Poirot to steal the show. Rather like a stereotypical woman, Poirot cannot rely upon brawn to solve problems, for he has none. He has to use brains instead… There’s even a joke in his name. Hercules, of course, is a muscular classical hero, but Hercule Poirot has a name like himself: diminutive, fussy, camp, and Agatha would show Poirot working in a different way to [Sherlock] Holmes.” Indeed, where Holmes rolls around on the floor picking up cigar ash in his first published case, Poirot, explains Worsley, does not stoop to gather clues: he needs only his little grey cells. Worsley’s approach is thorough and opinionated, and has resulted not only in a biography of Christie herself, but also her greatest creations, which will appeal all the more to the author’s fans.

As with Matthew Parker’s Goldeneye, there’s great insight here into what influenced Christie’s work, and Worsley frequently draws parallels between real life events and episodes, characters or locations in her novels. As a result of her experiences as a medical volunteer during the First World War, for example, during which a rigid hierarchy persisted and the medics behaved shockingly, doctors became the most common culprit in her books; the names of real people found their way into her fiction; and on one occasion Christie assembled what today might be called a focus group to underpin a particular plot point.

Worsley is refreshingly opinionated and, where events in the author’s life take centre stage, doesn’t merely re-state the facts, but investigates Christie’s motivations to draw her own conclusions. This is particularly the case in the chapters examining Christie’s disappearance in 1926, which many previous biographers have portrayed as an attempt to frame her husband for murder. Worsley’s own investigation leads to alternative conclusions, which seem all the more plausible today, when society has a better understanding of – and is more sympathetic towards – the effects of psychological distress.

Key specs – Length: 432 pages; Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton; ISBN: 978-1529303889

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Best Biographies of All Time: Top 20 Most Interesting Reads

By Kathy Edens

Have you ever read a biography that was gripping enough to keep you turning pages long after you should’ve been asleep? If not, then maybe you’re not reading the right books.

We culled the best of the best from over a half dozen sources, and still can’t capture all the great biographies worth reading.

Here, in no particular order, are the best biographies that read as good as, if not better than, fiction.

Final Thoughts

1. unbroken: a world war ii story of survival, resilience and redemption by laura hillenbrand.

At once devastating and uplifting, Unbroken is the story of Louis Zamperini, from his incorrigible boyhood actions to the sport that turned him around and led him to the Olympics.

But then WWII came calling, changing Louis and testing his endurance and ingenuity. The story comes full circle when, decades later, Zamperini returns to Japan, not as a POW, but as an honored guest at the Olympics.

2. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

Henrietta herself didn’t lead a glamorous life, but her cells, taken without her knowledge, have led to such ground-breaking accomplishments as the polio vaccine.

These cells, known as HeLa, are one of the most important tools in medicine and have been bought and sold by the billions. They are still alive today, over sixty years after Henrietta’s death.

3. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

Fiction couldn’t be as suspenseful and seductive as this real story about a death in one of Savannah’s grandest mansions in 1981. Was it murder or self-defense?

Peeling the curtain back on well-bred society ladies, gigolos, and a Southern belle who epitomizes "the soul of pampered self-absorption," this book has everything from drag queens to a voodoo priestess. You can’t make this stuff up.

4. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

Imagine a young, well-to-do man who gave away all his money, abandoned his car and most of his possessions, then hitchhiked to Alaska and disappeared into the wilderness.

Four months later, hunters found his decomposed remains. This book tells the story of Christopher Johnson McCandless and his death in the wild.

5. Martin Heidegger: Between Good and Evil by Rüdiger Safranski

Heidegger, a great philosopher without whom there would be no Sartre or Foucault, also had many failures and flaws.

He made a pact with the devil, Adolf Hitler, and teetered between good and evil, brilliance and blindness. This book chronicles his ideas and his personal commitments and betrayals.

6. Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

Based on over forty interviews with Jobs and hundreds with family, friends, colleagues, competitors, and adversaries, Walter Isaacson’s biography reads like a roller coaster ride.

This is the unvarnished truth: Jobs cooperated, but had no control over what Isaacson wrote or even the right to read it before publication. Nothing was off-limits.

7. John Adams by David McCullough

John Adams was not just one of the founding fathers; he was a brilliant, fiercely independent, and always honest patriot totally committed to the American Revolution. McCullough intertwines politics, war, and social issues with love, religious faith, virtue, ambition, and betrayal to create one book you can’t put down.

8. Savage Beauty by Nancy Milford

Edna St. Vincent Millay was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize. She lived a flamboyant life in the Jazz Age alongside other literary heroes like F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Milford goes underneath the dazzling performance Edna puts on for the crowds and uncovers a rich and deep family connection between the three Millay sisters and their mother. One reviewer described it as a little bit Little Women with a touch of Mommy Dearest .

9. The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester

The creation of the Oxford English Dictionary was a thoroughly ambitious project that collected definitions from around the world.

There was one man, Dr. W. C. Minor, who contributed over 10,000, but the overseeing committee was stunned when they tracked him down to honor him. Dr. Minor, an American Civil War veteran, was an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane.

10. A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nasar

Another vivid story about a brilliant man teetering between genius and madness, this book reads like a suspense novel but is the true story of John Nash, a mathematical genius who slipped into madness.

Thanks to the support and loyalty of Nash’s admirers, he eventually won a Nobel Prize for triggering the game theory revolution.

11. Will in the World by Stephen Greenblatt

An interesting insight into how a young man from a small provincial town moves to London in the 1500s and becomes the greatest playwright of all time.

Showing Shakespeare as an acutely sensitive and talented boy, Greenblatt helps you see, hear, and feel how he became the world-renowned playwright against the rich backdrop of Elizabethan life.

12. Barracoon by Zora Neale Hurston

Author of Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston tells the gripping and horrifying story of one of the last-known survivors of the Atlantic slave trade.

This is the story of Cudjo Lewis, abducted from Africa and put on the last "Black Cargo" ship to arrive in the United States. Lewis was captured and put in bondage fifty years after the Atlantic slave trade was outlawed in the United States.

13. The Man Who Knew Infinity by Robert Kanigel

In 1913, a young unschooled Indian clerk wrote a letter to G. H. Hardy, a pre-eminent English mathematician, with several ideas about numbers.

Hardy realized the boy’s genius and arranged for Srinivasa Ramanujan to come to England. From the temples and slums of Madras to the courts and chapels of Cambridge University, the story of their journey together is inspiring and magical.

14. Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera

Mexican painter Frida Kahlo was a woman of extreme magnetism and originality thanks to her childhood experiences near Mexico City during the Mexican Revolution.

From a devastating accident that left her crippled and unable to bear children to her tempestuous marriage and intermittent love affairs, this is an extraordinary story of a 20th century woman who has become a legend.

15. Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly

During the Civil Rights Movement, no one knew the story of NASA’s African-American female mathematicians and their role in the space program.

Before Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, this group, called the "Human Computers," calculated the flight paths that would lead to historic achievements.

16. John Brown by W.E.B. Du Bois

A groundbreaking political biography, John Brown moved Du Bois from his comfortable life as an academic to a lifelong career in social activism.

John Brown was the first Caucasian man willing to die for the rights of black people. The narrative Du Bois presents is compelling and one that is rarely presented in our history books.

17. Enrique’s Journey: The Story of a Boy’s Dangerous Odyssey to Reunite With His Mother by Sonia Nazario

Award-winning journalist Nazario tells the vivid and engaging story of a Honduran boy’s unforgettable odyssey to reach his mother in the United States.

He has no money and only a slip of paper with his mother’s US telephone number. Enrique makes the hard and dangerous journey from Mexico the only way he knows how—clinging to the sides and tops of freight trains.

18. Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford

In an interesting twist to the usual depiction of bloodthirsty pillagers, Weatherford shows how Genghis Khan introduced many progressive advancements to the societies he conquered.

Khan abolished torture, brought universal religious freedom, and destroyed feudal systems wherever he went. This is an engaging story of how he helped form the Mongol empire.

19. Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War by Robert Coram

Boyd was a world-class fighter pilot whose machinations changed warfare and strategy not only in the air but on the ground and at sea.

He is the founder of our modern concept of maneuver warfare, and his way of analyzing and solving problems is used today in corporate boardrooms.

20. Eleanor Roosevelt by Blanche Wiesen Cook

Most first ladies didn’t do much beyond party planning, but Eleanor Roosevelt wanted to get things done.

Cook brings Roosevelt to life and shines a light on her political and social acumen in turning a meaningless position into one of power to influence and make change.

We didn’t want to stop here; there are so many more you should read. Let’s get a comprehensive list going in the comments below. What other unforgettable biographies did we miss?

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• Books About Death

12 Inspiring Biographies That’ll Change Your Perspective

Updated 09/26/2023

Published 06/17/2020

Kate Wight, BA in English

Contributing writer

Cake values integrity and transparency. We follow a strict editorial process to provide you with the best content possible. We also may earn commission from purchases made through affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Learn more in our affiliate disclosure .

Biographies and autobiographies are some of the most life-changing books that exist. They allow us to learn more about individuals, both famous and relatively unknown.

Jump ahead to these sections:

Best inspiring biographies, most inspiring autobiographies, inspiring autobiographies for children and young adults.

We may find we form a deep connection to a stranger when we read about them based on shared life experiences. Or we may just learn more about someone who has a totally different background. Most of all, we can find ourselves inspired by witnessing the way a person has lived their life. 

Here, we’ll explore some of the best memoirs and biographies published in recent years that will make you see the world in a new light. 

People often want to be moved by the world around them. We look to other people to inspire us so that we can learn and grow. The right sources of inspiration can help us believe in ourselves.

They can even transform the way we live our lives. These biographies are sure to inspire you and challenge you. 

1. Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder

Over the past several years, infectious diseases have dominated the national consciousness.

Global pandemics, the anti-vaccination movement, and preventative HIV medication are all part of this conversation. This biography focuses on the work of Dr. Paul Farmer. Farmer, a physician and anthropologist, fought tuberculosis in Haiti, Peru, and Russia. His story gives us hope that dedicated individuals are fighting to protect our health.  

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2. Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

In 1936, distance runner Louis Zamperini competed in the Berlin Olympics as a teenager, an astonishing feat. But while that would be a notable enough accomplishment to warrant a biography, it’s only the beginning of his story. 

In 1941 he was commissioned into the United States Air Force, where he served as a bombardier. When he was just 26 years old, his plane crashed into the Pacific Ocean on a search and rescue mission. Miraculously, he lived through the crash and went on to survive 47 days adrift at sea. Unfortunately, he was then captured in the Japanese-occupied Marshall Islands. He was taken to a prison camp and tortured as a POW for two and a half years until the end of World War II. 

Despite all of the ups and downs he encountered in his life, he discovered faith and the power of forgiveness. His story is proof that even after unimaginable hardship, the human spirit perseveres.  

3. Young Mandela by David James Smith

Many people know the name and the legacy of Nelson Mandela. He was a political leader, activist, and philanthropist who spent 27 years in prison, much of it in solitary confinement. His crime? Fighting to dismantle the oppressive South African apartheid regime. 

Upon his release, he became the first black president of South Africa and the first elected in a truly democratic election. Many people remember the benevolent, gray-haired Mandela from the latter part of his life.

This book focuses on his drive and leadership and his willingness to put himself on the line to invoke change. He is proof that one person can have enough of an impact to change the course of an entire nation.

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4. Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times by Thomas Hauser

Some people think celebrities and sports figures should keep their mouths shut about their personal beliefs and just do what they’re paid to do. One recent example of this is Colin Kaepernick. But sports figures have a lengthy history of fighting for their beliefs. Famed fighter Muhammad Ali was one of the earliest and most vocal. 

Like Kaepernick, his morals cost him years of his career. When he refused to be drafted to the Vietnam War as a conscientious objector, he was found guilty of draft evasion and stripped of his titles. But he appealed his decision all the way up to the Supreme Court, proving he was a tireless fighter in more ways than one.     

Biographies often focus on famous people, political figures, or other high-profile individuals. While celebrities also write memoirs, some of the most moving autobiographies come from people who are less well-known. Here are our picks for especially inspiring autobiographies.

5. Sully: My Search for What Really Matters by Chesley B. Sullenberger with Jeffrey Zaslow

On January 15, 2009, Americans were riveted by news reports of a near tragedy. A US Airways flight was forced into making an emergency landing after both of its engines were taken out by a flock of Canada geese.

Miraculously, pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger and his co-pilot were able to land the plane on the Hudson River without a single life lost. This story shows that on an average workday, a regular person can become a hero.      

6. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott

Bird by Bird is ostensibly a guide to help aspiring writers hone their craft. But it is so much more than that.

Lamott meditates on her awkward childhood, her history of addiction, and her journey toward faith. She also delves into deeply painful topics like the death of her beloved father.

This book shows how you can mine all your life’s experiences in aid of helping you tell compelling stories. It also demonstrates that you can overcome an incredible array of challenges and become a teacher and leader.  

7. Educated by Tara Westover

We trust our parents to prepare us for the world around us. Tara Westover’s parents raised her as a survivalist in the mountains of Idaho. She stewed herbs and canned fruits to sustain her family through the winter. What her parents didn’t do was allow her to seek an education or medical care.

At the age of 17, Westover stepped foot in a classroom for the first time in her life. She taught herself math and grammar and made it into college, and has traveled the world in pursuit of knowledge. Her story shows we can overcome the most hardscrabble and deprived upbringing.  

8. When I Fell From the Sky by Juliane Koepcke

When she was just 17, Koepcke miraculously survived a plane crash. Lightning struck her plane midflight and tore it apart. She plummeted two miles to the earth, still strapped to her seat.

She was flung far enough away from the wreckage that she had to spend 11 days navigating her way through the wilderness, even with grievous wounds. This tale of perseverance is unparalleled. 

Kids and young people often gravitate towards fictional stories. But autobiographies can be a great way to get them more interested in nonfiction books.

All children need people to look up to. These autobiographies can inspire the next generation to follow their dreams.  

9. I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai with Christina Lamb

For a lot of kids, school is tedious and boring. For Malala Yousafzai, the chance to go to school was worth risking her life. Malala grew up in the Swat Valley of Pakistan, which was seized by the Taliban. This extremist group is opposed to girls receiving any form of education. Malala refused to be intimidated and continued seeking an education. 

She nearly paid the ultimate price. When she was just fifteen years old, she was shot point-blank in the head on her bus ride home from school. Miraculously she survived and inspired the world with her courage and perseverance.   

10. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

The atrocities perpetrated against Jewish people during World War II can feel far removed from modern times. This memoir brings the harsh reality of living in Nazi-occupied Holland to life.

Anne Frank and her family spent two years living in hiding in cramped quarters. But the war is really just the backdrop. This memoir provides a human face to the sweeping historical injustices of the 1940s. It’s impossible to read the inner thoughts of a thirteen-year-old girl and not feel personally connected to her struggles.    

11. Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

Jacqueline Woodson is a Newbery Honor award-winning author who is known for her poetic and evocative writing style. In her memoir-in-verse, Brown Girl Dreaming , Woodson talks about what it was like growing up as a young African-American girl in the 1960s.

In particular, she talks about the juxtaposition of living in New York vs. the segregated town of Greenville, South Carolina. This book will be especially inspiring for young African-American girls who don’t always get to see characters that look like them. 

12. Firebird by Misty Copeland

Misty Copeland is a ballet dancer for the American Ballet Theatre (ABT). The ABT is one of just a few leading classical ballet companies in the United States. In 2015, Copeland became the first African-American principal dancer in the company’s 75 years of existence.

This children’s book depicts a young ballerina who, much like Copeland herself, gets to dance the lead role in Firebird . It’s a great inspiration for children to show that they can achieve their dreams through hard work and dedication. 

Read These Inspirational Biographies for a Brand-New Perspective

There are so many books to read before you die . In truth, there’s no way to read all of the books you want to. But if you’re looking for inspiration, there’s nothing like a good memoir or biography to really move you.

Every one of us, young and old, can find something in someone else’s story to challenge us to become better. Someone’s life story told well can change your own life. 

If you're looking for more recommendations, read our guides on the best inspiring fiction and non-fiction books .

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Home / Book Writing / The Best Biography Books of All Time: My 10 Personal Favorites

The Best Biography Books of All Time: My 10 Personal Favorites

I love great biography books. Whether it's about a hero, celebrity, business mogul, or dastardly villain, biographies give an amazing insight into the mindset of success and hard work.

And while biographies aren't necessarily white-knuckle page-turners or complex Lit-RPG , they're sure to provide an interesting read.

In this article, you will learn:

• The importance of a biography – both as a writer and a reader
• Our top picks for the best biographies of all time

Table of contents

• Our Best Biography Books
• Biographies for Readers
• Biographies for Writers
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
• Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin
• Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. by Ron Chernow
• Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson
• The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder
• Bohemian Rhapsody: The Definitive Biography of Freddie Mercury by Lesley-Ann Jones
• The Kid: The Immortal Life of Ted Williams by Ben Bradlee Jr
• The Bradbury Chronicles: The Life of Ray Bradbury by Sam Weller
• Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar by Simon Sebag Montefiore
• The Stan Lee Story by Roy Thomas
• What Do You Think Of Our Best Biography Books List?

Mind you, this is a highly subjective article. If you don't see your favorite biography on this list, let us know in the comments below what you believe deserves to be on this list and why. And with that, let's jump right into some good lessons and even better titles.

• Titan: The Life of John D Rockefeller, Sr. by Ron Chernow
• Bohemian Rhapsody: The Definitive Biography of Freddie Mercury by Leslie-Ann Jones
• The Kid: The Immortal Life of Ted Williams by Ben Bradlee Jr.

Why Are Biographies Important?

Often glossed over, a biography holds much more than just the story of someone's life. While the stories can be entertaining, there is another value to reading and writing biography books.

When looking at what can be gained by readers through biographies, three main points come to mind.

• Biographies provide real-life lessons.

There's an old piece of advice that I'm sure everybody has heard before, “Learn from others' mistakes.” And while we might not necessarily follow that as we should, it's sound advice. By reading biographies, you can see where other people made their mistakes and learn from them in the process. Biography subjects can be mentors if you'll let them.

• Biographies are inspiring.

Most of the time, biographies focus on great people accomplishing great deeds. Reading about them will surely light a fire underneath you and provide the inspiration you need to conquer whatever obstacles stand in your way.

• Biographies allow you to walk a mile in someone else's shoes.

Sometimes it's necessary to see things from a different perspective. Doing so can be truly enlightening. Biographies shine a light into why someone acted the way they did, giving you fresh insight.

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Readers of biographies aren't the only people to benefit from them. Those who write biographies go through the learning process themselves. Here are a few benefits authors of biographies might glean.

• They come with their own subject matter.

While careful research must be done to write a good biography, it can be helpful to have a life's worth of adventures to work with. If you're struggling to come up with a new story for a book, consider telling someone else's story.

• They will humble and humanize you.

A biography humbles its author. You may be one of the most successful writers ever; but when writing a biography, you're writing about somebody else's success and their life. It kind of puts things into perspective. You get an outside look at how life operates and how people react to ups and downs. You'll see that you're a part of something much bigger than yourself. This will allow you to learn from your subject's trials and tribulations.

I recommend sharing what you personally learned from your research in the preface part of your book. Let readers know how writing the biography has made you a better person and more aware. That will make readers excited to potentially experience a similar transformation.

[click_to_tweet tweet=”Looking for the Best Biography Books of All Time? Check out our list here on Kindlepreneur! #amwriting #reading #biographies” quote=”Looking for the Best Biography Books of All Time? Check out our list here on Kindlepreneur!”]

Our Top Picks for the Best Biography Books of All Time

Here are our picks for the best biographies of all time. These are listed in no particular order, as it was already hard enough to narrow them down this much.

About the Biography:  This biography focuses on the life of Henrietta Lacks. A simple tobacco farmer, Henrietta unwittingly became one of the largest contributors to modern medical science. Back in 1951, Henrietta visited The Johns Hopkins Hospital where a large cancerous tumor was found on her cervix. Samples of these cancer cells ended up being collected and, unbeknownst to her, sent to a nearby tissue lab for experimentation. Her cells (now called HeLa cells) were very special compared to everyone else's. Instead of dying under stressful conditions, hers would double in number! Further experimentation led to many scientific breakthroughs, including the polio vaccine. It was only 20 years later–and after Henrietta's passing–that her family actually found out what happened.

About the Author: Rebecca Skloot has a very interesting writing background. She's been a professor for both creative writing and science journalism at the University of Pittsburgh, University of Memphis, and New York University. And she's got a rather prolific writing portfolio. She's published over 200 short stories and essays, but nothing quite took off like The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

Why We Chose This Biography: When this book came out in 2010, it was one for the record books. It was not only selected as a notable book by the New York Times — 60 different major publications named it as the best book of the year! This biography has garnered so much attention over the past decade, with Oprah Winfrey even producing an HBO film on it.

About the Biography: When Lincoln won the presidency, his rivals were shocked and dismayed. Lincoln became the victor due to his high capacity to relate to the common folk and his overwhelming sense of poise and decency. That ability allowed him to develop one of the most unusual presidential cabinets in history. One made up of his politically experienced and headstrong rivals.

About the Author:  Doris Kearns Goodwin is an American political biographer. She has written biographies for several other American presidents including Lyndon B Johnson, Theodore Roosevelt, and William Howard Taft. In 2005, she won the Lincoln Award (Best Book about The Civil War) for Team of Rivals  and parts of it were used for the basis of the 2012 Steven Spielberg film, Lincoln .

Why We Chose This Biography:  Many people would say that Abraham Lincoln was one of the greatest United States Presidents to hold the office. Though his life was shortened by assassination, he made a huge impact on the American Union and history itself. One of the ways he was able to do so was by bringing the people together–friends and enemies alike. And the masterful writing from Goodwin only accentuates how much impact Lincoln actually had.

About the Biography:  Titan explores the life of the world's first billionaire — oil magnate, John D. Rockefeller, Sr. This biography talks about Rockefeller's humble beginnings and how he rose through the corporate ladder to become one of the most powerful men in history. The biography has cameos from major players such as Joseph Pulitzer, William Randolph Hearst, JP Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, and many more. This has been touted as one of America's great biographies by Time Magazine .

About the Author: Beginning his career in freelance journalism, Ron Chernow quickly evolved into one of the foremost biographical writers in the United States. Although he pursues writing full time now, he still contributes articles to publications such as The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal .

Why We Chose This Biography:  Even long after his death, Rockefeller is one of the greatest business inspirations for any budding entrepreneur. He truly defined and set the term “industry titan,” and there's still so much that we can learn from his practices.

About the Biography:  This 2008 Audie Award winner tells the story of how an awkward, impatient patent clerk became one of the greatest scientific minds of all time. The book covers the entirety of Einstein's life, from the common misconception that he wasn't good at math to his involvement in World War I and II. Isaacson also covers Einstein's Physics achievements and his formulation of the General Theory of Relativity. This is one of the best biography books for anyone interested in politics, physics, or personal achievement.

About the Author:  Walter Isaacson has quite the resume. He's been the managing editor at Time , CEO of CNN, and CEO of the Aspen Institute. He's made a household name for himself through his biographies of Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs, Ben Franklin, Leonardo da Vinci, and Henry Kissinger.

Why We Chose This Biography:  Albert Einstein has become synonymous with the word ‘genius.' If you were to create a top 10 list of the most influential minds in history, there's a good chance he'd be on it. And when you have his life presented to you by the legendary biographical author Walter Isaacson…You're in for one heck of a read.

About the Biography:  Warren Buffett is one of the richest men in America and one of the most respected. Known for showing great humility, he has been shrouded in enigma as he lives a very private life (until this biography anyway). Entrusting his life story to Alice Schroeder, Alice writes the book that Buffett claims he never could.

About the Author:  Alice is an American former insurance analyst and writer. She caught the attention of Warren Buffett through her writing skills and was entrusted to tell his story. After her success with The Snowball , you'll catch more of her writing in columns for T he Bloomberg News .

Why We Chose This Biography:  Warren Buffett is a wildly successful businessman who's made some of the best decisions when it comes to investing in the stock market. And at the same time, he does it with the utmost degree of modesty. He's a huge role model for just about anybody trying to make it in life. So when he finally decided to sit down with someone to tell his story…I'm gonna listen. Or read it.

About the Biography:  Bohemian Rhapsody is the Freddie Mercury biography that you never knew you needed. This book primarily focuses on the period in the 1980s where Queen began to fragment–namely before Live Aid. It's been described as an emotional roller coaster, taking the reader through Freddie's childhood in India and Zanzibar to his wilder years in the '70s and '80s.

About the Author:  Lesley-Ann Jones is an English author and journalist. Most of her works revolve around rock and roll and pop superstars. She's a top-notch writer and captured Freddie at his most real in this biography.

Why We Chose This Biography: Many would agree that Freddie Mercury had one of the most electrifying voices in the history of rock and roll. However, it wasn't just Freddie's four-plus octave range that made him so controversial. His battles with societal norms, his sexuality, and AIDS keep him in the public light to this day. If you're a fan of Queen or of music in general, this is an amazing look into the life of an even more amazing artist (and one of the best biography books).

About the Biography:  Ted Williams is a Boston Red Sox legend. And one of the greatest (if not the GOAT) hitters to ever play the game. He put up numbers so awe-inspiring that players today are still struggling to reach them. Not only that, he served as a US Marine pilot in the Korean War for five years. Ted had a rather volatile domestic life. This biography explores the peaks and valleys of this baseball legend both on and off the field.

About the Author:  As the son of the famous Watergate reporter, Ben Bradlee Sr., Bradlee Jr. has made an enormous name for himself through his own writing. Spending most of his career as an editor at The Boston Globe , Bradlee helped see the paper to a Pulitzer Prize in 2003. His biography on Ted Williams became a New York Times Bestseller. Slated to become a TV miniseries, this is a story you'll definitely want to read.

Why We Chose This Biography:  For those of you who don't know, I'm an avid Red Sox fan. Seriously, there's nothing like being at Fenway staring down the Green Monster. I chose this biography because you get to see this idolized baseball legend for everything he was. Most people never think about what their sports heroes are like off the field. This one had me reading late into the night as I couldn't put it down.

My Ted Williams signed baseball. You can see it on the white shelves behind me in my videos.

I respect a lot of things about Ted Williams. He was a jet pilot in WWII and Korea. Even when he was at his prime, he still willingly went to war. And really fought…not just signed autographs and paraded around for War Bonds. Even when shot down behind enemy lines in Korea, Ted Williams made his way back to safety and ultimately back to baseball.

This book humanizes Ted and shows every facet of his life–the rough and the polished.

About the Biography:  This biography tells the story of prolific Sci-Fi writer Ray Bradbury, from his beginnings in a small town in Illinois to his feuds on the silver screen with various film and television personalities. After hundreds of hours spent with Ray, the author and he became close friends. This adulation can be detected throughout the book in Weller's writing style.

About the Author:  Sam Weller has made his career as an accomplished journalist through reporting on the life of Ray Bradbury. He is an LA Times Bestseller and is the recipient of the 2005 Society of Midland Authors Award for Best Biography for The Bradbury Chronicles .

Why We Chose This Biography:  As a Sci-Fi enthusiast, I understand the impact that Ray Bradbury made on the genre–even on short stories in general. Influenced by his environment, this biography provides a unique angle into Bradbury's work.

About the Biography: The best Biography books aren't always about the heroes in life. This biography is about one of the most fierce villains of all time: Joseph Stalin. This book primarily focuses on after his rise to absolute power. It goes into excruciating detail about the actions of the madman and his court. Due to the emotionally disturbing scenes littered throughout this book, I recommend this for mature readers only.

About the Author:  Simon Sebag Montefiore has a very accomplished and varied resume. Writing fiction and non-fiction books for both children and adults, his career as a British historian spreads across a vast audience. His biography on Stalin, though, received the Best History Book of the Year at the 2004 British Book Awards.

Why We Chose This Biography: There's an old adage that says, “Those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. ” And while this does sound very cliché… clichés exist for a reason. This book is a tough read — not necessarily because of the language, but because of the subject matter. It's somewhat difficult to imagine one man was capable of so many monstrosities. It's important to understand so we as a society can stop similar events from happening again.

About the Biography:  The story of Stanley Leiber–or Stan Lee–is a must-read for every comic lover. This full-feature biography goes through the steps of how Stan Lee and Jack Kirby became the Kings of Comics and beloved worldwide. Co-creator of some of Marvel's (and Earth's) mightiest heroes, Stan Lee helped build the legends of Wolverine, Ultron, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Carol Danvers–aka Captain Marvel–and so many more! This physically over-sized book portrays just how gigantic Lee was. It comes complete with full-sized illustrations and even a note from Stan the Man himself. Excelsior!

About the Author: Roy Thomas is a comic book writer and editor. Among his other achievements, he is also the first successor to Marvel Comics after Stan Lee himself. He is one of the writers responsible for ushering in the Golden Age of Comics.

Why We Chose This Biography:  If you're a comic book nut like me, this has got to be on your reading bucket list. Without a doubt, Lee sculpted the modern comic book industry. From blockbuster movies, games, and new weekly comic issues, fans feel Stan Lee's influence in each universe–Marvel, DC, or independent.

Out of all the available stories out there, these are the top ten best biography books I've chosen. However, this list is completely subjective. And I'd love to hear from you. What are your favorites?

Let me know which ones I've missed on social media. I'm always looking for new books to add to my reading list!

Dave Chesson

When I’m not sipping tea with princesses or lightsaber dueling with little Jedi, I’m a book marketing nut. Having consulted multiple publishing companies and NYT best-selling authors, I created Kindlepreneur to help authors sell more books. I’ve even been called “The Kindlepreneur” by Amazon publicly, and I’m here to help you with your author journey.

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76 thoughts on “ The Best Biography Books of All Time: My 10 Personal Favorites ”

Great idea and great list Dave. I LOVE biographies, they are a wonderful and personal access to history through the life of a leader.My shortlist:1. William Manchester, “The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill,” in 3 volumes, so that counts as 3 ;-)4. Michael Lewis, “The Undoing Project,” about the partnership between Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky who single-handedly disrupted economic wisdom and invented the field of behavioral economics.5. Barbara Tuchman, “Stillwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-1945,” about General Stillwell who was at least as brilliant as Patton or Marshall.6. Blanche Wiesen Cook, “Eleanor Roosevelt”, a 2-volume series about FDR`s first lady who created the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. That again counts for 2 books ;-)8. Shlomo Avneri, “Theodor Herzl and the Foundation of the Jewish State,” about the visionary who dreamed up and laid the foundation for modern Israel.9. Taylor Branch, “Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-63,” a compelling biography of the civil rights leader.10. Walter Isaacson, “Steve Jobs” (I also loved Isaacson`s Einstein: His Life and Universe, but since you list that already, I recommend his Jobs biography, which shows the path-breaking entrepreneur, warts ‘n’ all).Enjoy.Thomas D. Zweifel Author of 8 books, including the award-winning “Strategy-In-Action” and “The Rabbi and the CEO”that became bestsellers thanks to Dave Chesson`s insight

Hi Dave,Great list of biographies and good insights into the value of reading bios.May I suggest a biography in the occult genre, Brother XII: The Strange Odyssey of a 20th-century Prophet, the story of Edward Arthur Wilson, mystic, visionary, prophet and prototypical cult leader.The details of this fascinating story are at my website brotherxii.com , which you might like to check out, as it gives a good illustrated synopsis of this strange saga.Josh Gates did an episode on Brother XII recently, œSecrets of Brother XII,  though the book itself has far more detail, and is based on interviews with former disciples and Brother XII ‘s private papers.Thanks for all the great work you do for authors.

Thanks and looks great!

Dave… Great list of Biographies! When you said, “Those who write biographies go through the learning process themselves” you were right on. However, there is a special learning process that authors who write their own autobiographies go through. The power of the story depends a lot on if you are writing about happy memories or ones permeated in pain, suffering and abuse. Five years ago as an unknown, first-time, self-published author, I decided to write my true-life story. As you start writing, you remember (and relive) what really happened and not the way you would have liked things to happen. One is factual and the other enters the realm of fiction.If your story is harrowing, as mine is, it is not only difficult to write, edit, and rewrite, but narrating your own audiobook can be an unimaginably disturbing experience. There were many times I broke down and could not continue for days just having to relive what I was subjected to for the first 16 years of my life.However, writing your autobiography is a tremendously healing process and allows you to see that what happened did not happen “to you” but happened “for you” in the end. Insight into Life is the reward for any author who is bold enough to write their pain and for any reader who is brave enough to experience it with them. – Linda Deir, author of “GUIDED” – Winner of the Int’l Body-Mind-Spirit Book Award.

Oh, That is some really good points. have not written an autobiography…not quite there yet but I’ll keep this in mind!

Hi Dave, thank you for an excellent idea, and some Interesting titles. I actually have four in my Audible library or wish list. And I will be keen to get the Ray Bradbury one. My list of 10 are below. Clearly subjective, but by its very nature that is always the case. ERIC`s 10 FAVOURITE BIOGRAPHIES / AUTOBIOGRAPHIESSurname / First Name / Title / Subject Albom Mitch TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE Morrie Schwartz Esterhaus Joe HOLLYWOOD ANIMAL Joe Esterhaus Eyman Scott JOHN WAYNE, The Life and Legend John Wayne Granger Stewart SPARKS FLY UPWARDS Stewart Granger Hotchner A E PAPPA HEMINGWAY Ernest Hemingway Jenkins Roy WINSTON CHURCHILL Winston Churchill McCourt Frank ANGELA`s ASHES Frank Mc Court McCullough Colleen RODEN CUTLER, VC Roden Cutler Parini Jay JOHN STEINBECK, A Biography John Steinbeck Sandburg Carl LINCOLN Abraham Lincoln 6 Volumes Footnotes: Pulitzer Prize for ANGELA`s ASHES and LINCOLN. Roy Jenkins CHURCHILL is arguably the best single volume bio of WSC Great title by Stewart Granger, taken from Job – 5:7 “Man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upwards.”

Nice – yeah the Churchill one is on my list right now!

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10 Super Inspiring Biographies Worth Reading Right Now

Sometimes, we feel alone and hopeless . Well, maybe more than just sometimes.

The world is a big place, and there are billions of people, but somehow we still end up believing that no one understands what we’re going through.

It’s in these moments that connecting with other people on a deeper level allows us to regain hope and optimism for the future. And reading is one of the best ways to accomplish this.

Immersing ourselves in inspiring stories and personal accounts of adversity-turned-into-greatness reminds us that what we’re going through is universal and that there’s a way for us to overcome challenges and maybe, just maybe, to realize greatness ourselves as well.

I read everything, but generally more fact than fiction -- especially autobiographies and biographies. – Richard Branson

Stories of such greatness can be found about every type of person in every field. Whatever it is that you hope to achieve, there’s a real-life story out there to inspire you.

RELATED:  16 Inspirational Movies on Netflix Worth Watching Right Now

Here are 10 of the most inspiring biographies worth reading right now:

1. A Life in Parts by Bryan Cranston

Before Bryan Cranston rose to superstardom as Walter White in Breaking Bad , he played countless offhand roles including Malcolm’s father Hal in Malcolm in the Middle .

A Life in Parts details Cranston’s unlikely rise to stardom and the long journey he had to take to get there, making for an inspiring story with a surprise twist.

Get A Life in Parts here

2. Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time by Howard Schultz

Pour Your Heart Into It is the story of a small Seattle coffee shop, a man with a vision for something more, and the rise of an international mega-chain.

Like several of the books on this list, Pour Your Heart Into It is more than just a biography. In it, Starbucks founder and executive chairman Howard Schultz  shares the critical principles that helped build Starbucks into what it is today.

Get Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time here

3. Eleanor Roosevelt (Volume One and Two) by Blanche Wiesen Cook

Eleanor Roosevelt changed what it meant to be First Lady. She accomplished more within her 12 (yes, 12) years as First Lady than most people accomplish in their entire life.

Eleanor Roosevelt , which is split into two parts, breaks down the incredible life story of the woman who set a standard for all First Ladies after her.

Get Eleanor Roosevelt here

4. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King

Easily one of my favorite biographies on the list, On Writing is just as much a guide to becoming a master storyteller as it is a memoir of legendary author Stephen King ’s life.

Within the pages of On Writing , King spills some of the most valuable lessons on doing work that matters.

Get On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King here

5. Losing My Virginity: How I Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way by Richard Branson

Richard Branson is a brand in himself, having carved a path doing business his way, as the title of his autobiography suggests. This is more than just a story of business success, it's a tale about daring to be yourself.

Losing My Virginity (never thought I’d write those words in succession) is the story of how Branson turned Virgin from a record label into one of the biggest brands in the world, making it an ideal read for entrepreneurs looking to up their game.

Get Losing My Virginity: How I Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way here

6. Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela

Long Walk to Freedom tells the important story of anti-apartheid activist and political leader Nelson Mandela and the now-famous events that unfolded during his prison sentence, the apartheid revolution and his eventual rise to victory as the first black president of South Africa.

The book recounts Mandela’s struggles and the wisdom he uncovered along the way, and serves as one of the most inspirational personal stories of victory in the face of injustice ever told.

Get Long Walk to Freedom here

7. Shark Tales: How I Turned $1000 into a Billion Dollar Business by Barbara Corcoran

Shark Tank’s Barbara Corcoran is known for her business acumen, and this is the incredible story of how she became one of the most well-known women in American business.

At the age of 23, Corcoran had 22 jobs on her resume. As the story goes, she borrowed $1,000 from her then-boyfriend to start a real estate company in New York City. The book details how she took that $1,000 and turned it into a $6 billion-dollar business.

You also learn how that same persistence helped her nab her seat on ABC’s Shark Tank years later.

Get Shark Tales: How I Turned $1000 into a Billion Dollar Business here

8. Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

Steve Jobs is the inspiring story of the Apple cofounder who would go on to become the idol of many Silicon Valley founders, designers, and entrepreneurs alike.

It’s based on a collection of interviews over a three-year period in which Isaacson followed Jobs and interviewed virtually everyone in his inner circle to piece together the most complete insight into Jobs’ life ever seen.

Jobs’ unlikely rise to becoming Apple's CEO and the journey that led him to get fired from the very company he co-founded makes this one of the most inspirational comeback stories around.

Get Steve Jobs here

9. Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life by Steve Martin

Born Standing Up follows legendary comedian Steve Martin’s life from his childhood in Texas and later California to being a Disneyland employee and, finally, a Hollywood star. It’s a story about sacrifice, persistence, and the virtue of hard work.

If you’re a comedian or performer of any kind, you will find this to be a powerful read.

Get Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life by Steve Martin here

10. The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley by Malcolm X

The Autobiography of Malcolm X : As Told to Alex Haley was named one of the 10 most important nonfiction books of the 20th century by TIME magazine.

The story of one of the most important and well-known activists in American history is one of a fighter who championed racial equality and stood up for what is right against all odds.

Get The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley here

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Forced to feel ashamed for her weight and appearance, Kate Winslet struggled with her body image for years. The media loved to tease her for being “the fat girl,” but there was ONE PERSON who saw the real her. What did Leo see in Kate? And what important message does Kate have for young women everywhere?

Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio's True Friendship

Kate Winslet has not always been sure of herself. "I was always comparing myself to others. You see I've been bullied at school, they call me blubber, they teased me for wanting to act."

While it's nearly impossible to think of the gorgeous and talented Winslet as anything other than a force to be reckoned with, years of being teased and the media's love for taking shots at her weight did their damage.

"I was sort of made to feel ashamed of myself, my appearance."

But when co-star and friend, Leonardo DiCaprio stepped in, he had only a few words of encouragement that helped to shape a new outlook for the Titanic actress. An outlook that she was able to share with other women, including her young daughter , Mia.

"You know, happiness it isn't a search for, you know ,facial physical perfection. You know, it comes from inside."

Poor Boy Couldn’t Afford to Bury His Mom - So He Takes Matters Into His Own Hands

Poor Boy Begs For Money to "Bury My Mama" With Heartbreaking Sign

A week ago, 11-year-old Kayden Ely experienced the devastating loss of his mother, Shannon Mount. Her unexpected passing didn't just leave Kayden and his four siblings without their mom, it also left the family in dire financial straits.

Desperate to raise funds for his mom's funeral, Kayden took to the streets of his small town in Georgia begging for help. For two days the heartbroken little boy stood next to the railroad tracks, holding a sign that read, "Please help me bury my mama!"

Grieving Boy's Desperate Plea for Help

Kayden Ely says goodbye to his mom, Shannon Mount; Kayden Ely and his older brother raise funds for their mom's funeral.

Facebook.com/Jennifer Fife

Shannon Mount, 45, went into cardiac arrest on July 8. Her boyfriend, Billy Upton, tried to save her, performing CPR on her until paramedics arrived and were able to revive her. After spending several days on life support, she passed away.

Without life insurance and unable to afford the astronomical bill of her 8 days in emergency care (never mind burial expenses) Kayden didn't have the luxury of taking time to grieve his mom.

Instead, he made it his mission to give her a proper goodbye.

Armed with his homemade sign, Kayden spent hours standing on the side of the road, praying passing motorists would notice and want to help.

Not only did community members step up and come to his aid with donations, hugs, and prayers, but they also shared the young boy's plight on social media and contacted local news stations to spread the word. They even joined him on the ground, helping him set up a hotdog stand to make more money.

But the small town giving didn't stop there. An anonymous donor contacted the family, offering to pay for the cost of a burial plot, and several local businesses put out jars to collect spare change. The funeral home, Good Shepherd, also gave the family a significant discount.

GoFundMe Campaign Raises More Than 10x the Original Goal

www.gofundme.com

Inspired by Kayden's strength and determination to provide a resting place for his mom, Jennifer Grissom, his cousin and guardian, also launched a GoFundMe .

"Shannon did not have life insurance, she has an 11-year-old that is left without the only thing he ever knew," Jennifer wrote on the page.

"He has been standing on [the] side of the road for 2 days with a sign to help bury his mama."

She initially set a goal of $7,100, just enough to cover the costs of the funeral which can run upwards of $12,000 in some states.

But then the donations started pouring in. And that $7,100 quickly became $70,000. More than 1700 people have come forward to donate, all of them motivated by one singular thought: "No child should ever have to worry about paying for a funeral."

Jennifer says she plans on using the extra funds to "make sure Kayden gets to do things children his age get to do; sports, camps, etc." She's also using it to buy him clothes, school supplies, and necessities, and start a college fund.

In an update on the page, she wrote, "Today we took him to Walmart so he could get a bed set and he got a few things he needed."

Adding, "When we were leaving his aunt asked him, 'Why are you so happy' and he replied...'Me and mama didn’t have much money we were poor, and I didn’t get to go buy stuff like this' and all this baby got was a bed set, toothbrush, pillows and pillow cases. He is so thankful. Thank y'all for making him smile."

But most importantly, a grieving little boy is getting his wish. Shannon, who is described as a "straight shooter...who loved her kids fiercely" in her obituary, will be properly laid to rest at the end of the month.

Paying it Forward

Kayden Ely gives away free hot dogs and drinks.

To thank his community for their incredible support, Kayden decided to pay it forward.

He set up another hotdog stand, only this time instead of charging for the dogs and drinks, he gave them away for free; a fitting gesture of gratitude for an 11-year-old boy.

He also appeared in a brief Facebook video with Jennifer, thanking everyone for their donations and helping to get the word out to the community. But even more meaningful than the monetary support was the outpouring of emotional support.

"We want to thank everybody that stopped," Jennifer said. "You know, there were some people who just wanted to give him a hug or some people that wanted to pray with him and tell him they're sorry for his loss."

"Some people stopped and just wanted to help us cook hot dogs. A man stopped and he helped us hold a sign. That means so much to us, it really does."

Grief can be incredibly isolating and when you lose the most important person in your life, it's even more so.

Kayden is only 11 years old, he shouldn't have to know the devastating pain of loss. But having a supportive community will go a long way in making him feel a little less alone.

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Miss Kansas Publicly Calls Out Her Abuser In The Audience

25-year-old Alexis Smith was officially crowned Miss Kansas earlier this month. She beat out 25 contestants to become the third Black woman to ever win the title.

And while these accomplishments are to be admired, it's her empowering message to her abusive ex who had the gall to sit in the audience that makes her the real winner.

Beauty Pageant Participant Takes Down Her Abuser In Epic On-Stage Declaration

As a victim of domestic abuse, Alexis knows first-hand the devastating impact it can have on someone's life. Too often shrouded in secrecy and shame, the pageant contestant decided to use her platform to bring awareness to domestic violence.

Dubbing it her "Reclaimed Respect Initiative," she spoke about it during the interview phase of the competition.

It didn't go down as she expected.

Because as it turns out, the literal face of her trauma was sitting in the audience, obviously trying to intimidate her and cow her into silence.

But instead of letting her abusive ex silence her, she spoke out. And in doing so, reclaimed her voice and power in an incredible display of courage that has the world applauding.

"My vision as the next Miss Kansas is to eliminate unhealthy and abusive relationships," Smith boldly declared.

"Matter of fact, some of you out in this audience saw me very emotional because my abuser is here today, but that's not going to stop me from being on this Miss Kansas stage and from representing as the next Miss Kansas because I and my community deserve healthy relationships."

Not only did the cardiothoracic ICU nurse NOT let it stop her, but she WON! And she will be representing the sunflower state at next year's Miss America pageant.

Literal QUEEN.

Her Empowering Message Goes Viral

@lexlex_smith Respect Reclaimed is about reclaiming your power and standing firmly in it. On the night of Miss Kansas, my journey took an unexpected turn when someone I have been healing from tried to disrupt my peace. Instead of falling into silence, I chose to live out my vision for a better world. I took back my power—not just for myself, but for my dreams and everyone watching and listening. This isn't about shunning others; it's about turning our pain into purpose and channeling it in a way that unifies and uplifts. I'm ready to use my story, tools, and resources to end unhealthy relationships in all forms. My voice and advocacy will empower everyone to reclaim their own power in their own unique way. I might be small in stature, but I stand tall in strength, purpose, and power with hopes of inspiring others to do the same. #fyp #abuse #miss #misskansas #missamerica #pageant #awareness #me #relationship #respect #tiktok

Smith shared a video clip of her message across her social media channels where it has gone viral, gaining widespread support.

"On the night of Miss Kansas, my journey took an unexpected turn when someone I have been healing from tried to disrupt my peace," Smith wrote in the caption.

"Instead of falling into silence, I chose to live out my vision for a better world. I took back my power — not just for myself, but for my dreams and everyone watching and listening."

And while she didn't directly name her abuser, she did provide some insight into who it is in an interview with CBS affiliate, KSNW .

“My family, every single woman in my family, was impacted by domestic violence,” she said. “At the age of 14, I got in my first relationship, but it was also an abusive relationship that I was in until about 2018, 2019."

"It’s something that I’m still experiencing and dealing with today.”

Her journey with domestic violence has run the full gamut; from being a bystander, a victim, a survivor, and now an advocate who is "ready to use my story, tools, and resources to end unhealthy relationships in all forms."

"This isn't about shunning others; it's about turning our pain into purpose and channeling it in a way that unifies and uplifts," Smith continued. "I might be small in stature, but I stand tall in strength, purpose, and power with hopes of inspiring others to do the same."

She already is.

" As a survivor, this moved me. thank you for using your voice. you just gave strength to many you'll never meet 💜 ," wrote one commenter.

"YAS GIRL! As a fellow survivor, you are an inspiration and I’m so proud of you for using your voice and showing your strength," wrote another.

A third shared, "As a victim of domestic violence I applaud you for speaking out!! I watched this 10 times!! I'm still getting bullied by his parents even with a no contact order. I plan on helping women like us as well."

The Importance of Speaking Out Against Abuse

Domestic violence is shockingly prevalent. According to a report by the CDC , "about 41% of women and 26% of men experienced contact sexual violence, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner during their lifetime and reported a related impact."

Additionally, "over 61 million women and 53 million men have experienced psychological aggression by an intimate partner in their lifetime."

Speaking out against domestic abuse is a critical step in breaking the cycle of violence. By giving voice to their experiences, survivors not only reclaim their own power but also pave the way for other victims to stand up and do the same.

If you need help or need help supporting someone else, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) or text START to 88788 or chat online at TheHotline.org.

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Anthony Bourdain (file Photo by Rich Fury/Invision/AP)

I recently listed some of my favorite history books of all-time and because people are the most interesting aspects of history, I included a few great biographies of significant historical figures like Malcolm X, Winston Churchill, Julius Caesar, and others.

But there are so many others Here are some of the best biographies of all time, many of which are written to inspire you to take risks in business—and in life.

The Tycoons: How Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J. P. Morgan Invented the American Supereconomy by Charles R. Morris 

The Tycoons by Charles R. Morris

What powered American industry, from the devastating aftermath of its civil war, to become the catalyst behind the world largest economy within decades? The answer has much to do with four men: Carnegie, Rockefeller, Gould and Morgan. These industrialists, financiers, railroaders and oil tycoons became as big and wealthy as America itself, and along the way paved the road for what is today the laws, regulations and infrastructure of our modern markets. I enjoyed this book as not just a biography of these four men, but as an economic history of the United States during one of its most tumultuous eras.

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War and Peace: FDR's Final Odyssey by Nigel Hamilton

War and Peace by Nigel Hamilton

Nigel Hamilton's acclaimed trilogy (which is available as a three-part boxed set ) ends with this volume that happened coincide with the 75th Anniversary of D-Day. This book makes me think of perhaps my favorite presidential biography of all time:  Truman   by David McCullough. While many under-appreciated Truman during his term in office, today's readers of McCullough's 1992 biography will truly understand how he capably overcame the enormity of the challenges he faced and the impact his leadership has on our society today. But as Hamilton's FDR trilogy makes clear, many of Truman's successes (and failures) or due to what he inherited from Roosevelt.

Mozart: A Life by Peter Gay

Mozart by Peter Gay

Is it possible to summarize the life of the world's arguably greatest composer in just 160 pages? Peter Gay, a historian and previous National Book Award winner, pulls it off expertly, with a quick, engaging and informative narrative that not only digs into the nature and personality of the musical genius but also gives a great background of the economic and political times that influenced his life and his work. Gay 1999 biography takes pains to debunk some of the myths surrounding Mozart's life (no, he wasn't poisoned by a rival composer and, no, he wasn't buried in a pauper's grave).  This book isn't a deep dive or an expanded narrative. But for me, it provided all the information I wanted to learn about a musician whose works have helped me navigate my way through the mundane work—I am an accountant, after all—of my professional life.

Anthony Bourdain Remembered  by CNN

Anthony Bourdain Remembered

I've been interested in Anthony Bourdain—who tragically took his own life in 2018—long before he became a nationally known TV star of the hit CNN series "Parts Unknown." I didn't love reading   Kitchen Confidential — his first and most famous book—simply because of all the crazy stories of drug use and partying that went on behind the scenes at the restaurants where he worked. I enjoyed it because I like to go to restaurants and I'm curious—from a business and creative standpoint—about how they work. But it's Bourdain's legacy that's considered in   Anthony Bourdain Remembered , a bestseller released just last month compiling memories and anecdotes from his fans, friends, and colleagues at CNN.

Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar by Simon Sebag Montefiore 

Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar by Simon Sebag Montefiore

Montefiore's 2003 biography of Stalin is about a man who lived with death every single day of his life to become the leader of millions and an infamous reminder of what can happen when the wrong leaders rise to power. But as the book explains—in great and sometimes gory detail—he achieved that power through many murderous and violent ways. More interestingly, Montefiore provides countless examples of how Stalin befriended his fellow politicians, party members and others only to abandon (and oftentimes eliminate them) in pursuit of his goals. Can a ruthless monster rise to the top and stay there his entire life? This book shows how it's possible.

Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow 

Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow

With all due respect to the hit musical—which is fantastic—the book it's based on is better.  That's because Ron Chernow's 2004 biography more deeply describes Hamilton's days as a soldier under Washington's command and the complexities involved in financing a young nation's growth and creating a central bank amidst the monumental political and financial challenges of the day. Hamilton—the nation’s most famous immigrant to some—never held elected office. But his influence on our lives today is still very much apparent.

The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert Caro 

The Passage of Power by Robert Caro

Robert Caro's latest entry in his series of LBJ biographies (there were three previous volumes) covers from approximately 1958 to 1964 and explains in great detail how Johnson—the powerful leader of the Senate who so aspired to the presidency —rose out of the political wilderness of the vice-presidency to use the skills he learned in over 30 years of government service to rescue the country from a devastating presidential assassination and guide it back to stability.

Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson 

Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson

Walter Isaacson—the former editor of Time , best known for his other great biographies of Benjamin Franklin and Steve Jobs—not only illuminates some of da Vinci's greatest artistic works, but also reveals the genius behind this self-taught, self-confident entrepreneur. Leonardo was constantly promoting his artistic abilities to wealthy benefactors and had the creativity to come up with flying machines and giant crossbows while studying anatomy, fossils, birds, the heart, flying machines, botany, geology, and weaponry. Few geniuses like this have ever walked the earth.

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What If You Pursued What’s Interesting Instead of Happiness?

What makes for a good life? Is it pleasure or enjoying the passage of time, as James Taylor once sang? Or is it more about living life with purpose and contributing to other people’s well-being?

While we at Greater Good have found both happiness and meaning probably play their roles in the good life, recent research by Shigehiro Oishi and his colleagues suggests there’s a third pillar of the good life: psychological richness. This kind of life entails seeking challenging, novel, and complex experiences—ones that engage our minds, shape our perspectives, and stimulate deep emotion.

Now, philosopher and researcher Lorraine Besser has written a new book, The Art of the Interesting , to explain what psychological richness looks like and how to attain it. She makes the case that pursuing what’s interesting to you can enrich your life beyond happiness and meaning, benefitting not just you, but society at large.

We spoke with Besser about her book and its message.

Jill Suttie: What are some of the benefits of pursuing a more psychologically rich life, according to research?

Lorraine Besser: Our original studies were really focused on understanding the [psychologically rich life] and showing that it’s a distinct form of the good life, which overlaps with other good things but is its own species. The research has shown that when you have more psychologically rich experiences, it can lead you toward a more expansive sense of self. You feel more connected to everything—your environment, other people, whatever—in a non-evaluative way.

And more engagement with the world like this pays off. When we develop skills of noticing and being curious about what’s going on around us, it gives us feelings of connection to the world and a sense of agency. So, one thing [researchers] are showing is that it can encourage more activism for climate change , because it removes this barrier of something feeling too huge. It helps people overcome hurdles when things seem too overwhelming.

It can help us in the political environment, too. Having a framework that’s non-evaluative means we’re not always closing off our minds to different sides. So, you can just engage with something [or someone] in a non-evaluative way, and it can give you a sense of deeper connection. And I think life always goes better when we’re in touch with the world around us in this way.

JS: Could you offer a couple of concrete tools from your book that you offer to people seeking more interesting experiences? 

LB: The first and most important thing is to loosen our grip on planning. Many of us are planners, and planning is essential to many things. But often we get in this mode where we’re too focused on the plan. We’ve narrowed our attention so much on what we need to do to get where we want to go that we’ve set up a yardstick, where we evaluate everything on how it’s going to contribute to the plan.

For the interesting to really take hold in our minds—and by the interesting, I’m referring to this experience of robust cognitive engagement that stimulates new thoughts and emotions—we’ve got to give it the space to happen. And so, we’ve got to loosen the grip on our plans, let other things in that we might overlook, and open up space for the interesting.

Once you’ve got that open space, it’s all about what you do with it. I’m a big advocate for learning. So, start to pay attention to the sparks of the interesting in your mind, seeing what lights you up and makes you curious. We’ve all got that spark of interest somewhere, but it’s different for each of us. The best way to pursue it is indirectly, through learning what that spark feels like and then letting it expand.

I’ve made a list of random facts in my book [that are interesting to me]. You could do the same by just Googling something or opening up a news page, then reading the list and seeing where your mind lands, what captures your attention. Something will, and what you want to do is seize on that and learn to pay attention to how that feels. Once you’re familiar with the feeling, allow those sparks to expand into ripples of thoughts and emotion. Invite in a mindset that allows exploration.

I talk a lot about the importance of noticing details around you, giving something a chance to spark you. But it’s also really important just to bring a sense of curiosity. Once curiosity takes off, our minds will go somewhere very interesting.

JS: It sounds like this might require slowing down. What would you say to folks who are super busy—maybe, working people also taking care of kids or elderly parents or both?

LB: One of the best things about the interesting is that you don’t actually have to change your life or what you’re doing in order to experience it. What I would say to somebody who’s caught up [in busyness] is to start identifying their wasted time—the times when they can’t be productive, like sitting on the subway, doing the grocery shopping, sitting in a doctor’s office. These are the kinds of moments that you can really enrich, and they’re already moments that you have available.

Nobody’s working 100% of the time, right? We all have these moments, and the key is to operationalize them, to seize on them. You might say to yourself, “OK, I’m really bored sitting here on the subway, but let me look at what that guy’s wearing and think about what an interesting combination that is; and why would he choose to wear something like that?” We can be curious just in our minds, and it doesn’t really matter what we end up thinking about.

I encourage folks to look around. You don’t have to seek out more interesting experiences. In the day-to-day, there’s lots of opportunities to have an interesting experience, and the first place to look is that wasted time.

JS: One of your chapters is titled, “Turning Obstacles into Adventures.” How does one actually do that, beyond just being curious? 

LB: [Pursuing the] interesting involves a non-evaluative perspective, right? So, when you’re having an interesting experience, you’re not immediately saying, “This is good; this is bad.” When you’re experiencing an obstacle, you’re in that evaluative mode. You’re experiencing whatever it is as a setback to some pursuit or somewhere you want to go.

Our experiences of obstacles come entirely from how we’re framing our experience. It’s natural to see things as obstacles and then begrudge them. But I think it’s important to recognize when that’s happening and to accept that obstacles are a part of life, that they will arise, and oftentimes there’s not much we can do about them. Sitting around and begrudging [an obstacle] and lamenting it is not going to pan out in any positive direction. But recognizing when we’re doing that, and then just stopping and saying, “OK, how can I approach this situation differently?” can help.

JS: Do you think some people are just naturally more apt to seek novelty and be curious than other people?

LB: Openness to experience [one of the Big 5 personality traits] is a predictor of psychological richness. The more open to experiences you are, the more comfortable you’ll be embracing novelty, challenge, and complexity.

But the good news is that anyone can develop more openness to experience by pushing the boundaries of our comfort zones. It doesn’t take much—even reading a book about a different time and place will help us develop more openness, as will trying new things, taking up other people’s perspectives, and making even small changes to our routines, be it taking a different route to work or watching your nightly news on a different channel. These are small, easy moves we can make to become more open and to invite psychological richness into our lives.

We’ve got to remember that it’s something we are all capable of. It might be more natural for some people than for others. That’s true for happiness and meaningfulness, too—they play a bigger role in some people’s lives than others. There are just individual differences in how we respond and in what resonates with us. But that doesn’t mean that it can’t play a bigger role in our lives if we wanted it to.

JS: It seems like children start out being highly curious and open to wonder, but that school, with its demands on getting “the right answer,” might train them out of it. What do you think?

LB: When we think about the mind, we mostly think about the cognitive stuff—rationality and structure, not emotions—and we tend to train youth to develop those. That’s why we all carry around [the belief] that this is what we should be doing when we’re using our mind.

But there’s a huge benefit to unstructured cognitive engagement and using your mind that’s not in the service of a plan, purpose, or end goal. So, the way we can stimulate this in children is through actively giving them the space to do that—whether it’s through creative writing, practices of noticing, or asking open-ended questions and encouraging whatever happens. We can certainly begin introducing this at a very young age, where we encourage imagination and transforming [kids’] experiences by just having more fun with whatever they’re doing.

Yet we somehow drop that [encouragement] when [kids] get older, right? That stuff becomes less of a priority. But we should be paying attention to the different shapes it can take throughout life. You don’t want to be stuck in the imaginary play of a two year old forever. But you can certainly think about being more creative. Putting ideas together, writing poems, doing something creative, all of that will engage those parts of the mind.

JS: What do you want readers to take away from your book?

LB: I’m hoping to offer a different way of understanding the good life and a way that acknowledges the complexities of life and allows us to thrive even when challenged. I spend a lot of time in the book showing that happiness has limits and that fulfillment is hard to obtain. So, I think it is a real mistake to put too much focus on one aspect when there are really different things that can enhance our lives in different moments. A lot of life gets squeezed out when we’re too focused on happiness and meaning. And we want to take charge of that and be able to enjoy all aspects of our life.

The important thing about [pursuing] the interesting is that it’s really up to us, and it’ll give you a tool to enhance your life in ways that are accessible. It really will help you understand and enrich your conception of what it means to live a good life.

About the Author

Jill Suttie

Jill Suttie, Psy.D. , is Greater Good ’s former book review editor and now serves as a staff writer and contributing editor for the magazine. She received her doctorate of psychology from the University of San Francisco in 1998 and was a psychologist in private practice before coming to Greater Good .

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Watch CBS News

Pope Francis says Kamala Harris and Donald Trump "both against life" for stances on abortion, immigration

By Anna Matranga

Updated on: September 13, 2024 / 9:44 PM EDT / CBS News

Rome  — Pope Francis weighed in Friday on the options for voters in the 2024 U.S. presidential election , indicating to reporters on the papal plane as he returned from a marathon Asia trip that both Vice President Kamala Harris and her Republican challenger, former President Donald Trump, are, in his opinion, "against life."

Asked by CBS News what he would advise a Catholic voter forced to choose between a candidate who backs abortion rights and one who has said he would have 11 million migrants deported , the pope said: "They are both against life — the one who throws away migrants and the one who kills children."

The pope addressed the topics, both of which featured prominently in the presidential debate between Harris and Trump on Tuesday night, as he spoke with journalists on a flight from Singapore to Jakarta, making his way back to Rome from a 12-day, 20,000 mile tour of Asia and the Pacific .

Asked whether there were any circumstances under which it would be morally permissible for a Catholic to vote for a candidate who does support abortion rights, Francis said when considering political morality, "one must vote."

"One must choose the lesser of two evils," he said. "Who is the lesser of two evils, that lady or that gentleman, I do not know."

Pope Francis said American Catholic voters would have to examine their conscience and make that decision before going to the polls.

"It should be clear that sending migrants away, denying migrants the capacity to work, to not welcome migrants, it is a sin. It is grave," the pope said.

Francis said immigration was a right that dates back to biblical times, and noted that it was repeated in the Old Testament of the Bible that the people of Israel had a duty "to take care of the orphan, the widow and the stranger — that is, the migrant."

Francis also reiterated the Catholic Church's position that abortion is murder. 

"Whether you like the word or not, it is a killing," he said. "It is an assassination, and on this we should be clear."

• Immigration
• Pope Francis
• Kamala Harris
• Donald Trump
• Catholic Church

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