Funny autobiography titles ideas

The 30 Best Biographies of All Time

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Blog – Posted on Monday, Jan 21

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 quickl

Showing 1–12 of 258 resultsSorted by popularity

  • Mark Green

    Servant Queen and the King she serves, The

    Braille, Audio CD, Large Print 17pt, Large Print 20pt, Large Print 25pt, Large Print 30ptSelect options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product page
  • Tracy Williamson

    Beautiful Tapestry, A

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  • Stella G. Heath

    Coping With The Camel

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  • Irene Howat

    Ten Girls Who Changed The World

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  • Irene Howat

    Ten Boys Who Changed The World

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  • C


    When we at Why Not Bookswere considering titles for the memoirs of the late Carolyn Goodman, mother of slain civil rights worker Andrew Goodman and a civil rights icon herself, we harkened back to a particular story she told:

    When my youngest son David was seven years old, he came running home from school one day, breathless with excitement. In his hands he held a large piece of construction paper smothered in assorted colors, lines, shapes, and squiggles. In the eyes of a seven-year-old, it was a creation of unmatched brilliance, Monet and Degas and O’Keeffe all rolled into one. In fact, that’s quite literally what it looked like. With the flamboyance only a true artist can exude, David boomed into our Upper West Side apartment, raised his magnum opus, and proudly declared, “Mom, come here! Look at my mantelpiece!”

     A masterpiece is essentially the product of another’s estimation. Someone else reviews your life’s work and pronounces judgment. But a mantelpiece is a personal statement of values and choices, your life’s work prese

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