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Best Biographies

Members: 24 participating members
kara.shamy, smc1, John_Vaughan, Bretzky1, JuliaMaria, AnnaClaire, souloftherose, thorold, elkiedee, Minthe, mazurat, Diane-bpcb, smcwl, hipdeep, raperper, aulsmith, lornah02, MDGentleReader, deebee1, tomryan, jefbra, catstaley, SnootyBaronet

1 2 3

Rank Title Author Added

1

Jane Austen: A Life

by Claire Tomalin

1,529 members

33 reviews

4

7 Members: Minthe, smc1, thorold, AnnaClaire, souloftherose, Diane-bpcb, mazurat,

2

Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie

by Barbara Goldsmith

455 members

11 reviews

3.8

4 Members: smc1, AnnaClaire, mazurat, catstaley

3

The Life of Samuel Johnson

by James Boswell

3,715 members

40 reviews

4.2

4 Members: smc1, thorold, JuliaMaria, John_Vaughan

4

His Excellency: George Washington

by Joseph J. Ellis

3,636 members

58 reviews

4

4 Members: AnnaClaire, John_Vaughan, Bretzky1, Diane-bpcb

5

by David McCullough

12,989 members

190 reviews

½ 4.3

4 Members: smc1, AnnaClaire, Bretzky1, kara.shamy

6

Eudora Welty: A Writer's Life

51 members

1 review

½ 3.3

3 Members: smc1, smcwl, mazurat

7

Einstein: His Life and Universe

by Walter Isaacson

5,146 members

90 reviews

4.2

3 Members: smc1, John_Vaughan, mazurat

8

1,167 members

26 reviews

½ 3.7

3 Members: thorold, souloftherose, mazurat

9

Tolkien: A Biography

by Humphrey Carpenter

2,620 members

21 reviews

4

2 Members: souloftherose, raperper

10

2,988 members

63 reviews

½ 3.7

2 Members: AnnaClaire, tomryan

11

Madame Curie: A Biography

1,114 members

23 reviews

4

2 Members: smc1, mazurat

12

Joan of Arc: Her Story

by Régine Pernoud

309 members

4 reviews

3.9

2 Members: AnnaClaire, mazurat

13

Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self

by Claire Tomalin

1,669 members

32 reviews

4.1

3 Members: smc1, smcwl, John_Vaughan

14

by Nancy Mitford

856 members

17 reviews

½ 3.7

3 Members: smc1, souloftherose, Diane-bpcb

15

The Life of Elizabeth I

2,679 members

39 reviews

4

3 Members: AnnaClaire, Diane-bpcb, kara.shamy

16

by Hermione Lee

519 members

11 reviews

4

2 Members: JuliaMaria, Diane-bpcb

17

Sarah Orne Jewett

by Elizabeth Silverthorne

11 members

1 review

3

2 Members: Diane-bpcb, lornah02

18

The Last Lion, Winston Spencer Churchill, Volume I: Visions of Glory, 1874-1932

by William Manchester

2,199 members

31 reviews

½ 4.5

2 Members: smc1, smcwl

19

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

by Doris Kearns Goodwin

9,398 members

225 reviews

½ 4.4

2 Members: AnnaClaire, kara.shamy

20

Evelyn Waugh: A Biography

by Christopher Sykes

128 members

3 reviews

2.9

3 Members: smc1, thorold, John_Vaughan

21

William Clark and the Shaping of the West

by Landon Y. Jones

115 members

1 review

4.2

2 Members: jefbra, John_Vaughan

22

Louisa May Alcott: A Modern Biography

by Martha Saxton

167 members

3 reviews

½ 3.7

2 Members: smc1, aulsmith

23

Evita, First Lady: A Biography of Evita Peron

107 members

2 reviews

½ 3.5

2 Members: John_Vaughan, mazurat

24

Renoir, My Father

517 members

4 reviews

4.1

2 Members: smc1, smcwl

25

Lincoln's Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness

by Joshua Wolf Shenk

930 members

27 reviews

4.1

2 Members: smc1, souloftherose

26

The Brontës: Wild Genius on the Moors

by Juliet Barker

819 members

15 reviews

4.2

2 Members: Minthe, kara.shamy

27

Charles Dickens: A Life

by Claire Tomalin

860 members

33 reviews

4.2

2 Members: souloftherose, kara.shamy

28

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

by Charlotte Gordon

616 members

16 reviews

½ 4.4

2 Members: elkiedee, kara.shamy

29

The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin

by H. W. Brands

1,814 members

9 reviews

4.1

2 Members: AnnaClaire, John_Vaughan

30

High endeavours : the life and endeavours of Miles and Beryl Smeeton

40 members

3 reviews

½ 4.4

2 Members: smc1, John_Vaughan

31

Last train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley

by Peter Guralnick

1,055 members

11 reviews

4.2

2 Members: smc1, Diane-bpcb

32

Alan Turing: The Enigma

by Andrew Hodges

2,242 members

30 reviews

3.9

2 Members: smc1, souloftherose

33

by James Gleick

1,396 members

42 reviews

½ 3.7

2 Members: smc1, mazurat

34

Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire

by Amanda Foreman

2,901 members

68 reviews

3.8

2 Members: smc1, souloftherose

35

Beautiful Shadow: A Life of Patricia Highsmith

by Andrew Wilson

342 members

5 reviews

4

2 Members: thorold, JuliaMaria

36

Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times

by H. W. Brands

886 members

20 reviews

4

2 Members: AnnaClaire, Bretzky1

37

Shakespeare: The World as Stage

4,544 members

170 reviews

3.8

2 Members: smc1, souloftherose

38

by David McCullough

5,567 members

76 reviews

½ 4.4

Member: MDGentleReader

39

Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, Professor, Tattoo Artist, and Sexual Renegade

by Justin Spring

400 members

17 reviews

½ 4.3

Member: aulsmith

40

Koestler: The Literary and Political Odyssey of a Twentieth-Century Skeptic

by Michael Scammell

138 members

1 review

3.9

Member: deebee1

41

Kipling Sahib: India and the Making of Rudyard Kipling

by Charles Allen

106 members

1 review

4

Member: John_Vaughan

42

Eleanor Marx: A Life

by Rachel Holmes

89 members

4 reviews

½ 4.4

Member: elkiedee

43

73 members

Member: hipdeep

44

George Washington: A Biography (7 volumes)

by Douglas Southall Freeman

65 members

½ 4.7

Member: Bretzky1

45

The life of Richard Wagner

by Ernest Newman

34 members

1 review

½ 4.3

Member: SnootyBaronet

46

The Lady in the Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn

1,083 members

35 reviews

3.8

2 Members: AnnaClaire, kara.shamy

47

by James Lundquist

12 members

1 review

3.8

2 Members: smc1, Bretzky1

48

Benjamin Franklin: An American Life

by Walter Isaacson

5,087 members

76 reviews

4

2 Members: smc1, John_Vaughan

49

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

by Simon Winchester

11,510 members

291 reviews

3.8

2 Members: Minthe, kara.shamy

50

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

9,206 members

112 reviews

½ 4.3

2 Members: elkiedee, kara.shamy

51

Queen Isabella: Treachery, Adultery, and Murder in Medieval England

1,178 members

33 reviews

3.8

2 Members: AnnaClaire, kara.shamy

52

King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa

by Adam Hochschild

4,432 members

124 reviews

½ 4.3

Member: kara.shamy

53

Mary, Queen of Scotland and the Isles

by Stefan Zweig

665 members

10 reviews

4

Member: smc1

54

by Maynard Solomon

586 members

3 reviews

½ 4.3

Member: Diane-bpcb

55

Joseph Fouché: The Portrait of a Politician

by Stefan Zweig

480 members

19 reviews

4.2

Member: raperper

56

Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Champion of Freedom

by Conrad Black

468 members

5 reviews

½ 4.3

Member: Bretzky1

57

My Father and Myself

by J. R. Ackerley

443 members

7 reviews

3.9

Member: thorold

58

312 members

9 reviews

4.1

Member: hipdeep

59

Like A Fiery Elephant: The Story of B.S. Johnson

by Jonathan Coe

238 members

2 reviews

3.9

Member: Minthe

60

Love and Capital

by Mary Gabriel

218 members

8 reviews

4.1

Member: elkiedee

61

Mary Queen of Scots

by Antonia Fraser

2,761 members

26 reviews

4

Member: kara.shamy

62

How to Live: Or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer

by Sarah Bakewell

1,848 members

82 reviews

4.1

Member: JuliaMaria

63

Ishi in Two Worlds

by Theodora Kroeber

760 members

9 reviews

3.8

Member: Minthe

64

by Jim Ottaviani

760 members

48 reviews

½ 3.7

Member: hipdeep

65

The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn

523 members

7 reviews

4.2

Member: AnnaClaire

66

James Baldwin: A Biography

by David Leeming

245 members

1 review

3.8

Member: thorold

67

A Russian Childhood

by Sofja Kovalevskaja

36 members

1 review

3.9

Member: smc1

68

In Search of H. V. Morton

by Michael Bartholomew

10 members

1 review

Member: John_Vaughan

69

Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman

by Robert K. Massie

2,730 members

140 reviews

4.1

Member: kara.shamy

70

by Nicholas Shakespeare

449 members

7 reviews

3.9

Member: thorold

71

Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life

by Hermione Lee

237 members

7 reviews

4.2

Member: elkiedee

72

R. E. Lee: A Biography

by Douglas Southall Freeman

225 members

1 review

½ 4.6

Member: Bretzky1

73

John Steinbeck, Writer: A Biography

by Jackson J. Benson

166 members

3 reviews

½ 4.3

Member: John_Vaughan

74

Francis Bacon: Anatomy of an Enigma

by Michael Peppiatt

144 members

2 reviews

½ 3.7

Member: JuliaMaria

75

Dignifying Science: Stories About Women Scientists

by Jim Ottaviani

129 members

1 review

½ 3.7

Member: hipdeep

76

by David Herbert Donald

2,860 members

24 reviews

4.2

Member: Bretzky1

77

The Path to Power

by Robert A. Caro

2,459 members

44 reviews

½ 4.6

Member: kara.shamy

78

Her Husband: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes: A Marriage

by Diane Middlebrook

419 members

6 reviews

3.8

Member: JuliaMaria

79

The Prophet Armed: Trotsky 1879-1921

by Isaac Deutscher

375 members

10 reviews

½ 4.3

Member: elkiedee

80

Goethe und Schiller. Geschichte einer Freundschaft

by Rüdiger Safranski

76 members

2 reviews

3.8

Member: Minthe

81

Means of Ascent

by Robert A. Caro

2,038 members

29 reviews

½ 4.4

Member: kara.shamy

82

The Black Jacobins

by C. L. R. James

1,261 members

21 reviews

½ 4.3

Member: elkiedee

83

Anne Sexton: A Biography

by Diane Middlebrook

708 members

4 reviews

3.9

Member: JuliaMaria

84

Nehru: The Invention of India

by Shashi Tharoor

125 members

5 reviews

½ 3.3

Member: Bretzky1

85

The Tangled Field: Barbara McClintock's Search for the Patterns of Genetic Control

by Nathaniel C. Comfort

35 members

½ 4.4

Member: smc1

86

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

by Andrew Piper

26 members

10 reviews

½ 3.7

Member: Minthe

87

First Boredom, Then Fear: The Life of Philip Larkin

by Richard Bradford

17 members

1 review

3

Member: John_Vaughan

88

by Jon Krakauer

17,006 members

431 reviews

3.9

Member: Minthe

89

The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England

1,676 members

41 reviews

4.1

Member: kara.shamy

90

Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt

by H. W. Brands

874 members

19 reviews

4.1

Member: John_Vaughan

91

Robert Kennedy: His Life

457 members

7 reviews

4.2

Member: Bretzky1

92

Rowan's Rule: The Biography of the Archbishop

by Rupert Shortt

129 members

4 reviews

½ 3.7

Member: souloftherose

93

Rosa Luxemburg: A Life

by Elzbieta Ettinger

70 members

2 reviews

4.1

Member: elkiedee

94

P.G. Wodehouse : man and myth

by Barry Phelps

13 members

5

Member: thorold

95

Gabriele Münter und Wassily Kandinsky - Biographie eines Paares

by Gisela Kleine

4 members

5

Member: JuliaMaria

96

The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas

by Gertrude Stein

2,556 members

43 reviews

½ 3.6

Member: thorold

97

Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling

2,461 members

28 reviews

3.9

Member: JuliaMaria

98

Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay

by Nancy Milford

1,666 members

24 reviews

4

Member: Diane-bpcb

99

The Passage of Power

by Robert A. Caro

1,429 members

37 reviews

½ 4.6

Member: kara.shamy

100

Sisters of Sinai: How Two Lady Adventurers Found the Hidden Gospels

by Janet Soskice

365 members

24 reviews

4.2

Member: souloftherose

1 2 3

About This List

Started: John_Vaughan
January 2012
Type: Numbered and unnumbered

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