31 thoughts on “***The Best Biographies of All Time***”

1. HBM said:

   October 27, 2016 at 10:44 pm

   Steve – Another great site! Thank you.

   Reply

   • Steve said:

     October 28, 2016 at 4:44 am

     Thanks; I have to give credit to my kids who were looking for a way to learn how to start/manage a website. I (try to) come up with the content and they put it into motion. Now, if only I could get them to each read a biography per week…..!

     Reply

2. Ryan Sem said:

   July 10, 2018 at 12:47 pm

   Excited to hear your thoughts on each of the Lafayette books – I’ve been wanting to read a solid book about him for quite some time. I think you’ll find that the Carnegie book by Nasaw is exceptional.

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3. Jeremy Anderberg said:

   July 11, 2018 at 9:17 pm

   Isaacson’s bio of Leonardo da Vinci isn’t to be missed.

   Dickens by Peter Ackroyd

   Henry David Thoreau by Laura Walls

   Ernest Hemingway by Dearborn

   I loved the presidents site, and was actually thinking of starting my own book review site journey though biographies. You’ve beat me to it good sir! Good on ya.

   Reply

4. Tracy said:

   January 31, 2019 at 8:21 pm

   I have read or in possession twenty-four non-president biographies listed above. Happy reading everyone!

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5. Tony said:

   February 3, 2019 at 8:51 am

   So enjoy your site…thanks for sharing it! I found it last year after deciding to read a biography of each U.S. president along with one of a related person (or event) from the same period.

   How about A Prophet with Honor – The Billy Graham Story, by William Martin? Lots of presidential connections there.

   Reply

   • Steve said:

     February 3, 2019 at 9:17 am

     Great suggestion – it’s strangely under-reviewed for its age but looks like it has enormous potential.

     Reply

6. benjaminharrison27 said:

   July 15, 2019 at 3:31 am

   That’s a lot to be getting on with! If I could make a couple of suggestions I’d add A Certain Idea Of France, Julian Jackson’s recent biography of Charles de Gaulle. Also Jenny Hocking’s two volume biography of Australian prime minister Gough Whitlam is one of the best biographies I’ve ever read, I think. Anyway, thanks a lot for all you do!

   Reply

   • Steve said:

     July 15, 2019 at 5:31 am

     Thanks for the suggestions and, particularly, for the geographic diversity they provide! de Gaulle is an extremely familiar name I can’t wait to get to (I’ll definitely check out Jackson’s bio) and Whitlam is a very unfamiliar name I’ll be looking into – – I’m always looking to add biographies that readers categorize as among “the best” they’ve ever read!

     Reply

     • benjaminharrison27 said:

       July 15, 2019 at 8:47 am

       No worries! I only wish I could recommend more Australian biographies, but we don’t really have the culture of writing biographies about our prime ministers as the United States has for its presidents (you can imagine how frustrating that is).

7. lee said:

   October 19, 2019 at 3:17 pm

   Hi Steve, John Bew’s biography of Clement Attlee is very good.

   Reply

   • Steve said:

     October 21, 2019 at 5:49 am

     Thanks – that’s one I’m not familiar with but it looks excellent!

     Reply

8. Wes said:

   December 15, 2019 at 7:35 pm

   Does anyone have a good bio for Queen Elizabeth II? I’m not really interested in the salacious / gossipy type. Just a nice write up, like Julia Baird did with Victoria.

   Reply

   • HBM said:

     December 15, 2019 at 7:53 pm

     How about this one: https://www.harpercollins.co.uk/9780007476626/the-queen-elizabeth-ii-and-the-monarchy

     Reply

9. Casey said:

   January 1, 2020 at 7:35 pm

   What about Prescott Bush? have you read any good bios of him?

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10. Casey said:

    January 1, 2020 at 7:37 pm

    What about the Famous lawyer Clarence Darrow or William Jennings Bryan

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    • Steve said:

      January 2, 2020 at 6:17 am

      I’m hoping to stumble across a particularly good biography of William Jennings Bryan…if you know of one please let me know! And, in general, if there is a specific and outstanding biography of *anyone* you know about, I’m all ears!

      Reply

      • HBM said:

        January 2, 2020 at 7:16 am

        There are two great reads for WJB. Michael Kazin’s A Godly Hero (2008) is the best biography in my opinion. As for the Scopes Trial, Edward Larson’s Summer for the Gods is excellent – worthy of the Pulitzer it won.

11. Wade said:

    January 3, 2020 at 5:59 pm

    I have a couple of recommendation of prominent Americans about whom you might like to read. I would live to read your reviews on the books and the characters. First is Joseph Smith Junior. Before being assassinated while running for President of the United States, he built what was the largest city in Illinois. He managed to negotiate a city charter that provided Nauvoo with its own army. At the same time Smith was mayor of Nauvoo, Lt. General of the Nauvoo Legion and Prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
    The second leader of the same church, Brigham Young, led a huge migration to the Great Basin, colonized parts of 4 or 5 states and resisted the armed attempt of President Buchanan to destroy his people.
    Either one would be fascinating to learn about and to review biographies.

    Reply

    • Steve said:

      January 4, 2020 at 7:12 am

      Thanks for the suggestions – I’ll have to look into the them.

      Reply

12. John said:

    April 4, 2020 at 12:13 pm

    Hi – been a follower for a long time and am currently on my own presidential biography voyage. Wanted to pass along a couple biographies that I have read recently that I truly enjoyed.

    Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life
    Unprecedented Power: Jesse Jones, Capitalism, and the Common Good

    Reply

    • Steve said:

      April 5, 2020 at 9:12 am

      Many thanks – I’ll look into these!

      Reply

13. mckinleyscott said:

    September 7, 2020 at 3:44 pm

    One of the best-written biographies I’ve ever read was Samuel Johnson by John Wain (1975). Just so well-written. Some biographies from poets and novelists work better than others (I’m still not too pleased with the purple mountain majesty prose of Carl Sandburg’s Lincoln).

    Reply

    • Steve said:

      September 8, 2020 at 11:23 am

      Thanks for the tip – I’ll have to look into it! I still vividly remember being disappointed by Sandburg’s series on LIncoln….

      Reply

14. Rick C said:

    October 14, 2020 at 5:42 pm

    I have over a 100 biographies from Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan to Nelson Mandela and Margaret Thatcher. My library also includes biographies of 18 United States Presidents (cherry picking my favourites). What I find curious is the large number of these biographies which have been published since 2000. Ninety percent!! Many of these biographies are also the “definitive” biography or at least one of the best of that historic figure. Are we in an age of better writers, better research?
    Why such excellent and prolific writing over the last twenty years? Any thoughts?

    Reply

    • HBM said:

      October 15, 2020 at 11:46 am

      Great questions and I will opine.

      The writing seems better because it is contemporary with us. The American Statesmen series from the late 19th century seems quaint now, but it was a great leap forward in scholarship then. Just like in 50 years, our scholarship will seem antiquated.

      Centralizing primary source materials has an impact. It is now easier to access the papers of presidents via both electronic means and scholarly publications. There are many “The Papers of …” in process. The completion of the Grant papers sparked a new energy to review his life and presidency.

      As for the definitive status, it is probably our lens. Why use version 1.0 when version 3.0 has enhanced, modern features? An author can correct the perceived – or real – failures, omissions or errors of prior authors. It’s the march of progress.

      That’s my 2 cents.

      Reply

15. James said:

    October 18, 2020 at 10:01 am

    How has your actual physical library grown from when you started this journey to now, years later? I always love watching my own library grow over the years.

    Reply

    • Steve said:

      October 18, 2020 at 4:40 pm

      Funny you should ask… my “shelf space” has doubled in the past few years but the number of books I need shelves for has quadrupled. In addition to something like 400 books/volumes of presidential biographies (which still pales in comparison to some) I have another 325 biographies of non-presidents. Still modest in comparison to some, I’ve simply run out of room. I have books stacked 4′ high in my basement, I have books collecting dust under furniture, I almost have books peering out of the crack between crown molding and the ceiling. But…I know exactly where everything is and I fully intend to read every book I own!

      Reply

      • HBM said:

        October 18, 2020 at 6:25 pm

        Do you use the space on the shelf behind the books?

        I’m impressed with the non-presidential material. Are they across-the-board or focused on certain subjects?

      • Steve said:

        October 19, 2020 at 5:16 am

        I once used that hidden space but then realized how many books I lost / forgot 🙂 I began “collecting” non-pres bio before I got hooked on the presidents, and once I was on the home-stretch of my presidential journey I started looking ahead and adding to my library of non-presidential books. They are more heavily weighted toward people “related” to the presidents (from Robert Morris and Eleanor Roosevelt to Adolf Hitler) but probably 1/4 of them cover folks like da Vinci, Mark Twain, Copernicus, Lou Gehrig,…

      • HBM said:

        October 20, 2020 at 11:10 am

        I’ve thinned down my non-Presidential holdings over the past few years to slightly over 100 (excluding a Churchill section). They too are mostly focused on people related to presidents or the presidency. With shelf space at a premium, I needed to weed out some of my ‘nonessential’ holdings.

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