After completing my Journey Through the Best Presidential Biographies last year, I turned my attention to the best biographies of anyone (with a detour late last year to catch up on long-neglected fiction). This is my projected road-map for the upcoming year as of January 21, 2020.
Blue titles indicate Pulitzer Prize WINNERS. Blue italicized titles indicate Pulitzer Prize finalists. Bold indicates a new release.
| Thomas Jefferson(*) | Thomas Jefferson: A Life (1993) by Willard Sterne Randall | REVIEW (3½ stars) |
| William Henry Seward | Seward: Lincoln’s Indispensable Man (2012) by Walter Stahr | REVIEW (3½ stars) |
| Walt Disney | Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination (2006) by Neal Gabler | REVIEW (4¼ stars) |
| FDR (*) | Man of Destiny: FDR and the Making of the American Century (2015) by Alonzo Hamby | early Feb |
| George Patton | Patton: A Genius for War (1995) by Carlo D’Este | late Feb |
| Andrew Carnegie | Andrew Carnegie (2006) by David Nasaw | early Mar |
| Herbert Hoover(*) | Herbert Hoover in the White House: The Ordeal of the Presidency (2016) by Charles Rappleye | mid Mar |
| JP Morgan | Morgan: American Financier (1999) by Jean Strouse | late Mar |
| Queen Victoria | Victoria: The Queen: An Intimate Biography of the Woman Who Ruled an Empire (2016) by Julia Baird | mid April |
| Ulysses S. Grant(*) | Grant (2017) by Ron Chernow | late April |
| John D. Rockefeller, Sr. | Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. (1998) by Ron Chernow | early May |
| George Custer | Custer’s Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America (2015) by T.J. Stiles | mid May |
| George Washington (*) | Washington (1968 abridgment) by Douglas Southall Freeman | late May |
| Winston Churchill | Churchill: Walking with Destiny (2018) by Andrew Roberts | mid June |
| Leonardo da Vinci | Leonardo da Vinci (2017) by Walter Isaacson | late June |
| James Monroe (*) | James Monroe: A Life (2020) by Tim McGrath | mid July |
| Robert Morris | Robert Morris: Financier of the American Revolution (2010) by Charles Rappleye | late July |
| Mark Twain | Mark Twain: A Life (2005) by Ron Powers | early Aug |
| John Adams (*) | The Education of John Adams (2020) by R. B. Bernstein | mid Aug |
| John Hay, John Nicolay | Lincoln’s Boys: John Hay, John Nicolay, and the War for Lincoln’s Image (2013) by Joshua Zeitz | late Aug |
| Warren Buffett | The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life (2008) by Alice Schroeder | early Sept |
| Andrew Jackson(*) | The Rise of Andrew Jackson (2018) by David Heidler and Jeanne Heidler | mid Sept |
| John Calhoun | John C. Calhoun: American Portrait (1950) by Margaret Coit | late Sept |
| Charles Lindbergh | Lindbergh (1998) by A. Scott Berg | early Oct |
| Dwight Eisenhower(*) | The Age of Eisenhower (2018) by William Hitchcock | mid Oct |
| Henry Kissinger | Kissinger: A Biography (1992) by Walter Isaacson | late Oct |
| Sir Walter Raleigh | Sir Walter Raleigh (2002) by Raleigh Trevelyan | early Nov |
| Jimmy Carter(*) | His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, a Life (2020) by Jonathan Alter | mid Nov |
| John Marshall | John Marshall: Definer of a Nation (1996) by Jean Edward Smith | late Nov |
| John Wayne | John Wayne: American (1995) by Randy Roberts | early Dec |
| William McKinley(*) | President McKinley: Architect of the American Century (2017) by Robert Merry | mid Dec |
| Eleanor Roosevelt | Eleanor Roosevelt: The Early Years (1884-1933) (Vol 1) (1992) by Blanche Wiesen Cook | late Dec |
| Eleanor Roosevelt: The Defining Years (1933-1938) (Vol 2) (1999) by Blanche Wiesen Cook | [2021] | |
| Eleanor Roosevelt: The War Years and After (1939-1962) (Vol 3) (2016) by Blanche Wiesen Cook | [2021] |
* Follow-up biography for my Journey Through the Best Presidential Biographies.
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