Best Biographies

1
Jane Austen: A Life
by Claire Tomalin
1,781 members
35 reviews
4
7 Members
Minthe, smc1, thorold, AnnaClaire, souloftherose, Diane-bpcb, mazurat,
2
Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie
by Barbara Goldsmith
533 members
12 reviews
3.8
4 Members
smc1, AnnaClaire, mazurat, catstaley
4
His Excellency: George Washington
by Joseph J. Ellis
4,222 members
61 reviews
4
4 Members
AnnaClaire, John_Vaughan, Bretzky1, Diane-bpcb
5
John Adams
by David McCullough
15,444 members
214 reviews
½ 4.3
4 Members
smc1, AnnaClaire, Bretzky1, kara.shamy
6
Eudora: A Writer's Life
by Ann Waldron
53 members
1 review
½ 3.3
3 Members
smc1, smcwl, mazurat
7
Einstein: His Life and Universe
by Walter Isaacson
6,446 members
108 reviews
4.2
3 Members
smc1, John_Vaughan, mazurat
8
Two Lives
by Vikram Seth
1,270 members
28 reviews
½ 3.6
3 Members
thorold, souloftherose, mazurat
9
Tolkien: A Biography
by Humphrey Carpenter
3,143 members
24 reviews
4
2 Members
souloftherose, raperper
10
American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House
by Jon Meacham
3,746 members
70 reviews
½ 3.7
2 Members
AnnaClaire, tomryan
11
Madame Curie: A Biography
by Ève Curie
1,377 members
26 reviews
4
2 Members
smc1, mazurat
12
Joan of Arc: Her Story
by Régine Pernoud
344 members
3 reviews
3.9
2 Members
AnnaClaire, mazurat
13
Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self
by Claire Tomalin
1,852 members
33 reviews
4.1
3 Members
smc1, smcwl, John_Vaughan
14
The Sun King
by Nancy Mitford
1,031 members
18 reviews
½ 3.7
3 Members
smc1, souloftherose, Diane-bpcb
15
The Life of Elizabeth I
by Alison Weir
3,102 members
43 reviews
4
3 Members
AnnaClaire, Diane-bpcb, kara.shamy
16
Edith Wharton
by Hermione Lee
579 members
13 reviews
3.9
2 Members
JuliaMaria, Diane-bpcb
17
Sarah Orne Jewett
by Elizabeth Silverthorne
14 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
2,629 members
38 reviews
½ 4.5
2 Members
smc1, smcwl
19
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
by Doris Kearns Goodwin
11,273 members
243 reviews
½ 4.4
2 Members
AnnaClaire, kara.shamy
20
Evelyn Waugh: A Biography
by Christopher Sykes
153 members
2 reviews
2.9
3 Members
smc1, thorold, John_Vaughan
21
William Clark and the Shaping of the West
by Landon Y. Jones
156 members
1 review
4.2
2 Members
jefbra, John_Vaughan
22
Louisa May Alcott: A Modern Biography
by Martha Saxton
184 members
3 reviews
½ 3.7
2 Members
smc1, aulsmith
23
Evita, First Lady: A Biography of Evita Peron
by John Barnes
119 members
3 reviews
½ 3.5
2 Members
John_Vaughan, mazurat
24
Renoir, My Father
by Jean Renoir
635 members
4 reviews
4.1
2 Members
smc1, smcwl
26
Lincoln's Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness
by Joshua Wolf Shenk
1,075 members
27 reviews
4.1
2 Members
smc1, souloftherose
27
The Brontës: Wild Genius on the Moors
by Juliet Barker
938 members
19 reviews
4.2
2 Members
Minthe, kara.shamy
28
Charles Dickens: A Life
by Claire Tomalin
1,055 members
33 reviews
4.2
2 Members
souloftherose, kara.shamy
29
The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin
by H. W. Brands
2,126 members
16 reviews
4.1
2 Members
AnnaClaire, John_Vaughan
30
High Endeavours: The Life and Endeavours of Miles and Beryl Smeeton
by Miles Clark
47 members
5 reviews
½ 4.3
2 Members
smc1, John_Vaughan
31
Last train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley
by Peter Guralnick
1,292 members
15 reviews
½ 4.3
2 Members
smc1, Diane-bpcb
32
Alan Turing: The Enigma
by Andrew Hodges
2,744 members
36 reviews
3.9
2 Members
smc1, souloftherose
33
Isaac Newton
by James Gleick
1,637 members
46 reviews
½ 3.7
2 Members
smc1, mazurat
34
Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire
by Amanda Foreman
3,270 members
66 reviews
3.8
2 Members
smc1, souloftherose
35
Beautiful Shadow: A Life of Patricia Highsmith
by Andrew Wilson
371 members
6 reviews
4.1
2 Members
thorold, JuliaMaria
36
Shakespeare: The World as Stage
by Bill Bryson
5,321 members
188 reviews
3.8
2 Members
smc1, souloftherose
37
Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times
by H. W. Brands
1,057 members
24 reviews
4
2 Members
AnnaClaire, Bretzky1
38
Truman
by David McCullough
6,722 members
91 reviews
½ 4.4
Member
MDGentleReader
39
No Higher Honor: A Memoir of My Years in Washington
by Condoleezza Rice
489 members
11 reviews
3.8
Member
blakelylaw
41
Love and Capital: Karl and Jenny Marx and the Birth of a Revolution
by Mary Gabriel
275 members
10 reviews
4.1
Member
elkiedee
42
Koestler: The Literary and Political Odyssey of a Twentieth-Century Skeptic
by Michael Scammell
157 members
1 review
3.8
Member
deebee1
43
Kipling Sahib: India and the Making of Rudyard Kipling 1865-1900
by Charles Allen
123 members
2 reviews
4
Member
John_Vaughan
44
O'Neill
by Arthur Gelb
83 members
1 review
Member
hipdeep
45
George Washington: A Biography
by Douglas Southall Freeman
75 members
4.8
Member
Bretzky1
46
The life of Richard Wagner
by Ernest Newman
39 members
1 review
½ 4.3
Member
SnootyBaronet
47
The Lady in the Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn
by Alison Weir
1,291 members
38 reviews
3.8
2 Members
AnnaClaire, kara.shamy
48
Sinclair Lewis
by James Lundquist
15 members
1 review
½ 3.7
2 Members
smc1, Bretzky1
49
Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
by Walter Isaacson
6,350 members
92 reviews
4
2 Members
smc1, John_Vaughan
50
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
by Malcolm X
11,405 members
144 reviews
½ 4.3
2 Members
elkiedee, kara.shamy
52
Queen Isabella: Treachery, Adultery, and Murder in Medieval England
by Alison Weir
1,331 members
34 reviews
3.8
2 Members
AnnaClaire, kara.shamy
53
King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa
by Adam Hochschild
5,594 members
144 reviews
½ 4.3
Member
kara.shamy
54
Mary, Queen of Scotland and the Isles
by Stefan Zweig
806 members
10 reviews
4
Member
smc1
55
Mozart: A Life
by Maynard Solomon
689 members
3 reviews
4.2
Member
Diane-bpcb
56
Joseph Fouché: The Portrait of a Politician
by Stefan Zweig
593 members
21 reviews
4.2
Member
raperper
57
Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Champion of Freedom
by Conrad Black
534 members
4 reviews
½ 4.3
Member
Bretzky1
58
My Father and Myself
by J. R. Ackerley
521 members
10 reviews
3.9
Member
thorold
59
Red Rosa: A Graphic Biography of Rosa Luxemburg
by Kate Evans
435 members
11 reviews
4.1
Member
hipdeep
60
Like A Fiery Elephant: The Story of B.S. Johnson
by Jonathan Coe
255 members
2 reviews
3.9
Member
Minthe
61
Mary Queen of Scots
by Antonia Fraser
3,185 members
29 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
2,243 members
90 reviews
4.1
Member
JuliaMaria
63
Ishi in Two Worlds
by Theodora Kroeber
923 members
9 reviews
3.8
Member
Minthe
64
Feynman
by Jim Ottaviani
873 members
49 reviews
3.8
Member
hipdeep
65
The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn
by Eric Ives
616 members
7 reviews
½ 4.3
Member
AnnaClaire
66
James Baldwin: A Biography
by David Leeming
329 members
1 review
4
Member
thorold
67
Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life
by Hermione Lee
270 members
7 reviews
4.2
Member
elkiedee
68
A Russian Childhood
by S. Kovalevskaya
47 members
1 review
3.9
Member
smc1
69
In Search of H. V. Morton
by Michael Bartholomew
11 members
1 review
Member
John_Vaughan
70
Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman
by Robert K. Massie
3,399 members
152 reviews
4.1
Member
kara.shamy
71
Bruce Chatwin
by Nicholas Shakespeare
492 members
7 reviews
3.8
Member
thorold
72
The Prophet Armed: Trotsky 1879-1921
by Isaac Deutscher
448 members
10 reviews
½ 4.4
Member
elkiedee
73
R. E. Lee: A Biography
by Douglas Southall Freeman
280 members
1 review
½ 4.6
Member
Bretzky1
74
John Steinbeck, Writer: A Biography
by Jackson J. Benson
183 members
3 reviews
½ 4.3
Member
John_Vaughan
75
Francis Bacon: Anatomy of an Enigma
by Michael Peppiatt
168 members
2 reviews
½ 3.7
Member
JuliaMaria
76
Dignifying Science: Stories About Women Scientists
by Jim Ottaviani
143 members
1 review
½ 3.7
Member
hipdeep
77
Lincoln
by David Herbert Donald
3,378 members
28 reviews
4.2
Member
Bretzky1
78
The Path to Power
by Robert A. Caro
3,125 members
53 reviews
½ 4.6
Member
kara.shamy
79
The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution
by C. L. R. James
1,782 members
23 reviews
½ 4.3
Member
elkiedee
80
Her Husband: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes: A Marriage
by Diane Middlebrook
460 members
7 reviews
3.8
Member
JuliaMaria
81
Goethe und Schiller. Geschichte einer Freundschaft
by Rüdiger Safranski
95 members
3 reviews
3.8
Member
Minthe
82
Means of Ascent
by Robert A. Caro
2,497 members
36 reviews
½ 4.4
Member
kara.shamy
83
Anne Sexton: A Biography
by Diane Wood Middlebrook
787 members
7 reviews
3.9
Member
JuliaMaria
84
Nehru: The Invention of India
by Shashi Tharoor
159 members
5 reviews
½ 3.3
Member
Bretzky1
85
Rosa Luxemburg: A Life
by Elzbieta Ettinger
84 members
2 reviews
4.1
Member
elkiedee
87
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
by Andrew Piper
28 members
10 reviews
½ 3.7
Member
Minthe
88
First Boredom, Then Fear: The Life of Philip Larkin
by Richard Bradford
19 members
1 review
3
Member
John_Vaughan
89
Into the Wild
by Jon Krakauer
20,201 members
485 reviews
3.9
Member
Minthe
90
The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England
by Dan Jones
2,459 members
45 reviews
4.1
Member
kara.shamy
92
The Man Who Would Be King: The First American in Afghanistan
by Ben Macintyre
346 members
3 reviews
4
Member
Bretzky1
93
Marx's General: The Revolutionary Life of Friedrich Engels
by Tristram Hunt
272 members
4 reviews
4
Member
elkiedee
94
Rowan's Rule: The Biography of the Archbishop
by Rupert Shortt
147 members
4 reviews
½ 3.7
Member
souloftherose
95
P.G. Wodehouse : man and myth
by Barry Phelps
16 members
1 review
5
Member
thorold
96
Gabriele Münter und Wassily Kandinsky. Biographie eines Paares.
by Gisela Kleine
10 members
5
Member
JuliaMaria
97
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas
by Gertrude Stein
3,067 members
46 reviews
½ 3.6
Member
thorold
98
Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling
by Ross King
2,840 members
31 reviews
3.9
Member
JuliaMaria
99
The Passage of Power
by Robert A. Caro
1,876 members
46 reviews
½ 4.6
Member
kara.shamy
100
Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay
by Nancy Milford
1,869 members
25 reviews
4
Member
Diane-bpcb