Notable upcoming biographies are shown below (recent changes in bold). A more exhaustive list focused on U.S. Presidents can be found here. This list was updated April 15, 2022.
| Trajan | Trajan: Rome’s Last Conqueror by Nicholas Jackson | Apr 30 |
| Margaret Hillis | Margaret Hillis: Unsung Pioneer by Cheryl Frazes Hill | May 1 |
| James Dickey | James Dickey: A Literary Life by Gordon Van Ness | May 2 |
| Alexis de Tocqueville | The Man Who Understood Democracy: The Life of Alexis de Tocqueville by Olivier Zunz | May 3 |
| Anna Wintour | Anna: The Biography by Amy Odell | May 3 |
| Emmett J. Scott | Emmett J. Scott: Power Broker of the Tuskegee Machine by Maceo Dailey Jr. | May 15 |
| Lou Henry Hoover | A Woman of Adventure: The Life and Times of First Lady Lou Henry Hoover by Annette Dunlap | June 1 |
| Claude McKay | Claude McKay: The Making of a Black Bolshevik by Winston James | June 7 |
| Nora Ephron |
Nora Ephron: A Life by Kristin Marguerite Doidge | June 7 |
| Rickey Henderson |
Rickey: The Life and Legend of an American Original by Howard Bryant | June 7 |
| Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull | The Earth is All That Lasts: Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, and the Last Stand of the Great Sioux Nation by Mark Lee Gardner | June 21 |
| George Michael | George Michael: A Life by James Gavin | June 28 |
| James Longstreet | James Longstreet and the American Civil War by Harold Knudsen | June 30 |
| Thomas Reed | Thomas Brackett Reed: The Gilded Age Speaker Who Made the Rule for American Politics by Robert Klotz | July 1 |
| Brezhnev | Brezhnev: The Making of a Statesman by Susanne Schattenberg | Nov 14 |
| Edward Kennedy | Against the Wind: Edward Kennedy and the Rise of Conservatism (Vol 2) by Neal Gabler | Nov 15 |
| Edward Kennedy | [Untitled] by Chris Matthews | tbd |
| Amy Clampitt | [Untitled] by Willard Spiegelman | 2022 |
| Tupac Shakur | [Untitled] by Kevin Powell | 2022 |
| Barbara Walters | [Currently untitled] by Susan Page | [2023] |
| Alexander Twilight | [Currently untitled] by William Hart | [2023] |
| Wm F Buckley |
[Currently untitled] by Sam Tanenhaus |
tbd |
| MLK |
[Currently untitled] by Jonathan Eig |
tbd |
| Elie Wiesel |
[Currently untitled] by Joseph Berger |
tbd |
| Nikita Khrushchev |
[Currently untitled] by Nina Khrushchev |
tbd |
| James Watson |
[Currently untitled] by Nathaniel Comfort |
tbd |
| Elon Musk |
[Currently untitled] by Walter Isaacson |
tbd |
| Ben Franklin | [Currently untitled] by Stephen King |
rumored |
| Thurgood Marshall | [Currently untitled] by A. Scott Berg |
tbd |
| George Schultz | [Currently untitled] by Philip Taubman | tbd |
| Jim Thorpe | [Currently untitled] by David Maraniss | tbd |
| Mark Twain | [Currently untitled] by Ron Chernow | tbd |
| Henry Kissinger | [Currently untitled – Kissinger volume II] by Niall Ferguson | tbd |
| Ezra Taft Benson | [Currently untitled] by Patrick Mason | tbd |
| Joseph Smith | [Currently untitled] by John Turner | tbd |
| John Lewis | [Currently untitled] by David Greenberg | tbd |
| Gertrude Stein | [Currently untitled] by Francesca Wade | tbd |
| Magic Johnson | [Currently untitled] by Roland Lazenby | tbd |
| Peter O’Toole | [Currently untitled] by Alexander Larman | tbd |
| Anne Frank | [Currently untitled] by Ruth Franklin |
tbd |
| Alexander Twilight | [Currently untitled] by Bill Hart |
tbd |
| Christopher Hitchens | [Currently untitled] by Stephen Phillips |
tbd |
| Jean Rhys | [Currently untitled] by Miranda Seymour |
tbd |
| Stalin | [Stalin: Miscalculation – Vol 3] by Stephen Kotkin | tbd |
| James Weldon Johnson | [Currently untitled] by David W. Blight |
2024 |
| John Brown | [Currently untitled] by Walter Johnson | [2024] |
This list is derived from sources believed to be accurate; dates and titles are subject to change prior to publication.
Every book I review has been purchased by me. TheBestBiographies.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
Reading the Best Biographies of All Time 
William Taubman who did a biography of Khruschev in 2003 is coming out with a biography of Gorbachev in September.
Thanks for the tip – I recently added Taubman’s bio of Khrushchev to my “Related Reading” page on my sister website about presidential biographies. From what I gathered, that biography is excellent, so I can’t wait to see how he does with Gorbachev!
David Levering Lewis is doing a biography of Wendell Willkie to be released on May 1, 2018.
Thanks – I wanted to add Wendell Willkie to my “www.bestpresidentialbios.com” related-reading list but I seem to remember coming up short on compelling bios of him. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that Lewis’s biography is worth a read-
Due on September 18th with a very impressive blurb lineup (Meachem, Brinkley, Nasaw, Gellman, and Cook (Blanche Wiesen):
https://www.amazon.com/Improbable-Wendell-Willkie-Businessman-Republican/dp/0871404575
That looks great! Thanks for posting it.
H.W. Brands is publishing a new book later this year (Nov 13th): Heirs of the Founders: The Epic Rivalry of Henry Clay, John Calhoun and Daniel Webster, the Second Generation of American Giants. Although not necessarily a biography, the author and subject matter may have some appeal.
I missed this one as well – given the topic / subject matter and the author this book could be incredibly compelling. Fingers crossed!
Gave up reading this one after about 50 pages. Its hard to get into a book when almost half of it is direct quotations. Im guessing this is how Brands is able to pump out books so fast.
Andrew Roberts (author of Napoleon) will be releasing his massive Churchill biography in November.
Thank you for posting this as I completely missed it.
Yes, thanks – this has the potential to be incredible and it fell just outside the scope of my last search (coming post-summer). I’m really looking forward to this one!
Just curious, has anyone read anything by David Blight? If so, would you recommend him? I am thinking of getting his upcoming book on Frederick Douglass. (To give you a sense of the kind of biographical writing I like, I am a big fan of Robert Caro and Ron Chernow).
He’s no Chernow or Caro, but they are in an elite category. I read Race and Reunion many years ago and recall it being very good. It won the Bancroft Award. He is a well-respected scholar so I wouldn’t hesitate buying the Douglass bio. The other major bio of Douglass by Wm. McFeely was published in 1990.
For anyone interested, C-SPAN broadcast a recent interview by Brian Lamb of Robert Moses’s biographer Robert Caro. [Also available as a podcast.] According to Mr. Lamb, it was their 8th one-hour interview.
Very sad news concerning Edmund Morris:
Steve Inskeep’s new dual-biography of John and Jessie Fremont is getting good reviews. The NYT compares it to Candice Millard’s Destiny of the Republic. It’s next up on my reading pile.
If you want related reading to that, I recommend Blood and Thunder by Hampton Sides
David Maraniss is writing a biography of Jim Thorpe with a release date TBD.
I did not realize a new Henry Adams bio was forthcoming. It looks interesting.
Robert Strauss is publishing a new book on John Marshall which is slated for a March 1, 2021 release. Based on Mr. Strauss’ prior work, it will be a readable Unger-like book.
This could be good: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/1101946229?ref=em_1p_0_im&ref_=pe_2313400_568053690
Upcoming biography of Robert E. Lee by Allen C. Guelzo.
Indeed. Thank you for the heads up on it. Dr. Guelzo’s works on Lincoln are first rate.
Thanks for the heads-up! That might be a book I need to read upon its release 🙂
Upcoming biography of George III by Andrew Roberts.
That is fabulous news – thanks for noticing I missed this one!
You are very welcome. I love your websites. Keep up the great work.
Upcoming biography of Lafayette by Mike Duncan. Release date August 24.
Hero of Two Worlds: The Marquis de Lafayette in the Age of Revolution
A modern scholarly biography for Thomas Reed is coming in July:
James Grant called Speaker Reed The Most Important Politician You’ve Never Heard Of
https://www.npr.org/2011/05/29/136689237/the-most-important-politician-youve-never-heard-of
Thanks for sharing! I will sheepishly admit I had to look up Thomas Reed to figure out why I didn’t think I had ever heard of him 🙂