I loved John Adams by David McCullough. I think how Adams got depicted in the Hamilton musical is how many people think of him. But McCullough elevated him to the status [I think] he deserves, both as a genius statesman and as a deeply flawed but still admirable person.
Yes, great book! I actually think Adams was the most relatable founding father. A bit grumpy, sure, but also still human. Whereas the others seem almost superhuman in the books about them. Love reading about John Adams.
Mark Lewisohn’s first volume of his three volume Beatles biography is brilliant. 1500 pages and they have barely started properly recording yet! Yet it moves at a real pace.
Ben Pimlott’s biog of British PM Harold Wilson is magnificent.
I’m waiting for somebody to say Cowboy Junkies-Music Is The Drug, but that’s because I wrote it!
I am so excited to see everyone's books here. I love nonfiction, especially memoir, but biographies can be so illuminating. My current fave is Prairie Fires by Caroline Fraser, about Laura Ingalls Wilder (author of the Little House on the Prairie books). That bleak era in America is fascinating and her life is the perfect lens through which to view it.
I devoured biographies as a kid (shout-out to the Harriet Tubman and Pelé bios I read multiple times), but I don't read them much any more. The one that stands out the most in my memory is The Way You Wear Your Hat: Frank Sinatra and the Lost Art of Livin' by Bill Zehme. The format is very cool. Rather than a traditional chronology of his life events, it's organized around themes: night life, his pals, the women in his life, style, that kind of thing. At the end, I had a full picture of who he was a person, and I learned it all through anecdotes and vignettes. I really enjoyed it. I would love more biographies written in this style — especially for people who have larger-than-life personas. For me, it made Frank Sinatra somehow more human and more legendary at the same time.
Harriet Tubman's biography was one of the first I ever read as a kid. Her strength of character, perseverance, and pure determination were so powerful. It made an indelible impression to this day.
“A new book conveys in dramatic detail what America’s Moses did to help abolish slavery. Another addresses the love of God and country that helped her do so.”
I love The Three Mothers by Anna Malaika Tubbs. It's a combined biography of the mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., James Baldwin, and Malcolm X. Tubbs brilliant weaves together their lives and their similarities and differences in a beautiful homage to what it took to raise these remarkable men.
It’s harder than I thought to come up with some titles when you’re sitting at the beach away from your own books. Off the top of my head, I remember “The Roy Campanella Story” because my mother, a school teacher, brought it home for me when I was suffering from the flu in the 4th grade.
I also remember the Carlos Baker biography of Hemingway. Unfortunately I couldn’t finish as he turned into a bigger and bigger … jerk.
If you know what you're getting into with Hemingway, it's more palatable. You have to know he was a jerk and then it's more about dissecting why than being surprised that he wasn't a very pleasant person. I've read a couple bios of him and always find them fascinating.
A good point but at the time I’d didn’t know anything about him beyond a late show broadcast of “For whom the bell tolls.” I found the book on a shelf at my grandparents’ beach house, I think. The good thing is it spurred me to read much (but by no means all) of his work.
I tend to like books that focus on a part of someone's life, which may be why I am grooving on Team of Rivals so much. However, there are two books that instantly leapt to mind:
1. Agatha Christie: An Autobiography — it has her usual personable style but because her life covered a span of history from Victorian England to the 1970s, it also tells the tale of living in all those times.
2. A Song for Nagasaki: The Story of Takashi Nagai - A Scientist, Convert, and Survivor of the Atomic Bomb by Paul Glynn — vivid descriptions, character insights, and just enough Japanese history so that we have the context for what made Takashi Nagai so extraordinary. He deserves to be known better.
I enjoy a good biography, but I tend towards biographies of persons other than the “great” figures as Gabby put it. Three that I’ve especially enjoyed are Dorothy Day: The World Will be Saved by Beauty written be her granddaughter Kate Hennessy. Day was the cofounder of the Catholic Worker’s movement. The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life and Legacy of Francis Perkins by Kristin Downey. Perkins was the first woman cabinet member ever under FDR. And Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits by Linda Gordon. Lange was a photographer and a part of the group of photographers enlisted to chronicle the Great Depression under the WPA. You may be familiar with her iconic photograph “Migrant Mother”.
I'm usually not a huge fan of biographies, because - it's a bit difficult to put into words - but I'm more interested in the societies and social forces around individuals than the sense that biographies (or the ones I've read) - especially of "great" figures of history - often give me that individuals are acting independent or outside of those forces. And I tend to take little satisfaction from a primary narrative focus on the soapy, personal drama stuff; a little of that can be affecting or fascinating, but I need more. So I like biographies that give me a lot of social history and context for the way these important historical figures are behaving, and glimpses into other sectors of the societies they're operating in. And Stacy Schiff's Cleopatra: A Life absolutely hits all of those sweet spots for me (while including a lot of top-flight soapy, personal drama to boot!): not only did it cover a pivotal moment in Western history, but the characters are outsized, the stakes mind-boggling, the details insanely colorful. The huge gaps in primary source material from the Egyptian perspective (most accounts of Cleopatra come from Roman pens) necessitate that Schiff rely more on other sources to tell a fuller story of Cleopatra's life (and treat the Roman accounts with an appropriate skepticism) and really delve into the cultures that created her and the other monumental figures that affect her story to explain their actions. Fascinating detours into Egyptian and Roman life abound. And she does find interesting primary sources from elsewhere to bring the human element into this story. Above all, she's such a compelling writer and really brought this period to life for me in a way I hadn't experienced before.
Thanks for the rec! Totally agree about context and setting mattering as much as the details of a single person's life. It's part of why I love Robert Caro's LBJ books. I'll definitely check out Cleopatra!
I agree with you on this book and will add it changes the narrative on Cleopatra. Or just sets the record straight. The other point in the story I found enlightening was the cultural exchange where Romans were influenced by what they learned and experienced in Alexandria.
Ya know, I tried that one, but I actually had a really hard time with it because I *love* tennis and for Andre it was more of a burden (understandably). I want books that celebrate the game, even though I know the content of that book is superb.
Nicholas and Alexandra- Peter Massie, read it in college while researching a paper, wow, what a story!! Team of Rivals was fantastic and inspired me to read Battle Cry of Freedom and right after that the Chernow Grant Biography. Anything Candace Millard, although those aren't traditional birth to death bios. Usually focused on a particular time frame, like TR's journey on the River of Doubt.
Leonardo da Vinci - Walter Isaacson, The Wright Brothers’ by David McCullough and anything by Chernow. I’m looking for a recommendation on civil war general James Longstreet.
Speaking of poets, Rimbaud by Graham Robb was quite the tale.
Speaking of musicians and composers, Begin Again: A Biography of John Cage by Kenneth Silverman was quite the treat.
Speaking of Appalachian storytellers, The Life and Times of Ray Hicks was an excellent glimpse into the old weird America and generations of oral tradition.
Speaking of folk singers and folk song collectors, America Across the Water, by Shirley Collins, about her affair with Alan Lomax and traveling with him throughout the south collecting songs, still a knockout. (But I guess it is an auto-biography.)
I really liked Kim Gordon's autobiography too, Girl in a Band. It was great...
...yes, lots of music, writer, and artist biographies in general are what I like the best... much much much less on the politicians!
Yes! I've read both of those and definitely agree. Hamilton is my favorite of Chernow's. And I agree that Morris' first TR volume is much better than the other two.
I loved John Adams by David McCullough. I think how Adams got depicted in the Hamilton musical is how many people think of him. But McCullough elevated him to the status [I think] he deserves, both as a genius statesman and as a deeply flawed but still admirable person.
Yes, great book! I actually think Adams was the most relatable founding father. A bit grumpy, sure, but also still human. Whereas the others seem almost superhuman in the books about them. Love reading about John Adams.
The tv series about him starting Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney was also excellent!
Mark Lewisohn’s first volume of his three volume Beatles biography is brilliant. 1500 pages and they have barely started properly recording yet! Yet it moves at a real pace.
Ben Pimlott’s biog of British PM Harold Wilson is magnificent.
I’m waiting for somebody to say Cowboy Junkies-Music Is The Drug, but that’s because I wrote it!
I'm not familiar with any of those — thanks for sharing!
I am so excited to see everyone's books here. I love nonfiction, especially memoir, but biographies can be so illuminating. My current fave is Prairie Fires by Caroline Fraser, about Laura Ingalls Wilder (author of the Little House on the Prairie books). That bleak era in America is fascinating and her life is the perfect lens through which to view it.
That one has been on my list for a long time! It'll come up eventually with my Pulitzer project. :)
There’s a wonderful podcast about the Little House books and Laura Ingalls Wilder that I’m listening to now called “Wilder”.
Thanks!
I have that as an Ebook and have slowly been going through it! It's definitely illuminating.
I devoured biographies as a kid (shout-out to the Harriet Tubman and Pelé bios I read multiple times), but I don't read them much any more. The one that stands out the most in my memory is The Way You Wear Your Hat: Frank Sinatra and the Lost Art of Livin' by Bill Zehme. The format is very cool. Rather than a traditional chronology of his life events, it's organized around themes: night life, his pals, the women in his life, style, that kind of thing. At the end, I had a full picture of who he was a person, and I learned it all through anecdotes and vignettes. I really enjoyed it. I would love more biographies written in this style — especially for people who have larger-than-life personas. For me, it made Frank Sinatra somehow more human and more legendary at the same time.
Ooo that sounds really good! Thanks for the rec.
Harriet Tubman's biography was one of the first I ever read as a kid. Her strength of character, perseverance, and pure determination were so powerful. It made an indelible impression to this day.
This just came across my feed… two new bios of Harriet Tubman
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/07/01/combee-edda-l-fields-black-night-flyer-tiya-miles-book-review
“A new book conveys in dramatic detail what America’s Moses did to help abolish slavery. Another addresses the love of God and country that helped her do so.”
Same! I can still see the book so clearly in my memory. Her bravery really made in impression on 3rd-grade me.
I love The Three Mothers by Anna Malaika Tubbs. It's a combined biography of the mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., James Baldwin, and Malcolm X. Tubbs brilliant weaves together their lives and their similarities and differences in a beautiful homage to what it took to raise these remarkable men.
That's somewhat been on my radar — glad to hear you enjoyed it!
I loved that book as well.
It’s harder than I thought to come up with some titles when you’re sitting at the beach away from your own books. Off the top of my head, I remember “The Roy Campanella Story” because my mother, a school teacher, brought it home for me when I was suffering from the flu in the 4th grade.
I also remember the Carlos Baker biography of Hemingway. Unfortunately I couldn’t finish as he turned into a bigger and bigger … jerk.
If you know what you're getting into with Hemingway, it's more palatable. You have to know he was a jerk and then it's more about dissecting why than being surprised that he wasn't a very pleasant person. I've read a couple bios of him and always find them fascinating.
A good point but at the time I’d didn’t know anything about him beyond a late show broadcast of “For whom the bell tolls.” I found the book on a shelf at my grandparents’ beach house, I think. The good thing is it spurred me to read much (but by no means all) of his work.
I tend to like books that focus on a part of someone's life, which may be why I am grooving on Team of Rivals so much. However, there are two books that instantly leapt to mind:
1. Agatha Christie: An Autobiography — it has her usual personable style but because her life covered a span of history from Victorian England to the 1970s, it also tells the tale of living in all those times.
2. A Song for Nagasaki: The Story of Takashi Nagai - A Scientist, Convert, and Survivor of the Atomic Bomb by Paul Glynn — vivid descriptions, character insights, and just enough Japanese history so that we have the context for what made Takashi Nagai so extraordinary. He deserves to be known better.
Thank you, I’ll check those both out.
I enjoy a good biography, but I tend towards biographies of persons other than the “great” figures as Gabby put it. Three that I’ve especially enjoyed are Dorothy Day: The World Will be Saved by Beauty written be her granddaughter Kate Hennessy. Day was the cofounder of the Catholic Worker’s movement. The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life and Legacy of Francis Perkins by Kristin Downey. Perkins was the first woman cabinet member ever under FDR. And Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits by Linda Gordon. Lange was a photographer and a part of the group of photographers enlisted to chronicle the Great Depression under the WPA. You may be familiar with her iconic photograph “Migrant Mother”.
Ooo, those all sound great! Thanks Dana!
I'm usually not a huge fan of biographies, because - it's a bit difficult to put into words - but I'm more interested in the societies and social forces around individuals than the sense that biographies (or the ones I've read) - especially of "great" figures of history - often give me that individuals are acting independent or outside of those forces. And I tend to take little satisfaction from a primary narrative focus on the soapy, personal drama stuff; a little of that can be affecting or fascinating, but I need more. So I like biographies that give me a lot of social history and context for the way these important historical figures are behaving, and glimpses into other sectors of the societies they're operating in. And Stacy Schiff's Cleopatra: A Life absolutely hits all of those sweet spots for me (while including a lot of top-flight soapy, personal drama to boot!): not only did it cover a pivotal moment in Western history, but the characters are outsized, the stakes mind-boggling, the details insanely colorful. The huge gaps in primary source material from the Egyptian perspective (most accounts of Cleopatra come from Roman pens) necessitate that Schiff rely more on other sources to tell a fuller story of Cleopatra's life (and treat the Roman accounts with an appropriate skepticism) and really delve into the cultures that created her and the other monumental figures that affect her story to explain their actions. Fascinating detours into Egyptian and Roman life abound. And she does find interesting primary sources from elsewhere to bring the human element into this story. Above all, she's such a compelling writer and really brought this period to life for me in a way I hadn't experienced before.
Thanks for the rec! Totally agree about context and setting mattering as much as the details of a single person's life. It's part of why I love Robert Caro's LBJ books. I'll definitely check out Cleopatra!
Robert Caro's high-priority on my TBR list!
As it should be! Super duper worth it.
I agree with you on this book and will add it changes the narrative on Cleopatra. Or just sets the record straight. The other point in the story I found enlightening was the cultural exchange where Romans were influenced by what they learned and experienced in Alexandria.
Definitely Open by Andre Agassi: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0307388409/ref=cm_sw_r_as_gl_api_gl_i_SN9WK9DWXAWVTMKJ0CX5?linkCode=ml2&tag=twhite21401-20
Ya know, I tried that one, but I actually had a really hard time with it because I *love* tennis and for Andre it was more of a burden (understandably). I want books that celebrate the game, even though I know the content of that book is superb.
Give it another go! It’s so so so so exceptional
From one tennis man to another! https://www.whitenoise.email/p/standing-firm
Nicholas and Alexandra- Peter Massie, read it in college while researching a paper, wow, what a story!! Team of Rivals was fantastic and inspired me to read Battle Cry of Freedom and right after that the Chernow Grant Biography. Anything Candace Millard, although those aren't traditional birth to death bios. Usually focused on a particular time frame, like TR's journey on the River of Doubt.
Yes to Nicholas and Alexandra, and of course Team of Rivals. Brilliant.
All of those are brilliant recs! Battle Cry and Grant are two of the best re: the Civil War.
Stonewall Jackson & and the American Civil War by G.F.R. Henderson
That Devil Forest by John Allen Wyeth
I'm not familiar with those — thanks for sharing! I have Rebel Yell, another bio of Jackson, on my shelf.
Both are great books.
The Stonewall book was originally published in 1898 and the Forest book in 1899.
If you like the civil war and military history then you will like these books.
Some historians say that Forest was the greatest combat leader in the civil war and the book will help the reader understand why.
Leonardo da Vinci - Walter Isaacson, The Wright Brothers’ by David McCullough and anything by Chernow. I’m looking for a recommendation on civil war general James Longstreet.
Those are all great! I especially loved Wright Bros.
Re: Longstreet — I haven't read this one, but Varon's work is always good: https://www.amazon.com/Longstreet-Confederate-General-Defied-South-ebook/dp/B0BTZY4JLW
Thanks, I will put it on my list.
Speaking of poets, Rimbaud by Graham Robb was quite the tale.
Speaking of musicians and composers, Begin Again: A Biography of John Cage by Kenneth Silverman was quite the treat.
Speaking of Appalachian storytellers, The Life and Times of Ray Hicks was an excellent glimpse into the old weird America and generations of oral tradition.
Speaking of folk singers and folk song collectors, America Across the Water, by Shirley Collins, about her affair with Alan Lomax and traveling with him throughout the south collecting songs, still a knockout. (But I guess it is an auto-biography.)
I really liked Kim Gordon's autobiography too, Girl in a Band. It was great...
...yes, lots of music, writer, and artist biographies in general are what I like the best... much much much less on the politicians!
Marvelous — thank you! I've not read any of these.
Great list! Some I’d recommend:
William Blake vs the World by John Higgs
Red Comet by Heather Clark
Josephine by Kate Williams
Eleanor Marx by Rachel Holmes
Erotic Vagrancy by Roger Lewis
The two Elvis biographies by Peter Guralnick
I've not read any of those — thanks for the recs!
I have heard that Red Comet is fantastic!
Concur with the above. I'd add Chewnow's Washington and Morris first volume on TR
Yes! I've read both of those and definitely agree. Hamilton is my favorite of Chernow's. And I agree that Morris' first TR volume is much better than the other two.
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt is what jump-started my interest in biographies. I thought it was a masterpiece.