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Blog – Posted on Monday, Jan 21

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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The 21 most captivating biographies of all time

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• Biographies illuminate pivotal times and people in history. 
• The biography books on this list are heavily researched and fascinating stories.
• Want more books? Check out the best classics , historical fiction books , and new releases.

For centuries, books have allowed readers to be whisked away to magical lands, romantic beaches, and historical events. Biographies take readers through time to a single, remarkable life memorialized in gripping, dramatic, or emotional stories. They give us the rare opportunity to understand our heroes — or even just someone we would never otherwise know. 

To create this list, I chose biographies that were highly researched, entertainingly written, and offer a fully encompassing lens of a person whose story is important to know in 2021. 

The 21 best biographies of all time:

The biography of a beloved supreme court justice.

"Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg" by Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik, available on Amazon and Bookshop from $16.25

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a Supreme Court Justice and feminist icon who spent her life fighting for gender equality and civil rights in the legal system. This is an inspirational biography that follows her triumphs and struggles, dissents, and quotes, packaged with chapters titled after Notorious B.I.G. tracks — a nod to the many memes memorializing Ginsburg as an iconic dissident. 

The startlingly true biography of a previously unknown woman

"The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot, available on Amazon and Bookshop from $8.06

Henrietta was a poor tobacco farmer, whose "immortal" cells have been used to develop the polio vaccine, study cancer, and even test the effects of an atomic bomb — despite being taken from her without her knowledge or consent. This biography traverses the unethical experiments on African Americans, the devastation of Henrietta Lacks' family, and the multimillion-dollar industry launched by the cells of a woman who lies somewhere in an unmarked grave.

The poignant biography of an atomic bomb survivor

"A Song for Nagasaki: The Story of Takashi Nagai: Scientist, Convert, and Survivor of the Atomic Bomb" by Paul Glynn, available on Amazon and Bookshop from $16.51

Takashi Nagai was a survivor of the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki in 1945. A renowned scientist and spiritual man, Nagai continued to live in his ruined city after the attack, suffering from leukemia while physically and spiritually helping his community heal. Takashi Nagai's life was dedicated to selfless service and his story is a deeply moving one of suffering, forgiveness, and survival.

The highly researched biography of Malcolm X

"The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X" by Les Payne and Tamara Payne, available on Amazon and Bookshop from $18.99

Written by the investigative journalist Les Payne and finished by his daughter after his passing, Malcolm X's biography "The Dead are Arising" was written and researched over 30 years. This National Book Award and Pulitzer-winning biography uses vignettes to create an accurate, detailed, and gripping portrayal of the revolutionary minister and famous human rights activist. 

The remarkable biography of an Indigenous war leader

"The Journey of Crazy Horse: A Lakota History" by Joseph M. Marshall III, available on Amazon and Bookshop from $14.99 

Crazy Horse was a legendary Lakota war leader, most famous for his role in the Battle of the Little Bighorn where Indigenous people defeated Custer's cavalry. A descendant of Crazy Horse's community, Joseph M. Marshall III drew from research and oral traditions that have rarely been shared but offer a powerful and culturally rich story of this acclaimed Lakota hero.

The captivating biography about the cofounder of Apple

"Steve Jobs" by Walter Isaacson, available on Amazon and Bookshop from $16.75

Steve Jobs is a cofounder of Apple whose inventiveness reimagined technology and creativity in the 21st century. Water Issacson draws from 40 interviews with Steve Jobs, as well as interviews with over 100 of his family members and friends to create an encompassing and fascinating portrait of such an influential man.

The shocking biography of a woman committed to an insane asylum

"The Woman They Could Not Silence: One Woman, Her Incredible Fight for Freedom, and the Men Who Tried to Make Her Disappear" by Kate Moore, available on Amazon and Bookshop from $22.49

This biography is about Elizabeth Packard, a woman who was committed to an asylum in 1860 by her husband for being an outspoken woman and wife. Her story illuminates the conditions inside the hospital and the sinister ways of caretakers, an unfortunately true history that reflects the abuses suffered by many women of the time.

The defining biography of a formerly enslaved man

"Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" by Zora Neale Hurston, available on Amazon and Bookshop from $12.79

50 years after the Atlantic slave trade was outlawed in the United States, Cudjo Lewis was captured, enslaved, and transported to the US. In 1931, the author spent three months with Cudjo learning the details of his life beginning in Africa, crossing the Middle Passage, and his years enslaved before the Civil War. This biography offers a first-hand account of this unspoken piece of painful history.

The biography of a famous Mexican painter

"Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo" by Hayden Herrera, available on Amazon and Bookshop from $24.89

Filled with a wealth of her life experiences, this biography of Frida Kahlo conveys her intelligence, strength, and artistry in a cohesive timeline. The book spans her childhood during the Mexican Revolution, the terrible accident that changed her life, and her passionate relationships, all while intertwining her paintings and their histories through her story.

The exciting biography of Susan Sontag

"Sontag: Her Life and Work" by Benjamin Moser, available on Amazon and Bookshop from $20.24

Susan Sontag was a 20th-century writer, essayist, and cultural icon with a dark reputation. Drawing on hundreds of interviews, archived works, and photographs, this biography extends across Sontag's entire life while reading like an emotional and exciting literary drama.

The biography that inspired a hit musical

"Alexander Hamilton" by Ron Chernow, available on Amazon and Bookshop from $11.04

The inspiration for the similarly titled Broadway musical, this comprehensive biography of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton aims to tell the story of his decisions, sacrifice, and patriotism that led to many political and economic effects we still see today. In this history, readers encounter Hamilton's childhood friends, his highly public affair, and his dreams of American prosperity. 

The award-winning biography of an artistically influential man

"The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke" by Jeffrey C Stewart, available on Amazon and Bookshop from $25.71

Alain Locke was a writer, artist, and theorist who is known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance. Outlining his personal and private life, Alain Locke's biography is a blooming image of his art, his influences, and the far-reaching ways he promoted African American artistic and literary creations.

The remarkable biography of Ida B. Wells

"Ida: A Sword Among Lions" by Paula J. Giddings, available on Amazon and Bookshop from $15.99

This award-winning biography of Ida B. Wells is adored for its ability to celebrate Ida's crusade of activism and simultaneously highlight the racially driven abuses legally suffered by Black women in America during her lifetime. Ida traveled the country, exposing and opposing lynchings by reporting on the horrific acts and telling the stories of victims' communities and families. 

The tumultuous biography that radiates queer hope

"The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk" by Randy Shilts, available on Amazon and Bookshop from $11.80

Harvey Milk was the first openly gay elected official in California who was assassinated after 11 months in office. Harvey's inspirational biography is set against the rise of LGBTQIA+ activism in the 1970s, telling not only Harvey Milk's story but that of hope and perseverance in the queer community. 

The biography of a determined young woman

"Obachan: A Young Girl's Struggle for Freedom in Twentieth-Century Japan" by Tani Hanes, available on Amazon and Bookshop from $9.99

Written by her granddaughter, this biography of Mitsuko Hanamura is an amazing journey of an extraordinary and strong young woman. In 1929, Mitsuko was sent away to live with relatives at 13 and, at 15, forced into labor to help her family pay their debts. Determined to gain an education as well as her independence, Mitsuko's story is inspirational and emotional as she perseveres against abuse. 

The biography of an undocumented mother

"The Death and Life of Aida Hernandez: A Border Story" by Aaron Bobrow-Strain, available on Amazon and Bookshop from $18.40

Born in Mexico and growing up undocumented in Arizona, Aida Hernandez was a teen mother who dreamed of moving to New York. After being deported and separated from her child, Aida found herself back in Mexico, fighting to return to the United States and reunite with her son. This suspenseful biography follows Aida through immigration courts and detention centers on her determined journey that illuminates the flaws of the United States' immigration and justice systems.

The astounding biography of an inspiring woman

"The Black Rose: The Dramatic Story of Madam C.J. Walker, America's First Black Female Millionaire" by Tananarive Due, available on Amazon for $19

Madam C.J. Walker is most well-known as the first Black female millionaire, though she was also a philanthropist, entrepreneur, and born to former slaves in Louisiana. Researched and outlined by famous writer Alex Haley before his death, the book was written by author Tananarive Due, who brings Haley's work to life in this fascinating biography of an outstanding American pioneer.

A biography of the long-buried memories of a Hiroshima survivor

"Surviving Hiroshima: A Young Woman's Story" by Anthony Drago and Douglas Wellman, available on Amazon and Bookshop from $15.59

When Kaleria Palichikoff was a child, her family fled Russia for the safety of Japan until the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima when she was 22 years old. Struggling to survive in the wake of unimaginable devastation, Kaleria set out to help victims and treat the effects of radiation. As one of the few English-speaking survivors, Kaleria was interviewed extensively by the US Army and was finally able to make a new life for herself in America after the war.

A shocking biography of survival during World War II

"Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival" by Laura Hillenbrand, available on Amazon and Bookshop from $8.69

During World War II, Louis Zamperini was a lieutenant bombardier who crashed into the Pacific Ocean in 1943. Struggling to stay alive, Zamperini pulled himself to a life raft where he would face great trials of starvation, sharks, and enemy aircraft. This biography creates an image of Louis from boyhood to his military service and depicts a historical account of atrocities during World War II.  

The comprehensive biography of an infamous leader

"Mao: The Unknown Story" by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday, available on Amazon and Bookshop from $15.39

Mao was a Chinese leader, a founder of the People's Republic of China, and a nearly 30-year chairman of the Chinese Communist Party until his death in 1976. Known as a highly controversial figure who would stop at very little in his plight to rule the world, the author spent nearly 10 years painstakingly researching and uncovering the painful truths surrounding his political rule.

The emotional biography of a Syrian refugee

"A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea: One Refugee's Incredible Story of Love, Loss, and Survival" by Melissa Fleming, available on Amazon and Bookshop from $15.33

When Syrian refugee Doaa met Bassem, they decided to flee Egypt for Europe, becoming two of thousands seeking refuge and making the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean. After four days at sea, their ship was attacked and sank, leaving Doaa struggling to survive with two small children clinging to her and only a small inflation device around her wrist. This is an emotional biography about Doaa's strength and her dangerous and deadly journey towards freedom.

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The best memoirs and biographies of 2022

Heartfelt memoirs from Richard E Grant and Viola Davis, childhood tales of religious dogma, and vivid insights into Agatha Christie and John Donne

The best books of 2022

C elebrity memoirs often follow the same trajectory: a difficult childhood followed by early professional failure, then dazzling success and redemption. But this year has yielded a handful of autobiographies from famous types determined to mix things up. Richard E Grant’s vivacious and heartfelt A Pocketful of Happiness (Gallery) recounts a year spent caring for his late wife, Joan Washington, who was diagnosed with lung cancer shortly before Christmas in 2020, and the “head-and-heart-exploding overwhelm” that followed. The book interweaves hospital appointments with memories of the couple’s courtship plus showbiz stories of Grant at the Golden Globes, or hijinks on the set of Star Wars. This juxtaposition of glamour and grief shouldn’t work, but it does.

Minnie Driver’s Managing Expectations (Manila) comprises spry and amusing autobiographical essays that detail pivotal moments in the actor’s life. These include her experience of becoming a mother, cutting off all her hair on a family holiday in France and the time her father sent her home to England from Barbados alone, aged 11, including a stopover at a Miami hotel, as punishment for being rude to his girlfriend (Driver got her revenge by buying up half the gift shop on her dad’s credit card). She also recalls the disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein bemoaning her lack of sex appeal, which she notes was rich from a man “whose shirts were always aggressively encrusted with egg/tuna fish/mayo”.

Alan Rickman’s Madly, Deeply (Canongate) diaries provide insight into the inner life of the late actor who, despite his many successes, frets over roles turned down and rails at the perceived ineptitude of script writers, directors and co-stars. He nonetheless keeps glittering company, hobnobbing with musicians, prime ministers and Hollywood megastars, and almost single-handedly keeps the tills ringing at the Ivy. And while he seethes at critics’ reviews of his own work, his assessments of less-than-perfect films and plays are so deliciously scathing, they deserve a book of their own.

In Finding Me (Coronet), the actor Viola Davis gives a clear-eyed account of her deprived childhood and her rise to fame, along with the violence, abuse and racism she endured along the way. The book is not so much a triumphant tale of overcoming adversity as a howl of fury at the injustice of it all. Davis may now be able to survey her career from a place of Oscar-winning privilege, but she doesn’t hesitate in calling out her industry and its ingrained racial bias, which leads to white actors landing plum roles and “relegates [Black actors] to best friends, to strong, loudmouth, sassy lawyers and doctors”. In The Light We Carry (Viking), the follow-up to her bestselling memoir Becoming, Michelle Obama also touches on the impossible-to-meet expectations that dog anyone trying to make it in a world that sees them as different, or deficient. “I happen to be well acquainted with the burdens of representation and the double standards for excellence that steepen the hills so many of us are trying to climb,” she writes. “It remains a damning fact of life that we ask too much of those who are marginalised and too little of those who are not.”

Away from the world of global fame and its attendant scrutiny, the journalist Chitra Ramaswamy’s touching memoir Homelands (Canongate) documents the author’s friendship with 97-year-old Henry Wuga, who escaped Nazi persecution as a teenager and began a new life in Glasgow. Interwoven with Wuga’s recollections is Ramaswamy’s own family story – she is the daughter of Indian immigrant parents – through which she digs deep into matters of identity, belonging and the meaning of home. Similar themes are explored in Ira Mathur’s multilayered Love the Dark Days (Peepal Tree), which, set in India, Britain and the Caribbean, reads like a fictional family saga as it leaps back and forth in time. The book charts the lives of the author’s wealthy, dysfunctional forebears against a backdrop of patriarchal hegemony and a collapsing empire.

The Last Days (Ebury) by Ali Millar and Sins of My Father (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) by Lily Dunn each tell harrowing stories of families torn apart by religious dogma. Millar, who grew up as a Jehovah’s Witness on the Scottish borders, reflects on a childhood haunted by predictions of Armageddon and blighted by her eating disorder. As an adult she marries, within the church, a controlling man and has a baby, though at 30 she makes her escape and is “disfellowshipped”, meaning she is cut off for ever from her family. Meanwhile, Dunn recalls losing her father to a commune in India presided over by the cult leader Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, where disciples were encouraged to “live in love”, meaning they could engage in guilt-free sex. Dunn’s book is her attempt to pin down this charismatic, mercurial and unreliable figure and the ripple effects of his actions on those closest to him. In Matt Rowland Hill’s scabrously funny Original Sins (Chatto & Windus), it is the author who is the agent of chaos. The son of evangelical Christians, Hill shoots heroin at the funeral of a friend who died from an overdose, and tries to score drugs on a visit to Bethlehem. Were his account a novel, you might accuse it of being too far-fetched.

In Kit de Waal’s first autobiographical work, Without Warning and Only Sometimes (Tinder Press), the author recalls how she and her four siblings would go to bed hungry while their father blew his earnings on a new suit, and her mother would work off her rage by collecting empty milk bottles and throwing them at a wall in the back yard. After a bout of depression in her teens, De Waal eventually found comfort and escape in literature. Her book is a brilliant evocation of the times in which she lived, when children learned to make their own entertainment and adults didn’t talk about their feelings, and a funny and tender portrait of a complicated family.

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The Crane Wife (Viking), by the American author CJ Hauser, began life as a confessional essay about the time she travelled to the gulf coast of Texas to study whooping cranes 10 days after breaking off her engagement. Published in the Paris Review, the essay blew up online, prompting Hauser to expand her thoughts on love and relationships into this thoughtful and fitfully funny book. Across 17 confessional essays, we find her furtively spreading her grandparents’ ashes at their old house in Martha’s Vineyard, contemplating breast reduction surgery and reflecting on her relationships with a high-school boyfriend and a divorcee who is clearly still in love with his ex.

Finally, some excellent biographies. Agatha Christie: A Very Elusive Woman (Hodder & Stoughton) by Lucy Worsley is a riveting portrait of the queen of crime viewed through a feminist lens. The book acknowledges Christie’s flaws, most notably in her views on race, while portraying her as ahead of her time in putting women at the centre of her stories and showing how older women “have more to offer the world than meets the eye”. Super-Infinite (Faber), winner of this year’s Baillie Gifford prize, is a biography of the 17th-century preacher and poet John Donne by Katherine Rundell, the children’s novelist and Renaissance scholar. Ten years in the writing, the book approaches its subject with wit and vivacity, bringing to life Donne’s inner world through his verse.

Jonathan Freedland’s The Escape Artist (John Murray) is a remarkable account of the life of Rudolf Vrba, a prisoner at Auschwitz who was put to work in “Kanada”, a store of belongings removed from inmates which revealed that the line fed to them was a lie: they were not there to be resettled but murdered. Vrba and his friend Fred Wetzler pledged to escape and tell the world about the Nazis’ industrialised murder, hiding beneath a woodpile for three days before slipping through the fence to freedom. The horror of this story lies not just in its account of “cold-blooded extermination” but in the slowness of authorities to react to the Vrba-Wetzler report, which laid out the workings of Auschwitz, complete with maps showing the chambers. Freedland recalls the words of the French-Jewish philosopher Raymond Aron, who, when asked about the Holocaust, said: “I knew, but I didn’t believe it. And because I didn’t believe it, I didn’t know.”

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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 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.

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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 .

Send all editorial inquiries  HERE .

We're living in crazy times, especially since this whole pandemic mess started a few long years ago. With so much instability out there, it's easy to feel, well, a little uneasy. That's why it's not a bad idea to consider a few self-defense weapons to have at your disposal, just in case. You never know really know what lies ahead but you can be prepared if things do go very, very wrong.

There are many options out there, but the best of the bunch are packable, discreet, effective, and non-lethal (because you don't necessarily have to put somebody six feet under to "take them out"). Now, it's one thing to have one of these on your person and quite another to use it safely and properly. So make sure you know what you're dealing with beforehand and maybe even set up some training time with your new tool. Whether you're planing to get (intentionally) lost in the backcountry or just milling about in the city, it's not a bad idea to consider getting one of these. Here are the best self-defense weapons for protecting yourself in 2023.

We live among walking legends, from LeBron James and Steven Spielberg to Paul McCartney and Meryl Streep. In the category of writing, Stephen King is among the very best. The 76-year-old from Maine has written countless classics, with a signature ability to both instill fear and keep readers helplessly attached to the plot.

Dubbed the "king of horror," King is a living icon, still turning out quality material. Some of the scariest concepts that continue to creep you out — the clowns, the twins in the hallway, the buried pets — are the handy work of King. It's no wonder many consider him to be one of the greatest writers of all time.

Anytime you're wondering what's on TV, it's easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of new shows and movies at your disposal. Every weekend brings new debuts across a wide array of streaming services, and it can be hard to keep track of what's worth checking out and what you can skip. Thankfully, we've got you covered with recommendations for movies and TV shows across a wide array of different streaming services. This is what to watch this weekend.

Best new shows to watch What to watch on Netflix

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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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Best Biographies

Award winning biographies of 2022, recommended by sophie roell.

Five Books Expert Recommendations

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.

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

1 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

2 the last king of america: the misunderstood reign of george iii by andrew roberts, 3 burning boy: the life and work of stephen crane by paul auster, 4 the escape artist: the man who broke out of auschwitz to warn the world by jonathan freedland, 5 super-infinite: the transformations of john donne by katherine rundell, 6 chasing me to my grave: an artist's memoir of the jim crow south by winfred rembert.

The National Book Critics Circle award for biography and the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography

The Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography

The LA Times book prize for biography

Biographies Shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction

The Pulitzer Prize for Biography

The 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Biography (which also includes works of autobiography) went to Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist’s Memoir of the Jim Crow South by the late Winfred Rembert (1945-2021) . Rembert was from a family of field labourers in Cuthbert, Georgia and taught himself to paint at the age of 51 using leather tooling skills he learned in prison. In the preface, he writes that he had been scared to draw attention to what happened to him in Cuthbert during his lifetime, and so he only composed his memoir as he was dying. It’s a wrenching tale told in a very direct and touching way. The book also includes pictures of his paintings—of cotton fields, of his mother giving him away as a baby.

December 17, 2022

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The 20 Best Biographies of Writers

The best biographies of writers cut through the gossip, the scandals, the myths, and the legends to deftly balance the life of the author with their literary legacy. This list features the best literary biographies of writers who penned classic works across more than four hundred years of literary history. From Shakespeare to Richard Wright to Mary Shelley and Virginia Woolf, these favorite biographies of writers encompass a deep bench of the best biographies of famous writers. Let’s dive in!

But first, if you’re interested in more of the best literary biographies, be sure to check out our list of the 10 best biographies of poets :

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And now for an epic list of the 20 best biographies of writers…

Agatha christie: an elusive woman by lucy worsley.

Agatha Christie, one of the “Masters of Suspense,” lived a remarkable life while penning classics like Murder on the Orient Express and And Then There Were None . Read all about it in Lucy Worsley’s Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman . Among the best literary biographies, this one dispels the mysteries in the real life of this iconic mystery writer.

How to read it: Purchase Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman on Amazon

Also a poet: frank o’hara, my father, and me by ada calhoun.

This unusual literary biography blends personal memoir with a bio of one of the greatest poets of all time, Frank O’Hara (for his collected poems, check out this edition ). In Also a Poet , Ada Calhoun discovers tapes of interviews between Peter Schjeldahl, her father, an art critic, and poet Frank O’Hara. The recordings were intended to be used in Schjeldahl’s unfinished biography of O’Hara. One of the best biographies of writers, Calhoun sets out to complete her father’s book while also intertwining memoirs of her own complicated relationship with her father. The result is a raw and real read you won’t soon forget.

How to read it: Purchase Also a Poet on Amazon

Jane austen: a life by claire tomalin.

Among readers who have favorite biographies of writers, Claire Tomalin’s Jane Austen: A Life often ranks high among the best literary biographies. We all know Jane Austen—author of, among other classics, Pride and Prejudice and Emma —right? Not so fast. Tomalin’s biography uncovers the previously limited life of this incredibly influential writer.

How to read it: Purchase Jane Austen: A Life on Amazon

Begin again: james baldwin’s america and its urgent lessons for our own by eddie s. glaude jr..

The best biographies of writers explore the legacy of the famous author whose portrait they are trying to draw. And that’s exactly what Eddie S. Glaude Jr. does in Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessonsf or Our Own . This bio of James Baldwin, perhaps most famous for his novel with queer themes, Giovanni’s Room , argues that Baldwin’s vision of America remains relevant today.

How to read it: Purchase Begin Again on Amazon

Born to be posthumous: the eccentric life and mysterious genius of edward gorey by mark dery.

I’m a huge Edward Gorey fan. I’ve read his books—some of which are collected in Amphigorey: Fifteen Books —over and over again and count him as an influence on my own writing. So imagine how delightful it was to encounter Born to Be Posthumous , Mark Dery’s compelling portrait of Gorey, definitely one of he best biographies of writers. This engrossing literary biography captures the “eccentric life and mysterious genius” of Gorey in a book that illuminates this exceptional-but-often-overlooked pioneer of the macabre.

How to read it: Purchase Born to Be Posthumous on Amazon

The bradbury chronicles: the life of ray bradbury by sam weller.

I love Ray Bradbury. During a very difficult time in my life, I sought refuge in Bradbury’s imagination, devouring two of his most treasured short story collections, The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man (get them both in this Ray Bradbury boxed collection by the Library of America). I was completely swept up in wonder and fascination. So I’m so excited to say that Sam Weller’s The Bradbury Chronicles illuminates the life of this towering figure in America’s literary history, easily one of the best biographies of famous writers. Read this book and learn about the incredible life of one of the most incredible authors ever.

How to read it: Purchase The Bradbury Chronicles on Amazon

The brontë myth by lucasta miller.

One of the best biographies of famous English writers, Lucasta Miller’s The Brontë Myth is a deep dive into the lives and literary works of the Brontë sisters, whom you may know best from Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë) and Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë). Miller’s bio unfurls the tangled reputation of these three brilliant sisters, liberating them from the various schools of thought—psychoanalytical, feminist, etc.—that have embraced the Brontës and counted them as their own. Instead, we get a fresh update on the lives of these influential sister-authors, free of the various schools of criticism that have ensnared them in their jaws. (If you’re just getting started with the Brontës, check out this handsome box set of their most well-known novels .)

How to read it: Purchase The Brontë Myth on Amazon

Cross of snow: a life of henry wadsworth longfellow by nicholas a. basbanes.

Chances are you’ve heard of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, but until now, this iconic 19th century American author has lived a life undiscovered. Read the best of Longfellow’s work before diving into this incredible look at an incredible writer. In Cross of Snow , Nicholas A. Basbanes reveals the life of Longfellow, charting his influences and the writer he influenced himself. This breakthrough study is easily one of the best literary biographies.

How to read it: Purchase Cross of Snow on Amazon

Every love story is a ghost story: a life of david foster wallace by d. t. max.

The turbulent life of David Foster Wallace, author of that infamous classic, Infinite Jest , is demystified in D. T. Max’s Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story , the must-read literary biography of this important America scribe. The best biographies of writers sort through the gossip, the speculation, and the larger-than-life reputations of their subjects, allowing the author’s life to be seen in line with their work without overtaking their literary genius. And that’s exactly what Max manages in one of the best biographies of famous writers.

How to read it: Purchase Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story on Amazon

I am alive and you are dead: a journey into the mind of philip k. dick by emmanuel carrère.

The genius of Philip K. Dick has left us with classic sci-fi works like Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (inspiration for the SF film Blade Runner ) and A Scanner Darkly . But who was the man behind these important books that helped establish the science fiction genre? You’ll find the answer to that question in Emmanuel Carrère’s I Am Alive and You Are Dead , an essential literary biography for any fan of Dick’s writing. Definitely one of the best biographies of writers, I Am Alive and You Are Dead is subtitled “A journey into the mind of Philip K. Dick,” an apt description of this deep dive into the brain of this key figure in science fiction and literature in general.

How to read it: Purchase I Am Alive and You Are Dead on Amazon

T.s. eliot: an imperfect life by lyndall gordon.

I consider many of T.S. Eliot’s poems to be perfect, not to mention Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats , which was illustrated by Edward Gorey (whose bio I included above in this list of the best biographies of writers). But there’s no denying that Eliot lived a, well, complicated life that included anti-Semitism and misogyny. So how do we reconcile the poet’s work with the poet himself? You’ll find out in Lyndall Gordon’s T.S. Eliot: An Imperfect Life , among the greatest biographies of poets. Gordon takes Eliot on in this unflinching study of Eliot’s life and literature. The best literary biographies face their subject head on, revealing the “imperfect” lives of their subjects, and it’s precisely that approach that makes this book among the most essential biographies of famous English writers.

How to read it: Purchase T.S. Eliot: An Imperfect Life on Amazon

J.r.r. tolkien: a biography by humphrey carpenter.

Who was the man who wrote The Lord of the Rings , easily the most influential fantasy books ever written? You’ll find out in Humphrey Carpenter’s J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography . This one definitely ranks among the best biographies of writers because of the nimble way Carpenter weaves together the life of Tolkien with his work, offering a master class of how to write literary biographies. Uncover the man from the myth in this close read on the man who penned a fictional universe as vast and complete as our own universe.

How to read it: Purchase J.R.R. Tolkien: A Life on Amazon

Mary shelley by miranda seymour.

She wrote the groundbreaking science fiction novel Frankenstein , but who was the woman behind this classic story? In Miranda Seymour’s Mary Shelley , we discover exactly that. Among the best literary biographies, this book is a saga of the life of Mary Shelley, a life that saw as much sorrow and trauma as joy. In this book, surely one of the must-have biographies of female writers, Seymour sifts through the documents about Shelley’s life to situate famous English author within her historical and cultural context while also surveying how Shelley influenced the canon of English literature.

How to read it: Purchase Mary Shelley on Amazon

Richard wright: the life and times by hazel rowley.

Richard Wright is perhaps best known for his novel Native Son , but the author also contributed many more books and writing to American letters. In this book, Hazel Rowley digs deep into Wright’s exceptional life and magnificent literature to braid the two together. The result is one of the best biographies of writers, one that highlights the important contributions of a leading figure in American literary history.

How to read it: Purchase Richard Wright: The Life and Times on Amazon

Savage beauty: the life of edna st. vincent millay by nancy milford.

The poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay positions this influential author as one of the leading poets of twentieth century. And it’s precisely that legacy that Nancy Milford illuminates in Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay . With this fresh perspective on Millay, the midcentury master of verse, readers get one of the best biographies of poets. If all biographies of female writers were this comprehensive and inquisitive, there’d be no time to read anything else, marking this as an exceptional biography. If you’re interested in important female authors, check out this one vibrant, bold life of Millay, and you won’t be disappointed.

How to read it: Purchase Savage Beauty on Amazon

Shirley jackson: a rather haunted life by ruth franklin.

I’m a big fan of Shirley Jackson. I count We Have Always Lived in the Castle among my all-time favorite books. So it’s with great pleasure that I share that Ruth Franklin’s Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life definitely counts as one of the best biographies of writers. This literary biography goes deep into the life of Jackson, and in so doing, you’ll realize why Franklin subtitles this as “a rather haunted life.” Franklin highlights how this iconic writer danced on the edge of the macabre, radicalized the American literary world, and scandalized the public. It’s a book that’s as dishy as it is illuminating, ranking as among the best literary biographies.

How to read: Purchase Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life on Amazon

Updike by adam begley.

John Updike. Just the name of this author conjures up visions of some of the best writing in the English language, like the Rabbit tetralogy and critically acclaimed short stories . How on earth do you begin to assemble the life of this significant author? Somehow Adam Begley manages it in Updike , one of the best biographies of writers. Begley’s bio of Updike meets its match, becoming as innovative and important as its titular subject. The result is a dazzling biography whose story is just as gripping as one of Updike’s novels. You won’t want to pass this one up.

How to read it: Purchase Updike on Amazon

Virginia woolf by hermione lee.

When I was a senior in college, I did an independent study of Virginia Woolf with a great professor. To get ready for the course, I read biographies of Virginia Woolf, including Hermione Lee’s bio that I’m including in this list of the best literary biographies. Lee tackles her larger-than-life subject, Virginia Woolf, known for her Modernist novels like Mrs. Dalloway and, my personal favorite, To the Lighthouse . Lee is more than up to the task, and the result is, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer : “A biography wholly worthy of the brilliant woman it chronicles. . . . It rediscovers Virginia Woolf afresh.” If you’re at all curious about Woolf, the Modernists, the Bloomsbury Group, or the history of English literature, pick this one up.

How to read it: Purchase Virginia Woolf on Amazon

Will in the world: how shakespeare became shakespeare by stephen greenblatt.

Any list of the best biographies of famous English writers would be incomplete without a bio of the father of English literature: yep, William Shakespeare. What’s left to say about the Bard, who penned some of the most important writing in the English language ? Turns out, plenty. And that’s exactly what you’ll find in Stephen Greenblatt’s masterful biography Will in the World , which attempts to uncover Shakespeare’s origin story. Greenblatt explores Shakespeare’s early life, and the cultural, historical, and artistic forces that explain, so the subtitle says, “How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare.” The outcome is Will in the World , a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and part of the curriculum of anyone looking for the best biographies of writers. This literary biography proves it’s still possible to write fresh, surprising, captivating, and engrossing biographies of famous writers. And Will in the World is the ultimate mic-drop, making it the only Shakespeare biography you need.

How to read it: Purchase Will in the World on Amazon

Wrapped in rainbows: the life of zora neale hurston by valerie boyd.

Many people discover Harlem Renaissance author Zora Neale Hurston through her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God , but in the award-winning Wrapped in Rainbows , Valerie Boyd uncovers the writer’s total miraculous output and undeniable influence. This key book is for sure one of the best literary biographies that any student of American literature will want to check out.

How to read it: Purchase Wrapped in Rainbows on Amazon

And there you have it an essential list of the 20 best biographies of writers. which of these best literary biographies will you read first, share this:.

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Sarah S. Davis is the founder of Broke by Books, a blog about her journey as a schizoaffective disorder bipolar type writer and reader. Sarah's writing about books has appeared on Book Riot, Electric Literature, Kirkus Reviews, BookRags, PsychCentral, and more. She has a BA in English from the University of Pennsylvania, a Master of Library and Information Science from Clarion University, and an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts.

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Brandie DeRusha

With her MA in English from Rutgers University-Camden, Brandie spends her days chasing around her toddlers and writing. She loves to pair wine with her reading; preferably a Brontë, or an Elliot, or a Woolf novel. Depending on the mood. She currently lives in Florida with her husband, two kids and furry beast.

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Somewhere between childhood and adulthood, I forgot how to dream for my life. It was in between those “you can do anything you put your mind to” platitudes from my mother, to “you’ll never make any money if you get a degree in art” realities — also from my mother. As a good child, I believed everything people would say about my potential. If I expressed interest in writing or journalism, they would scoff at me that it was “too hard” for me; if it was acting or dancing, it was “too competitive.” Clearly it was confusing and sent me into an adolescent identity crisis. Who could I be if I couldn’t be who I was?

Now, as a grown up and a mother, I realize that in order to live our truth…we must follow our curiosity. We must embrace our curiosity. We must be allowed to explore. To get things wrong. To find out how we individually interpret the world around us. That will help us make the world a better place.

Thankfully, the way has been paved before us by millions of amazing people who refused to internalize the negative messages about their dreams. People who were so into what they were doing that nothing else mattered except that one thing. Who knew that what their heart was saying was the way without someone’s expectations of them.

Here are stories of 20 people who made their own way and changed not only their lives but ours. 20 stories of people who followed their curiously, followed their love, and led the way for us to be a better society. These 20 biography books for kids can help your kids dream big.

20 of the Best Biography Books for Kids

The Story of Harriet Tubman by Christine Platt

Before she became known for her fight to free people from enslavement, she was a little girl who was sad to see her family be separated. Tubman is going to be a key person in most kids’ history classes — so this book also gives a timeline of her life, with age appropriate discussion questions. And if you love this, the series also has Barack Obama, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, and Benjamin Franklin biographies, and more.

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Six Dots: A Story of Young Louis Braille by Jen Bryant and Boris Kulikov

This picture book biography tells the story of how Louis Braille lost his sight and invented an alphabet. Young Braille wanted nothing more than to be able to read after an accident causes him to lose his eyesight. His invention gave blind kids all over the world a new way to navigate a world that wasn’t made for them. This book is not only inspiring, it shows children that everyone is capable of doing good things.

Manfish: A Story of Jacques Cousteau by Jennifer Berne and Éric Puybaret

Once there was a boy named Jacques. He loved to explore the oceans. This whimsical and poetic biography of Jacques Cousteau will inspire kids to follow their explorer natures, as well as help them realize that every person who has made history started as a kid with curiosity.

Elizabeth Leads the Way: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the Right to Vote by Tanya Lee Stone and Rebecca Gibbon

From a young age, Elizabeth understood that things weren’t equal in her life. How could only a few people have the right to vote? Voting is the foundation of our democracy. So she went to college, gathered like-minded friends, and made their statements, not stopping until women in the United States won the Right to Vote. She was a girl who saw a problem, and grew up to find the solution.

Turning Pages: My Life Story by Sonya Sotomayor and Lulu Delacre

The first Latina on the Supreme Court, Sonya Sotomayor recollects her life and the steps that brought her there. For her, it was books. Books helped her cope with difficulties in her life, connect with her roots, and helped her see that her future was full of possibilities. In her autobiography, Sotomayor encourages kids everywhere to read, dream, and puzzle for themselves.

Malala’s Magic Pencil by Malala Yousafzai and Kera Ascoet

As a girl, Malala wished for a magic pencil. A tool she could use to make everyone happy. To make the world around her a little brighter. As she got older she realized that even if she didn’t have a magic pencil, she could still work hard to make the world a better place. Told in a way that’s appropriate to children, we learn about the struggles that Malala faced to follow her dreams and how even then she held onto a hope for a better future for herself and her friends.

Pablo Neruda: Poet of the People by Monica Brown and Julie Paschkis

Sometimes people create with paint, but for a little boy in a city in Chile, words were better. Pablo wrote poems about all the things he loved. Things he found in nature, things his friends made, and the things he found at the marketplace. He wrote about the people of Chile, their struggles and passions. It all started with a little boy who loved to paint with words.

Drum Dream Girl: How One Girl’s Courage Changed Music by Margarita Engle and Rafael López

Millo Castro Zaldarriaga dreamed of drumming. However, girls weren’t allowed to drum on her little island. She dreamed of pounding tall congas and tapping small bongós. One day, she decided to follow her dream — what happened next when her bright music was heard was magic: people dancing and singing and deciding that boys and girls can make music. Showing that both boys and girls can be free to drum and dream, Millo’s story is an inspiration for children everywhere.

The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles and George Ford

Ruby was just a normal 6-year-old until she was chosen to be the first Black person to be enrolled in an all white elementary school. A lot of people didn’t like that idea and said some mean and threatening things. Ruby did what she was told to do, and went to school anyway. How does a little girl change the world? By being brave in the face of racism and injustice.

A Voice Named Aretha by Katheryn Russel-Brown and Laura Freeman

How did a quiet and shy girl from Detroit become the Queen of Soul and the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? She stayed true to herself and her ideals by refusing to play for segregated audiences and never forgetting her roots. She stood up for what was right. Aretha Franklin proved that with passion, perseverance, and R-E-S-P-E-C-T, you can do anything.

Counting the Stars: The Story of Katherine Johnson, NASA Mathematician by Lesa Cline-Ransome and Raúl Colón

When NASA used mathematicians called “human computers,” one woman stood out among them all. Katherine Johnson was integral in getting John Glen around the world, helping men walk on the moon, and getting Apollo 13 home safely. This book is for girls who love numbers — who don’t let problems stand in the way from the work.

Vincent Can’t Sleep by Barb Rosenstock and Mary Grandpre

Vincent Can’t Sleep is the story of how one of the most beloved and creative artists found his inspiration. When Vincent Van Gogh couldn’t sleep, he’d walk during the night, giving him the inspiration for his famous painting Starry Night . With lovely poetic writing, it tells kids to follow their passion, even if they don’t see the return in their lifetime. (Maybe wait to walk outside at night alone until after they’ve grown up, though.)

Magic Ramen by Andrea Wang and Kana Urbanowicz

“Peace follows a full stomach,” thought Momofuko Ando while working in his lab to find a quick, easy, and tasty way of making ramen soup. He wanted to help those in the long daily lines for soup after WWII. This is the story of one man, his commitment to his cause, and the world’s most popular “easy soup.”

Harlem’s Little Blackbird: The Story of Florence Mills by Renée Watson and Christian Robinson

Florence was a little girl who loved to sing. She also loved her parents, who were formerly enslaved. So when her beautiful singing and dancing inspired patrons and playwrights alike, she knew that she wouldn’t be happy without standing up to the injustice that she saw daily.

I Dissent: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Makes Her Mark by Debbie Levy and Elizabeth Baddeley

“Disagreeing does not make you disagreeable” was something that young Ruth Bader Ginsberg had to learn. This book is the first picture book of Ginsberg’s life. Kids get to see how one girl who stood up for what she believed and became the most beloved Supreme Court justice.

Star Stuff: Carl Sagan and the Mysteries of the Cosmos by Stephanie Roth Sisson

“The Earth and every living thing are made of star stuff.” —Carl Sagan. As a boy, Carl Sagan loved learning about the stars. His trip to the 1939 World’s Fair opened up the universe to Carl. A boy who was captured by the wonder of the cosmos became a man who would launch satellites and teach the world about the stars.

Emmanuel’s Dream: The True Story of Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah by Laurie Ann Thompson and Sean Qualls

Sometimes being told you can’t do a thing gives you all the incentive to do it more, especially if EVERYONE thinks you can’t. Emmanuel Ofosu Yepoah only had one leg — and this is the true story of how he biked across the entire country of Ghana (almost 400 miles!) and went on change the way many people in his country thought about people with disabilities.

She Loved Baseball: The Effa Manley Story by Audrey Vernick and Don Tate

Effa Manley loved baseball. She loved to go Yankee Stadium and see Babe Ruth swing for the fences. Soon she became her own hero by becoming the manager and owner of the Newark Eagles. Effa was the first (and only) woman inducted in the Baseball Hall of Fame, because of her work with the Eagles. From a girl growing up in Philly to a Hall of Famer, Manley shows us how to swing for the fences.

Jimi Sounds Like a Rainbow: A Story of the Young Jimi Hendrix by Gary Golio and Javaka Steptoe

Can someone paint pictures with sound? Jimi was a normal kid who loved to paint and listen to music. This is the story of a kid who interpreted the world in his own unique way, and over time learned how to weave music and imagery to become one of the most influential people in the world.

The Oldest Student: How Mary Walker Learned to Read by Rita Lorraine Hubbard and Oge Mora

Mary Walker was born into slavery. She had her first child at the age of 20, lived through a Civil War and two World Wars, and worked many many jobs. Finally, at the young age of 116, Mary Walker learned how to read, proving that it is never too late to follow your dreams and also recognize how incredible life can be.

Want even more after reading this list? Check out historical fiction classics for kids and these picture book biographies of Black leaders and creatives.

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16 of the Best Celebrity Memoirs to Read in 2023

By emily malkowski | may 15, 2024, 9:55 pm edt.

It’s no secret that as a society, we’re obsessed with the idea of celebrity , which is perhaps why this memoir genre has become so widely popular over time. When we read highly intimate stories written by our favorite actors, musicians, and public figures, the curtain is temporarily pulled back, giving us an up-close and personal look at the people behind the fame. It’s like reading a private diary or, even better, catching up with an old friend.

And while it’s true that we may never actually be able to sit down and chat with our favorite stars, reading essays where they recount their inspiring journeys (and all of the juicy drama along the way) is arguably the next best thing. If you’re looking for the best celebrity memoirs to read this year, you can start by checking out these 16 standout titles below.

1. Spare // Prince Harry

The most recent release on this list is Spare , an emotional tell-all by Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex . Divided into three sections, the book lets readers in on the intimate details of his life, including his mother Princess Diana ’s death, his service in the military, falling in love with Meghan Markle , and making the difficult decision to leave the royal family .

Wondering where the title Spare comes into play? It comes from the colloquial idea that royal families should have at least two children: “An heir and a spare.” The spare , or the second-born child, would serve as a guarantee that, should anything happen to the first child, there would always be a continuation of the royal family lineage . This added context sets the tone for a memoir that doesn’t pull any punches as Prince Harry fearlessly critiques both the British royal family and the impact of living an incredibly public life under the media’s gaze.

2. I’m Glad My Mom Died // Jennette McCurdy

Penned by former Nickelodeon star Jennette McCurdy, I’m Glad My Mom Died took the world by storm in 2022 and, as of this writing, has spent 23 consecutive weeks on The New York Times bestseller list. The book chronicles McCurdy’s early beginnings as a child actor and recounts her tumultuous struggles with eating disorders, addiction, and an abusive relationship with her mother, who died of breast cancer in 2013. I’m Glad My Mom Died was originally a darkly comedic one-woman show that McCurdy performed for audiences in Los Angeles and New York City before adapting the material into a memoir. 

3. Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood // Trevor Noah

The title of Trevor Noah’s bestselling memoir is unfortunately not a play on words: It was literally a crime to be born a mixed-race baby in South Africa during the apartheid era, when interracial relationships were banned and racial classification was the foundation of all societal laws. Published in 2016, Born a Crime chronicles the hardships Noah faced while growing up in the twilight of apartheid and poignantly reflects on the years leading up to his rise to fame as an award-winning writer, comedian, producer, actor, and former longtime host of The Daily Show . In 2018, Noah won the Audie Award for Best Male Narrator for his narration of the Audible-exclusive audiobook version of the book.

4. We Were Dreamers // Simu Liu

Mirroring the storyline of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, this bestselling memoir is its own immigrant superhero origin story of sorts. In the first half of We Were Dreamers , Marvel star Simu Liu traces his parents’ unique and hard-fought experience immigrating to Canada against all odds.

It isn’t until the second half of the book that Liu begins to unravel his own journey toward stardom, from becoming a breakout TV star on Kim’s Convenience to eventually landing the role of a lifetime in Marvel’s first Asian superhero film. Prior to finding success in the entertainment industry, he was laid off from the consulting firm Deloitte, where he worked as an accountant for nine months after graduating from the Ivey Business School at the University of Western Ontario. 

5. Finding Me // Viola Davis

Best known for her starring performance as Annalise Keating on ABC’s hit drama How to Get Away With Murder , actress Viola Davis wrote this much-celebrated memoir “for anyone who needs reminding that a life worth living can only be born from radical honesty and the courage to shed facades.” Finding Me channels this very honesty as Davis bravely writes about her rise to fame despite the trauma and adversity she has experienced throughout her lifetime. Davis attended and graduated from the Juilliard School in 1993 and is the first Black woman to win an Oscar, an Emmy, and a Tony for acting—earning her the coveted title of Triple Crown winner.

6. Behind the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard // Tom Felton

Prepare to meet a real-life “wizard” as you crack open the pages of Behind the Wand , a recent memoir by Harry Potter star Tom Felton. In it, the actor shares fun-filled, behind-the-scenes anecdotes of life on-set as Draco Malfoy , reflects on his mischievous childhood as the youngest of four brothers, and gets vulnerable about his struggles with mental health and addiction after wrapping the films. Not only that, but Felton reveals many fascinating, long-kept secrets throughout the book, including the fact that he’s “always had a secret love” for costar Emma Watson and knew next to nothing about the famous fantasy book series during the audition process.

7. Taste: My Life Through Food // Stanley Tucci

Whether you know actor Stanley Tucci from his scene-stealing roles in films like The Devil Wears Prada or The Hunger Games series, or from his food-centric travel show Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy (or even through his two popular Italian-style cookbooks), his memoir Taste: My Life Through Food is an absolute delight. In it, he shares mouthwatering recipes and evocative, yet lighthearted, stories about growing up in Westchester, New York, as the grandson of Italian immigrants. Additionally, he traces how food has shaped his life, loves, and ultra-successful career. The self-proclaimed foodie knows his stuff, and in the early days of the pandemic, his high-end, DIY Negroni tutorial even went viral online. 

8. Making a Scene // Constance Wu

As an actress and activist, Constance Wu rose to fame thanks to her roles in the ABC comedy Fresh Off The Boat and the 2018 film Crazy Rich Asians , both of which boasted predominantly Asian-led casts and further championed Asian-American representation in media. In this debut collection of personal essays, Wu shares memories of her early childhood and reveals her harrowing experience of rape, abuse, and sexual assault. The star also muses on finding solace in acting, a career where embracing big emotions isn’t just accepted—but encouraged. Wu’s critically acclaimed performances have earned her multiple award nominations, including at the Golden Globes and Critics’ Choice Awards, plus a spot on the Time 100 Most Influential People of 2017 list .

9. Becoming // Michelle Obama

Becoming is a moving memoir penned by Michelle Obama, former First Lady of the United States and the first Black woman to ever serve in that role. The book begins by recounting Obama’s formative years growing up on the South Side of Chicago and traces the entirety of her incredible life and career, through her influential time in the White House and beyond. In each chapter, she reflects on topics ranging from her massive public health campaign to her experiences as a mother, as well as her historic impact on the world as a whole.

Becoming was initially released in 24 different languages and with more than 17 million copies sold worldwide, it is now regarded as one of the bestselling books of all time. A documentary of the same name, which followed Obama’s book tour in promotion of the memoir, was released by Netflix in 2020. In 2022, she also released a follow-up, The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times.

10. The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music // Dave Grohl

As a twice-inducted Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member, Dave Grohl has lent his musical talents to multiple legendary rock and grunge bands over the years, including Scream, Nirvana , and Foo Fighters. In The Storyteller , he shares stories about his early childhood in Virginia, his reckless days as a dirt-broke touring musician, and his life-changing experience of becoming a father. The audiobook version also features a bonus chapter that’s not included in the physical book, plus five snippets of never-before-heard original demos produced and performed by Grohl himself.

11. My Body // Emily Ratajkowski

This debut collection of memoir-style, feminist essays from actress, model, and activist Emily Ratajkowski gives readers an up-close and personal look at her work in the modeling and entertainment industries. Told in a non-linear format, Ratajkowski’s stories reveal the relentless challenges she faced with abuse and harassment while building the foundation of her successful career, including her involvement in the music video for the controversial 2013 song “Blurred Lines,” as well as her experiences with sexual assault. Her essay titled Buying Myself Back , which appears in the collection, was first published in The Cut in 2020. 

12. Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing // Matthew Perry

The title says it all: Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing is actor and comedian Matthew Perry’s bestselling tell-all in which he writes candidly about his experience on Friends , one of the most popular sitcoms of all time. In true Chandler Bing fashion, the work blends earnestness with Perry’s own signature sarcasm and dry humor, as he also recounts his various romantic relationships over the years and delves into his decades-long struggle with drug and alcohol addiction.

Perry originally began writing the book in the Notes app on his iPhone , tapping out his life story during a long-term stay in a Los Angeles hospital where he suffered from pneumonia, an exploded colon, and experienced a brief stint on life support, followed by two weeks in a coma and multiple stomach surgeries.

13. She Memes Well // Quinta Brunson

Quinta Brunson is best known as the creator and star of the hit ABC comedy Abbott Elementary . But before she found fame on the show, she wrote and starred in countless viral video sketches at Buzzfeed, and gained a big following on social media for her self-produced Instagram video series Girl Who Has Never Been On a Nice Date.

In her 2021 debut essay collection, She Memes Well, the award-winning writer, actress, and comedian writes with humor and heart about growing up in West Philadelphia, becoming “Internet famous,” and the importance of staying true to yourself at all costs. In 2022, Brunson became the first Black woman to be nominated three times in the same year for the comedy category at the Emmy Awards (she won for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series).

14. If You Ask Me (And Of Course You Won’t) // Betty White

The late Betty White ’s trailblazing career in the entertainment industry spanned more than seven decades. Whether you know her from her iconic roles on The Mary Tyler Moore Show or The Golden Girls (or from her later performances in modern rom-coms like The Proposal) , her 2011 collection of memoir-style essays reflects just what a national treasure she was.

In the book, White shares hilarious stories and heartfelt commentary on her extensive work in show business as a pioneer of early television and the first woman to ever produce a sitcom. She earned plenty of awards and accolades along the way, and even made the Guinness World Records in 2013 for Longest TV Career for an Entertainer (Female), in recognition of her 70-odd years in front of (and behind) the camera.

15. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) // Mindy Kaling

Watch almost any episode of the NBC sitcom The Office and it’s easy to see why Mindy Kaling’s sharp wit and signature sense of humor had a major hand in bringing one of the most celebrated comedies of all time to life on screen. But did you know that before she made her way to television, Kaling’s comedy first took center stage in Matt & Ben , a satirical , “bromantic” play about Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s friendship? In Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me , the award-winning actress, writer, director, and producer shares this little-known origin story and more in essays that radiate cool, big-sister-giving-you-life-advice energy in the best way. The Mindy Project star followed this book up with a second collection, titled Why Not Me?, in 2015.

16. Me // Elton John

With more than 300 million records sold worldwide and a career in music spanning over six decades, Elton John is easily one of the most prolific artists of all time. His official autobiography, aptly titled Me , aims to capture as much of the British singer, pianist, and composer’s fascinating life as possible, from his childhood music lessons and early days of fame to his extremely public struggle with a drug addiction. The star also delves into his experiences as a father, and his continued success as a musician and producer today. The majority of the audiobook version is narrated by Taron Egerton, who played John in the hit 2019 biopic Rocketman .

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An Appraisal

Alice Munro, a Literary Alchemist Who Made Great Fiction From Humble Lives

The Nobel Prize-winning author specialized in exacting short stories that were novelistic in scope, spanning decades with intimacy and precision.

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By Gregory Cowles

Gregory Cowles is a senior editor at the Book Review.

The first story in her first book evoked her father’s life. The last story in her last book evoked her mother’s death. In between, across 14 collections and more than 40 years, Alice Munro showed us in one dazzling short story after another that the humble facts of a single person’s experience, subjected to the alchemy of language and imagination and psychological insight, could provide the raw material for great literature.

Listen to this article with reporter commentary

And not just any person, but a girl from the sticks. It mattered that Munro, who died on Monday night at the age of 92, hailed from rural southwestern Ontario, since so many of her stories, set in small towns on or around Lake Huron, were marked by the ambitions of a bright girl eager to leave, upon whom nothing is lost. There was the narrator of “Boys and Girls,” who tells herself bedtime stories about a world “that presented opportunities for courage, boldness and self-sacrifice, as mine never did.” There was Rose, from “The Beggar Maid,” who wins a college scholarship and leaves her working-class family behind. And there was Del Jordan, from “Lives of Girls and Women” — Munro’s second book, and the closest thing she ever wrote to a novel — who casts a jaundiced eye on her town’s provincial customs as she takes the first fateful steps toward becoming a writer.

Does it seem reductive or limiting to derive a kind of artist’s statement from the title of that early book? It shouldn’t. Munro was hardly a doctrinaire feminist, but with implacable authority and command she demonstrated throughout her career that the lives of girls and women were as rich, as tumultuous, as dramatic and as important as the lives of men and boys. Her plots were rife with incident: the threatened suicide in the barn, the actual murder at the lake, the ambivalent sexual encounter, the power dynamics of desire. For a writer whose book titles gestured repeatedly at love (“The Progress of Love,” “The Love of a Good Woman,” “Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage”), her narratives recoiled from sentimentality. Tucked into the stately columns of The New Yorker, where she was a steady presence for decades, they were far likelier to depict the disruptions and snowballing consequences of petty grudges, careless cruelties and base impulses: the gossip that mattered.

Munro’s stories traveled not as the crow flies but as the mind does. You got the feeling that, if the GPS ever offered her a shorter route, she would decline. Capable of dizzying swerves in a line or a line break, her stories often spanned decades with intimacy and sweep; that’s partly what critics meant when they wrote of the novelistic scope she brought to short fiction.

Her sentences rarely strutted or flaunted or declared themselves; but they also never clanked or stumbled — she was an exacting and precise stylist rather than a showy one, who wrote with steely control and applied her ambitions not to language but to theme and structure. (This was a conscious choice on her part: “In my earlier days I was prone to a lot of flowery prose,” she told an interviewer when she won the Nobel Prize in 2013. “I gradually learned to take a lot of that out.”) In the middle of her career her stories started to grow roomier and more contemplative, even essayistic; they could feel aimless until you approached the final pages and recognized with a jolt that they had in fact been constructed all along as intricately and deviously as a Sudoku puzzle, every piece falling neatly into place.

There was a signature Munro tone: skeptical, ruminative, given to a crucial and artful ambiguity that could feel particularly Midwestern. Consider “The Bear Came Over the Mountain,” which — thanks in part to Sarah Polley’s Oscar-nominated film adaptation, “ Away From Her ” (2006) — may be Munro’s most famous story; it details a woman’s descent into senility and her philandering husband’s attempt to come to terms with her attachment to a male resident at her nursing home. Here the husband is on a visit, confronting the limits of his knowledge and the need to make peace with uncertainty, in a characteristically Munrovian passage:

She treated him with a distracted, social sort of kindness that was successful in holding him back from the most obvious, the most necessary question. He could not demand of her whether she did or did not remember him as her husband of nearly 50 years. He got the impression that she would be embarrassed by such a question — embarrassed not for herself but for him. She would have laughed in a fluttery way and mortified him with her politeness and bewilderment, and somehow she would have ended up not saying either yes or no. Or she would have said either one in a way that gave not the least satisfaction.

Like her contemporary Philip Roth — another realist who was comfortable blurring lines — Munro devised multilayered plots that were explicitly autobiographical and at the same time determined to deflect or undermine that impulse. This tension dovetailed happily with her frequent themes of the unreliability of memory and the gap between art and life. Her stories tracked the details of her lived experience both faithfully and cannily, cagily, so that any attempt at a dispassionate biography (notably, Robert Thacker’s scholarly and substantial “Alice Munro: Writing Her Lives,” from 2005) felt at once invasive and redundant. She had been in front of us all along.

Until, suddenly, she wasn’t. That she went silent after her book “Dear Life” was published in 2012, a year before she won the Nobel, makes her passing now seem all the more startling — a second death, in a way that calls to mind her habit of circling back to recognizable moments and images in her work. At least three times she revisited the death of her mother in fiction, first in “The Peace of Utrecht,” then in “Friend of My Youth” and again in the title story that concludes “Dear Life”: “The person I would really have liked to talk to then was my mother,” the narrator says near the end of that story, in an understated gut punch of an epitaph that now applies equally well to Munro herself, but she “was no longer available.”

Read by Greg Cowles

Audio produced by Sarah Diamond .

Gregory Cowles is the poetry editor of the Book Review and senior editor of the Books desk. More about Gregory Cowles

Caleb Azumah Nelson honoured

Books newsletter: dylan thomas prize; ondaatje prize; dalkey book festival; elizabeth longford prize; james tait black prizes; gold dagger award; listowel writer’s week; dingle lit short story awards; tiktok book awards; saturday’s pages.

Caleb Azumah Nelson: winner of the Swansea University Dylan Thomas Award

In The Irish Times this Saturday, Colm Tóibín talks to Keith Duggan about his Brooklyn sequel, Long Island. Rónán Hession tells Sarah Gilmartin about his new novel, Ghost Mountain. Adrian Dunbar discusses Beckett: Unbound 2024, the festival of the writer’s work in Paris and Liverpool which the actor has teamed up with composer Nick Roth to stage. Clinton-era White House adviser George Stephanopoulos talks about The Situation Room, his history of the White House. And there is a Q&A with David Nicholls about his latest novel, You Are Here.

Reviews are Brian Hanley on Land Is All That Matters: The Struggle That Shaped Irish History by Myles Dungan; Ian Hughes on United States Last: The Right’s Century-long Romance with Foreign Dictators by Jacob Heilbrunn; Oliver Farry on Carrie Sun’s Private Equity; Brian Cliff and Elizabeth Mannion on the best new crime fiction; Henrietta McKervey on Ravelling by Estelle Birdy; Helen Cullen on Shanghailanders by Juli Min; Pat Carty on Table for Two by Amor Towles; Niamh Donnelly on The Lost Love Songs of Boysie Singh by Ingrid Persaud; Rabeea Saleem on Help Wanted by Adelle Waldman; Liam Bishop on Ours by Phillip B Williams; Conor Brady on The Grateful Water by Juliana Adelman; John Boyne on Hey, Zoey by Sarah Crossan; and Pragya Agarwal on Like Love by Maggie Nelson.

This weekend’s Irish Times Eason offer is Booker Prize winner Prophet Song by Paul Lynch, just €5.99, a €5 saving.

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British-Ghanaian author Caleb Azumah Nelson has been awarded the world’s largest and most prestigious literary prize for young writers, the Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize 2024, for his ‘anthemic’ novel Small Worlds (Viking, Penguin Random House UK).

The 30-year-old author was awarded the £20,000 global accolade – celebrating exceptional literary talent aged 39 or under – at a ceremony held in Swansea this evening.

Namita Gokhale, chair of the judges, said: “Emotionally challenging yet exceptionally healing, Small Worlds feels like a balm: honest as it is about the riches and the immense difficulties of living of and away from your culture.” – full quote on the press release below.

Small Worlds – whose paperback edition came out last month – tells an intimate father-son story set between south London and Ghana over three summers. The win cements Azumah Nelson as a rising star in literary fiction, following his acclaimed debut, Open Water , which was shortlisted for the same prize in 2022.

The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) has awarded its 2024 RSL Ondaatje Prize, worth £10,000, to Ian Penman for his novel Fassbinder Thousands of Mirrors, which judges lauded for its evocation of postwar Germany.

“I can’t believe it,” Penman said on collecting his prize from Jans Ondaatje Rolls, overseeing the ceremony on behalf of her father Christopher. “I’d like to thank Rainer Werner Fassbinder, who I think is astonishing and created a culture very much not like our own. Without him there wouldn’t be this book, and I dedicate this award to him.”

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the prize, which was instituted in 2004 to celebrate outstanding works of fiction, non-fiction or poetry that best evoke the spirit of a place.

Chair of judges Xiaolu Guo praised Penman’s ingenuity and originality: “This is the only book I have read twice this year. Truly it is thousands of mirrors in terms of the thoughts, images and references running through this reflective and wonderfully interior work. The world of European cinema, especially Fassbinder’s film seen through Ian Penman’s eyes, has transported me to a tantalising place called postwar Europe. The book brings me back to my youth and my film school years in the east and West, and it reminds me of how powerful images have shaped our very understanding of love and life.”

Fellow judges Francis Spufford and Jan Carson, who helped whittle down 194 entries which included novels, poetry and non-fiction, were equally delighted with their eventual winner.

“Stendahl once described the novel as ‘a mirror being carried up the street’, but Ian Penman’s extraordinary critical memoir is more like a whole convoy of the things,’ said Spufford. “The book captures not only scenes both gross and beautiful from the 1970s life of the workaholic Fassbinder, but a glittering array of thoughts and moments from his own long fascination with Fassbinder’s place and time and historical moment – which was also the time of Penman’s youth, not as a German film director but as a London music journalist, hungry for Europe and all that it then represented to England, assembling a wider world for his imagination from clues and scraps and cherished frames of German movies.”

Carson said: “I’m so keen for more readers to discover this incredible little book. Every sentence is explosive. Every page left me reaching for my notebook to jot down things which required further thought. There are so many ideas, perspectives and tiny nuggets of deep insight contained within this book, I’d struggle to put a label on it. It’s biography. It’s philosophy. It’s critique. It’s flighty enough to read like fiction and yet it’s one of the most grounded books I’ve read in years. Yes, it’s about German cinema, but German cinema’s simply the mirror Penman’s holding up to force his readers to look long and hard at themselves.”

U2 band member The Edge and author of Black Holes: The Key to Understanding the Universe, Prof Brian Cox at last year's Dalkey Book Festival. Photograph: Conor McCabe Photography.

Dalkey Book Festival returns this June 13th to 16th with Paul Lynch, Colm Tóibín, Claire Keegan, Anne Enright, Paul Murray, Kevin Barry, Donal Ryan, Elaine Feeney, Jan Carson, John Boyne, Victoria Kennefick, Colin Barrett, Nuala O’Connor, Mary Costello, Ferdia Lennon and Sinéad Gleeson.

David Baddiel will launch his latest book, a family memoir, at Dalkey Book Festival. Neil Jordan, who is also launching his memoir at Dalkey, will be in conversation with actor Stephen Rea. Speaking of actors, from the US, Henry Winkler, the legend who played The Fonz in Happy Days, will be speaking about his memoir and Irish star, Barry McGovern, will read Beckett.

With the world’s eyes on Gaza, Palestinian voices in a number of events include writers Isabella Hammad and Karim Kattan, as well as author of A Day in the Life of Abed Salama, Nathan Thrall and Jeremy Bowen, BBC Middle East correspondent.

CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, the famous broadcaster and frontline reporter who has won almost every prize going for journalism, David Brooks of The New York Times, probably the most influential commentator in United States, and Jeffrey Goldberg, editor of The Atlantic, will appear alongside Fintan O’Toole. Also from the US, leading Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro will discuss the health of democracy and theatre, the right-wing political playbook and the origin of today’s culture wars. From unpicking violence in the Middle East to the war in Ukraine and threats to the stability of global order, the swing to the right in Europe, and the future of Irish politics, Dalkey will welcome Katja Hoyer from Germany, David de Jong from the Netherlands and Robert Shrimsley, Janine Gibson and Fred Studemann from the Financial Times, James O’Brien from LBC on his latest book, How They Broke Britain alongside Jennifer O’Connell, Simon Carswell, Pat Leahy and David McWilliams from The Irish Times.

And there’s history with Peter Frankopan and Paddy Cullivan, nature with Manchán Magan and Sean Ronayne, science with Luke O’Neill, Ruth Freeman and Ian Robertson, and a session on writing satire with Robert Shrimsley, Kathy Lette, Colm O’Regan and Colm Williamson of Waterford Whispers.

Sian Smyth, festival director, said, “Ireland’s literary talent is being celebrated the world over, and in 2024 we are thrilled to be hosting many of our finest writers. We also have guests from right across the globe including Christiane Amanpour and, as the world’s attention is fixed on Palestine, we welcome Isabella Hammad, winner of the Palestinian Book Award, and Karim Kattan (who one literary festival attempted to silence, asking him to ‘refrain from mentioning the situation in Gaza’) as well as Middle East correspondent Jeremy Bowen flying in from Jerusalem. And much more – with a dash of history, science, theatre, poetry and comedy, there really is something for everyone. “ dalkeybookfestival.org

The shortlist for the Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography 2024 features one of Ireland’s foremost social and oral historians, Dr Jackie UI Chionna, for her book, Queen of Codes: The Secret Life of Emily Anderson, Britain’s Greatest Female Code Breaker (Headline).

Also shortlisted are Deborah E. Lipstadt for Golda Meir: Israel’s Matriarch (Yale); Kal Raustiala for The Absolutely Indispensable Man: Ralph Bunche, the United Nations, and the Fight to End Empire (OUP); MW Rowe for JL Austin: Philosopher and D-Day Intelligence Officer (OUP); and Jackie Wullschläger for Monet: The Restless Vision (Allen Lane).

The judges are Prof Roy Foster (Chair), Antonia Fraser, Chair Emerita and daughter of Elizabeth Longford, Flora Fraser, Richard Davenport-Hines and Prof Rana Mitter. The winner will be announced on June 12th.

Foster said: “Over 21 years the Elizabeth Longford Prize has extended and redefined the concept of lives that change history. The 2024 shortlist carries this forward. We have chosen a short but substantial book about a formidable and controversial woman world leader who helped create a nation, leaving a pioneering but deeply divisive legacy; a profile of a major diplomat who embodied the UN and its values, which is simultaneously a powerful commentary on racial issues and attitudes in the twentieth century; an eye-opening portrait of a painter who fundamentally changed the way we see things, and even how we understand time; and two intriguing biographies of people who combined distinguished scholarly lives with secret but profoundly important careers in Intelligence during second World War.

“All these books show that an individual life can cross barriers and partake in different worlds, often in ways no less historically influential for being unrecognised in their own time. In each case their life-stories have been told with scholarly rigour and narrative verve, qualities which characterise Elizabeth Longford’s own work and that of previous winners of this prize.”

A vivid tale set in a fictional town in northern Australia, an exploration into the work of a writer who took their own life, and a snapshot of a post-second world War culture of sex, drugs and rock'n'roll have won the 2024 James Tait Black Prizes, Britain’s longest-running literary awards.

Alexis Wright has won the fiction award for Praiseworthy, which is also shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award, whose winner will be announced next week. Though the Bodies Fall by Noel O’Regan was shortlisted for the fiction award.

The biography prize has been awarded jointly for Traces of Enayat by Iman Mersal, translated by Robin Moger, published by And Other Stories, and Fassbinder: Thousands of Mirrors by Ian Penman, published by Fitzcarraldo Editions.

It is the first time that the biography prize has been jointly awarded, and the first time a writer and translator have been awarded a prize together in the history of the awards. The prizes were opened to translations in 2021, with author and translator to be honoured equally. The prizes are the only major British book awards judged by literature scholars and students.

Praiseworthy, published by And Other Stories, is a 700-page novel exploring the climate crisis and how it affects the fictional town of Praiseworthy in northern Australia. Wright, a member of the Waanyi nation in Australia, is one of the country’s most acclaimed writers. The author has written several award-winning fiction and nonfiction books, and Praiseworthy is her fourth novel.

Judge Dr Benjamin Bateman, of the University of Edinburgh, called Praiseworthy “a kaleidoscopic and brilliantly conceived novel that interweaves matters of climate and Indigenous justice in prose that accomplishes the most difficult of feats – being funny and simultaneously ferociously engaged with some of the most pressing ethical and political questions of our contemporary moment.”

Traces of Enayat illuminates the life story of author Enayat al-Zayyat, whose only novel, Love and Silence was published posthumously following her suicide in her early 20s. First published in Arabic in 2019, Traces of Enayat is a memoir of Mersal’s journey through a changing Cairo as she traces her subject’s moving life story. Egypt-born Iman Mersel, who lives in Canada, is a poet, writer, academic and translator, who has published several works covering topics such as motherhood and parent-child relationships.

Robin Moger is an award-winning translator of Arabic literature to English, who has translated several novels and prose works.

Biography Judge Dr Simon Cooke, of the University of Edinburgh, called Traces of Enayat “an absorbing work of recovery and appreciation: formally inventive and reflective in its fusion of biographical approaches into a form all its own, beautifully attentive to the elusive, and deeply moving in its evocation of Enayat al-Zayyat’s life. It vividly opens up the cultural world of Cairo – and Enayat’s relation to it – in a translation of great tonal and narrative integrity, even as the book traverses different forms and registers.”

Ian Penman’s winning book is an insight into the post-second world War culture of sex, drugs and rock'n'roll through the eyes of West German film-maker Rainer Werner Fassbinder. It presents a portrait of the artist, who created more than 40 films and is regarded one of the major figures of the New German Cinema movement.

Penman is a British writer, music journalist and critic. He is the author of three books.

Judge Dr Simon Cooke said the panel found Fassbinder: Thousands of Mirrors to be “an extraordinary, signal achievement in the art of life-writing: poetically luminous at every turn, fascinating and agile in form, and hauntingly moving as a portrait – of Fassbinder, vividly brought to life on the page in all his complexity of the wider culture. A time-bound meditation in fragments, it also has a deep, powerfully affecting tonal integrity and pathos.”

Una Mannion has been shortlisted for the Crime Writers’ Association’s prestigious Gold Dagger Award for best crime novel for her second novel, Tell Me What I Am by (Faber & Faber). Also shortlisted are Over My Dead Body by Maz Evans; The Secret Hours by Mick Herron; Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane; Black river by Nilanjana Roy; and Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Sutanto.

The 2024 Listowel Writer’s Week programme has been announced under the curatorship this year of the poet Martin Dyar. The programme is themed around the idea of Mother Nature.

First hosted in 1971, the festival will take place between May 29th and June 2nd.

On the opening night, the John B. Keane Lifetime Achievement Award will be bestowed to President Michael D. Higgins, in recognition of ‘Service to the Arts in Ireland’. President Higgins will be in Listowel to accept the award.

Festival highlights include the legendary American novelist Alice McDermott who will read from and discuss her New York Times bestselling novel, Absolution.

There will be screening of the IFTA award winning film “That They May Face the Rising Sun” followed by an interview between with the film’s director Pat Collins and the Shakespeare scholar Andy Murphy.

Marking the thirtieth anniversary of Riverdance, Grammy award winning composer Bill Whelan will be in conversation with Philip King.

Dingle Lit Festival has announced the results of its Short Story Competition. Tracey Ní Mhaonaigh won the Irish-language category with Áine sa Phríomhchathair, with Brian Ó Donnchadha in second place and Úna Nic Cárthaigh third. Pauline Clooney won the English-language category with The Last Smoking Wedding in the Country. Miriam Needham came second and Claire O’Reilly third.

“It was an absolute pleasure to read the submissions for the Dingle Short Story Competition,” said judge Nicole Flattery. “The three winning stories are not only technically accomplished but full of voice and humour. I can’t wait to read what these writers do next.”

The competition judges also included Anna Stein and Camilla Dinkel for the entrants in English, with Cathal Póirtéir judging the entrants in Irish. Póirtéir said, “Tá an scéal truacánta seo sochreidthe, sothuigthe agus cumhachtach. Téann eachtraí an scéil go croí an léitheora chomh maith le croí an phríomhcharachtéir ar shlí ata cumasach agus ealaíonta.”

Dr Ní Mhaonaigh said, “Tá an-áthas go deo orm gur bhuaigh scéal de mo chuidse an comórtas gearrscéalaíochta. Is iontach an rud é go bhfuil comórtais den chineál seo againn sa Ghaeilge a thugann idir spreagadh agus mhisneach do scríbhneoirí idir shean agus nua!”

“It is an honour and a privilege, and a wonderful affirmation as a writer to be the winner of the Dingle Literary Festival short story competition,” Clooney said. “My heartfelt thanks to the judges and to the Festival team; I look forward to the time and space to write that this prize affords me, in the beautiful surroundings of the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Annaghmakerrig.”

The Dingle Lit Short Story Competition, in partnership with Dingle Distillery, was open for short story writers to submit work in Irish or English. The winner of the Irish competition will receive a week’s retreat in the West Kerry Gaeltacht. The winner of the English competition will get a week at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Annaghmakerrig. Each runner up will receive €250 and a place on a Dingle Lit writing workshop in 2024, and the third prize for each category will be €100 and a place on a Dingle Lit writing workshop in 2024.

The winners’ and runners-up’ submission will be featured on dinglelit.ie and extracts from the winning short stories will be featured in 2024 Dingle Lit festival brochure. Winners will also be invited to to read from their work during this year’s festival which will take place from November 15th to 17th. Last year’s event was attended by over 2,000 people.

Six Irish literary creators and reviewers have made it on to the The TikTok Book Awards longlist this year.

@irishfella.exe is up for Booktoker of the Year. Otherwise known as Shane, @irishfella.exe made a name for himself on TikTok for his live-stream storytelling and now boasts more than two million followers! Claire Wright @clairewright.author has been nominated for Breakthrough Author of the Year. Claire is the Irish author of adult fantasy series, Fair Ones. Based on a retelling of Irish mythology, the series takes place in both urban and epic fantasy settings, with a murder mystery to solve in book 1, Realm of Lore and Lies. Realm of Trials and Trickery Fair Ones, her second book, is out now. The Rachel Incident by Caroline O’Donoghue @czaronline has been nominated for Book of the Year. Kenny’s Bookshop @kennysbookshop has been nominated for Indie Bookshop of the Year. Two Irish nominees made it on to the Rising Stars of BookTok category: Niamh Wallace, known to the BookTok community as @booksarebrainfood, is a self-proclaimed book babbler who works in the publishing industry. @colinjmccracken’s page covers all things books, from his favourite bookshops to his top recommendations. He is also very involved with the #GothicBookClub.

Instituto Cervantes Dublin is bringing renowned Basque author Bernardo Atxaga, known for his profound exploration of the human experience, to two events in Dublin. At the International Literature Festival Dublin (ILFD) on May 19th, Atxaga will engage in a dialogue with Irish writer Tadhg Mac Dhonnagáin, emphasising the significance of minority languages in literature. He will present his acclaimed work Water over Stones, delving into the intertwined lives of characters in a Basque village across decades. On May 20th, Atxaga will participate in a literary conversation and reading in Spanish at Instituto Cervantes Dublin, celebrating diverse literary voices.

Lilliput Press is to publish Shattered Dreams: The Story of Ireland’s Mica Scandal and the Lives it Left in Ruins by Rodney Edwards next spring. In this exposé of one of Ireland’s most profound housing crises, award-winning investigative journalist Edwards delves into the heart of the mica controversy, unravelling the intricate web of regulatory oversights and institutional failures that have left thousands of families shattered and homes uninhabitable.

Award-winning writer Colin Barrett will talk about his first novel Wild Houses, at the Linenhall Arts Centre in his native Castlebar, on Saturday, May 25th, at 8pm. It’s the story of a simmering feud between a small-time drug dealer, Cillian English, and local enforcers, Gabe and Sketch Ferdia, which spills over into violence and an ugly ultimatum. Tickets are €15 from thelinenhall.com/whats-on/events/colin-barrett

Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, the world’s largest and most prestigious celebration of crime fiction, takes place in Harrogate from July 18th-21st with Irish crime writers Catherine Ryan Howard, Jane Casey and Liz Nugent joining the all-star line-up of global best-sellers including Richard Osman, Mick Herron, Erin Kelly, Vaseem Khan, Shari Lapena, Elly Griffiths, James Comey and Peter James.

Two Irish writers have been selected for the prestigious Critics’ New Blood Panel showcasing outstanding debut talent from around the world, Claire Coughlan, author of Where They Lie, and Colin Walsh, author of Kala.

From cutting-edge AI and technology’s impact on criminal investigation, to the complexities of neurodivergent sleuths; from the shadowy world of spies and boundary-pushing thrillers, the programme, curated by 2024′s festival chair, bestselling crime novelist Ruth Ware, reflects a festival looking firmly to the future while celebrating the rich heritage of the crime fiction world. harrogateinternationalfestivals.com

IN THIS SECTION

Cork stories: pleasing tales with serious themes laced with inimitable cork humour, evenings and weekends by oisín mckenna: impressive debut with hints of rap as a novel, ‘i loved alice munro’s stories more than any i have ever read’, first belong to god by austen ivereigh: the ideas of pope francis on the existential crisis facing religion and the planet, i visited singapore to see why it is ranked as the top education system in the world. here’s what i learned, bambie thug should not have been making statements on ireland’s behalf, south dublin tennis club slams student accommodation plan, irish workers among the least productive in europe, study indicates, case against dublin firefighter accused of rape in boston to be moved to higher court.

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Alice Munro, Nobel Prize-winning short-story ‘master,’ dies at 92

The Canadian writer’s works of short fiction illuminated seemingly ordinary lives.

Alice Munro, a towering woman of letters for the past half-century whose works of short fiction illuminated the emotional terrain of seemingly ordinary lives, and who was honored at the end of her career with the Nobel Prize in literature, died May 13 in Port Hope, Ontario. She was 92.

The Canadian writer’s death was announced by her publisher, Penguin Random House Canada. The cause was not immediately available. Mrs. Munro had in recent years endured numerous health problems, including heart ailments and cancer, and in 2013 she said publicly that she was “probably not going to write any more.”

Four months later — and after perennial rumors that she might be next in line for the award — she received the Nobel Prize . The announcement described her as a “master of the contemporary short story,” an official pronouncement of what critics and readers around the world had been saying for years.

Sherry Linkon, an English professor at Georgetown University, said Mrs. Munro helped remodel and revitalize the short-story form. “Most of us learn as children that a story has a beginning, a middle and an end,” she said. Mrs. Munro’s stories “help us to understand that the beginning of the story might have been decades ago, and the end of the story might be decades hence, and, really, that’s how life works.”

Brought up to be a farmer’s wife, Mrs. Munro said that she “never intended to be a short-story writer” and that she turned to the form because the demands of motherhood did not permit her to write longer works.

“In 20 years, I’ve never had a day when I didn’t have to think about someone else’s needs,” she once said. “And this means the writing has to be fitted around it.”

Mrs. Munro populated her stories with regular people grinding along in their lives in small towns, in suburbs, on farms and, often, on the margins of society. In short order — the only order permitted by short stories — readers discover that the characters are burdened by discontent, secrets and tragedy. Mrs. Munro’s writing was understated yet unsparing.

In “ Before the Change, ” first published in the New Yorker in 1998, the protagonist discovers that her father is an illegal abortionist. The story “Dimension,” printed in the same magazine in 2006, revolves around Doree, a Comfort Inn chambermaid whose husband has murdered their three children.

“None of the people she worked with knew what had happened. Or, if they did, they didn’t let on,” Mrs. Munro wrote in the third paragraph, before revealing to readers what, exactly, had happened to Doree.

“Her picture had been in the paper,” Mrs. Munro continued, describing the maid, “they’d used the photo he took of her with all three kids, the new baby, Dimitri, in her arms, and Barbara Ann and Sasha on either side, looking on. Her hair had been long and wavy and brown then, natural in curl and color, as he liked it, and her face bashful and soft — a reflection less of the way she was than of the way he wanted to see her.”

Mrs. Munro once told the New York Times that her stories hinged on “a kind of primordial moment, an awful revelation, that you can’t do anything about,” and she often held back before unveiling it.

The American short-story writer Cynthia Ozick called Mrs. Munro “our Chekhov,” referring to the turn-of-the-20th-century Russian author regarded as a short-story maestro. Many of her collections — the most recent of which included “The View From Castle Rock” (2006), “Too Much Happiness” (2009) and “ Dear Life ” (2012) — were considered masterpieces of the form.

She was especially known for her exposition of female characters. She titled one of her books “Lives of Girls and Women” (1971).

“Her stories made visible the ways that women’s lives are every bit as important, complex and contested as men’s are,” Linkon said. “And dark. … You get a sense of the ways that people can be cruel to each other and cruel to themselves.”

Mrs. Munro had a particular interest in what she called “a new kind of old woman, women who grew up under one set of rules and then found they could live with another.”

She might have been describing herself.

Alice Ann Laidlaw was born July 10, 1931, in Wingham, Ontario. Many of her stories were set in the bleak environs of rural Canada, a world similar to the one where she spent much of her life.

Her father, a fox breeder and later a foundry worker, wrote a novel about an Ontario pioneer family, and her mother was a teacher.

“We lived outside the whole social structure because we didn’t live in the town and we didn’t live in the country,” Mrs. Munro once told an interviewer . “We lived in this kind of little ghetto where all the bootleggers and prostitutes and hangers-on lived. Those were the people I knew. It was a community of outcasts. I had that feeling about myself.”

Her mother developed Parkinson’s disease when Mrs. Munro was 12, leaving the girl to become, in a sense, the woman of the house.

“It’s an incurable, slowly deteriorating illness which probably gave me a great sense of fatality. Of things not going well,” she said. “But I wouldn’t say I was unhappy. I didn’t belong to any nice middle class, so I got to know more types of kids. It didn’t seem bleak to me at the time. It seemed full of interest.”

She received a scholarship to attend the University of Western Ontario, where she started out studying journalism — a “coverup,” she said, for her desire to be a writer. Later in college, she studied English and published her first short story. To scrape by, the Ottawa Citizen reported, she picked tobacco and sold pints of her blood.

“My life has been tremendously lucky,” Mrs. Munro told the Los Angeles Times . “If I hadn’t gotten that scholarship to university, I would have dried up in Wingham. You can’t be alone too long with your hopes and ambitions. I would have become a weird spinster.”

In 1951, she married a fellow student, Jim Munro, and moved with him to Victoria, B.C., and opened a bookstore. They had three daughters, Sheila, Andrea and Jenny; another died shortly after birth.

Mrs. Munro’s first book, “Dance of the Happy Shades,” was published in 1968 and received the first of her three Governor General’s Literary Awards, one of Canada’s most prestigious artistic honors.

And yet, “there was huge social disapproval for women who listened to the news on the radio, much less would-be writers,” Mrs. Munro said. “I was trying to write all the time. I liked keeping house and being a mother, but it was the expectation that a woman should spend her free time going to coffee klatches and talking about nothing that bothered me.”

In the early 1970s, the Munros divorced. Several years later, she married Gerald Fremlin, an old college classmate.

Mrs. Munro continued writing books, including the collection “Something I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You” (1974). Her first appearance in the New Yorker came in 1977 with “Royal Beatings,” a story infused with violence about the troubled relationship between a girl and her father and stepmother.

Over the years, the New Yorker published many more of Mrs. Munro’s pieces and helped bring her to wide renown in the United States. Three of the stories — most recently “What Is Remembered” (2001) — received National Magazine awards for fiction.

Her books “Who Do You Think You Are?” (1978), “The Progress of Love” (1986), “Friend of My Youth” (1990), “The Love of a Good Woman” (1998) and “Runaway” (2004) were decorated with literary honors in Canada, and Mrs. Munro received the Man Booker International Prize in 2009.

The acclaimed 2006 film “Away From Her,” starring Julie Christie and Gordon Pinsent, was based on Mrs. Munro’s story “The Bear Came Over the Mountain,” about an elderly woman afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease and her husband’s efforts to reconcile himself to the new attachment she forms at her nursing home, and to his own past.

Fremlin, Mrs. Munro’s husband, died in 2013. A complete list of survivors was not immediately available. Sheila Munro wrote “Lives of Mothers and Daughters: Growing Up With Alice Munro” (2001), a book that transcended the genres of biography and memoir.

Mrs. Munro expressed concern that, through her fiction, she had been misunderstood. “People say I write depressing or pessimistic stories,” she told the New York Times , “and I know that in my own life I’m not a pessimistic person … you should hear me as a mother, the cheerful, trite advice I give.”

But she acknowledged the fundamental impossibility of knowing oneself.

“Everybody’s doing their own novel of their own lives,” she said. “The novel changes — at first we have a romance, a very satisfying novel that has a rather simple technique, and then we grow out of that and we end up with a very discontinuous, discordant, very contemporary kind of novel. I think that what happens to a lot of us in middle age is that we can’t really hang on to our fiction any more.”