Essential Biographies

minusorange

Would it be possible to make this a sticky?

There's loads of top biography lists on the web but they are usually the selection of just one person. As a result the entire recommendation tends to be either Political/Social, Music/Film, Celebrity/Sport etc.

I'd like to see a detailed and ultimately diverse list of biographical works.

minusorange

American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin.

This is the Pulitzer Prize winner from 2006 and it feels it every step of the way. Exhaustively researched over 25 years and based on hundreds of interviews with family and friends, an archive of personal letters and nearly ten thousand pages of FBI files.

Oppenheimer was America's first great theoretical physicist, a Sanskrit reading romantic, a writer of deeply personal poetry, the victim of a conspiratorial Communist witch-hunt and "Father of the Atomic Bomb".

994

I really loved "Cider With Rosie" by Laurie Lee, and (on a very different note) "Hitler" by Ian Kershaw.

AudreyLOL

I like the idea! I love reading biographies, and my two favourite ones are on two Catherines:

Catherine the Great or Catherine II of Russia, a fascinating portrayal of the Russia of the second half of the 1700s, its political developments, lovers in the court and scandals. Its a great read and is gets very interesting from the beginning.

Catherine of Aragon, the first wife of Henry VIII, is also a very exciting story. She was the daughter of Ferdinad and Isabella, the Catholic Monarchs, and was born at the time of the discovery of the Americas. Her life was very interesting (she lived at the time of the discovery of America and the separation of the Church of England).
By the way, her sister's life is also very interesting (Joanna the Mad).

Just realised I don't remember the authors, but I guess these biographies won't be hard to find. I'm sorry, I read them a long time ago and don't own the books...

Lizzykins

Biographies are my favourite genre when it comes to non fiction and even better if they're historical bios.
I'm reading Team of Rivals at the moment by Doris Kearns Goodwin. It's about Abraham Limcoln and his route to the White House. It's thoroughly absorbing and a great read.
Antonia Fraser is second to none when it comes to biographies of royals.
If you're interested in film/Hollywood I'd recommend The Moons a Balloon by David Niven and My Wicked Wicked Ways by Errol Flynn. Or A Postillion Struck by Lightening by Dirk Bogarde. Errol Flynns book might be out of print now.

IvyTheTerrible

minusorange wrote: »

American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin.

This is the Pulitzer Prize winner from 2006 and it feels it every step of the way. Exhaustively researched over 25 years and based on hundreds of interviews with family and friends, an archive of personal letters and nearly ten thousand pages of FBI files.

Oppenheimer was America's first great theoretical physicist, a Sanskrit reading romantic, a writer of deeply personal poetry, the victim of a conspiratorial Communist witch-hunt and "Father of the Atomic Bomb".

If you're into that, have you read "The making of the Atomic bomb"? It's long but really worth it. Excellent excellent book! (and someone borrowed it and never gave it back, grrrr :mad:)

padraig_f

Peter Guralnick's two-volume biography of Elvis is excellent.

dioltas

Lance Armstrong - it's not about the bike

minusorange

IvyTheTerrible wrote: »

If you're into that, have you read "The making of the Atomic bomb"? It's long but really worth it. Excellent excellent book! (and someone borrowed it and never gave it back, grrrr :mad:)

Thanks for the tip!

qwerty23

Paul McGrath's autobiography is excellent, whether you're a football fan or not.

Mr Nice is also a good read, its Howard Marx's autobigraphy.

Donnie Brasco is another good one.

Carawaystick

Chronicles Vol1 by Robert Zimmerman about Bob Dylan
and Cash by John Cash are good autobiographies.

willietherock

Tony Cascarino's Full Time was excellent when I read it yrs ago.
Malcolm X is the best I've read. A bit of every thing including some v funny parts.

Tawfee

Most of the good biographies i've read have been sports-related, David Walsh's bio of Sean Kelly, David Remnick's & Davis Miller's books on Ali, Paul McGrath's autobiography, & Daniel Coyle's book on Lance Armstrong spring to mind. Would really like to pick up a few more interesting bios outside of the sporting world so will look into the ones posted here already.

Cupcake Girl

Is nelson mandellas any good? Would be interested but its a bit long--700+ pages!

minusorange

willietherock wrote: »

Tony Cascarino's Full Time was excellent when I read it yrs ago.
Malcolm X is the best I've read. A bit of every thing including some v funny parts.

I read Malcolm X's years ago, really enjoyed it.

The thing that I find funny though it is that the guy was obviously a racist. And yet there is not shortage of people that flat out deny it.

Great book. But a "white devil" is a "white devil".

If you can't take a guy at his word in his own autobiography then when can you?

Mink

Scar Tissue by Anthony Keidis (Red Hot Chilli Peppers frontman)
Great read, funny & heart wrenching, the guy has lived quite a life.

AJG

Mink wrote: »

Scar Tissue by Anthony Keidis (Red Hot Chilli Peppers frontman)
Great read, funny & heart wrenching, the guy has lived quite a life.

Got this for Christmas one year.

It went something like this "I did lots of drugs, I met this girl, I never loved a woman more than this, we had amazing sex. I did lots of drugs. I tried to kick the drugs. I broke up with that girl and met this other girl. I never loved a woman more than this, we had amazing sex. I had a relapse and did more drugs than ever. Repeat ad infinitum."

I felt it got a bit tedious and I haven't read a autobiography/biography since.

One I read years ago and really enjoyed was 'Miles, the Autobiography' by Miles Davis and Quincy Troupe.

Lemon

'Beautiful Shadow : A Life of Patricia Highsmith' (author of 'Strangers on a Train and the Ripley novels) by Andrew Wilson is the best biography I have ever read. Really fascinating insight into quite an unhappy woman who wrote such a dark yet ultimately likable character as Tom Ripley...

paddyland

Some people worth reading about...

Joseph P. Kennedy (JFK's father), what a megalomaniac, read the story about the Kennedy clan, and the amazing unstoppable ambition of this man, and the legacy left behind in the tragedies that ensued. Having subjected his daughter Rosemary to a debilitating lobotomy, it was a cruel irony that he ended his days similarly indisposed.

Frank Sinatra, what a life lived, the songs, the loves, the insatiable appetite for women, Ava Gardner, the raging temper tantrums, the mob, the US presidents, Hollywood, Nevada, Las Vegas. A roller coaster from start to finish.

Futurism

Howard Marks' Mr.Nice was a very good read. Gets a bit tedious in some places though.
I'm currently enjoying David Attenboroughs Life On Air. I stopped reading it halfway through because of the leaving cert, and I'm glad to finally be reading it again. He has had a really interesting life.

LiamMc

Oswald's Tale: An American Mystery by Norman Mailer

First half of the book is Lee Harvey Oswald's time in the army and then his defection to the Soviet Union. This part draws heavily on previous interviews a Russian writer conducted with many people who met Oswald in Moscow (short time) and then Minsk (approx. two years) where he met his future wife Marina. Mailer returned to some of the witnesses for clarification.
This is the most interesting part and is full of anecdotes from Oswald's former friends and colleagues. And also presents a huge battle with the two Governemental bureauracies as he first denounces his US nationality and then tries to re-ignite the conversation as he wishes to return to the States with his family.

The second part is more complex and includes the usual suspects close to Oswald and a suspicion of any auteria motives they may have had leading up to the assaniation. But it does still follow him around on his tour of New Orleans and Dallas.
Mailer presents himself as some objective observor but he emphasis and dilutes whatever information he wants.

mrsdewinter

AJG wrote: »

Got this for Christmas one year.

It went something like this "I did lots of drugs, I met this girl, I never loved a woman more than this, we had amazing sex. I did lots of drugs. I tried to kick the drugs. I broke up with that girl and met this other girl. I never loved a woman more than this, we had amazing sex. I had a relapse and did more drugs than ever. Repeat ad infinitum."

I felt it got a bit tedious and I haven't read a autobiography/biography since.

I've never read Keidis's book but I just laughed out loud after reading this. It's so true of so many biographies. And I got the same feeling when I read Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential. Every restaurant he went to work in was staffed by the craziest bastards he'd ever encountered. Cooking is cool, Anthony, we get it.

Anyway, one biography I really liked was Nora, by Brenda Maddox, the life of James Joyce's wife Nora Barnacle. Nora herself remains a bit of a mystery but we quickly see that Joyce was a nightmare to be around. It nicely reinforces all my prejudices about artists.

Wilde

Led Zeppelin biography, "When Giants Walked the Earth" by Mick Wall is considered the definitive guide to the band. As both a hardcore fan and a reader I found it engaging, funny and narrowly walking the line between letting the author's love for the band shine through and avoiding the fan-****-soliloquy scenario that many authors fall prey to.

godtabh

Just after reading Lee Marvins. What a life. His wife did him proud

Chumpski

Michael J. Foxs' autobiography, Lucky Man. Would highly recommend it. He has a great funny but honest writing style.

Funglegunk

Mao: The Unknown Story by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday

A monster of a book, but well worth the read. Puts to rest any doubts as to what Mao was like and what his policies did to the Chinese people.

He was a ****.

Cyrus

for anyone with even a remote interest in wrestling brett harts book gives a great insight to the business,

again i enjoyed Paul McGraths aswell

henryporter

For a compare and contrast exercise the autobiography of Paul Bowles 'Without Stopping' read before Millicent Dillon's 'A Little Original Sin: The Life and Work of Jane Bowles' is a great read.

Others I've read that are impressive would be James Knowlson's 'Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett' and Richard Ellmann's 'James Joyce' and the very sad 'Ramblin' Man: The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie' by Ed Cray.

Equally sad but funny are two rock biogs (as they're always termed) 'I'll sleep when I'm dead' Warren Zevon's hedonistic descent from a childhood prodigy hanging around with Igor Stravinsky to the bottom of countless bottles, written by his ex-Mrs. Crystal Zevon, and the very humbling autobiography of Mark Oliver Everett, singer with Eels, called 'Things the Grandchildren Should Know'

Huge Dylan fan but 'Chronicles Volume 1' seems to be fantastical in parts, and in others brilliant.