Please recommend an inspiring biography.

Can anyone recommend a good biography about someone who overcame many obstacles through sheer force of will to achieve something great?

I would suggest Madeline Albright’s memoir “Madam Secretary”.

Maybe a bit dated, but if you’re looking for inspiring, look no further than Reach for the Sky, the true story of double amputee, WWII fighter pilot Douglas Bader.

Any of these should do the trick. I have recently seen the guy who cut his own arm off to save himself, on TV and he has a book out. He seemed pretty cool.

A couple of others that cross my mind are Point Last Seen by Hannah Nyala which is an account of a female tracker dealing with an abusive relationship. I had a copy that I loaned to someone, who paid me for the book because they had loaned it to someone else. So I bought another copy and it happened again. When I found the book (unforgivably) remaindered I bought all 6 copies and gave them away.

Dave Eggers’ A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is neither fiction nor autobiography but is an incredibly moving book about ordinary people dealing with ordinary everyday real life.

If you like politics then you should read MAster of the Senate, Bio on LBJ. Never was their a more powerful senator.

Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage, by ALfred Lansing. A whole crew of heroes – Shackleton was one of many amazing men on that voyage.

Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis Thomas Jefferson and the Opening of the American West, by Stephen Ambrose. Lewis and Clark’s adventure is amazing to read about, even knowing the immediate and eventual consequences.

Another WWII hero is Sgt. Alvin York. The biographies by John Perry and David D. Lee sound like the best ones.

I am surprised that the very first response to this wasn’t:

The Autobiography of Malcolm X
(spoilers, I suppose, if you don’t know his story - although I suspect you do, KidCharlemagne)
Regardless of your views on the man, it doesn’t get much better in terms of a readable, historically and currently relevant person who went through a profound transformation. And, although some might cast him in a negative light, to my mind where Malcolm X ends up at the end is truly inspiring in his view of all of us being equals in the eyes of (his) god and his (Malcolm’s) commitment to committing his energy to support of that at the time of his assassination…

The book that immediately occurs to me is Helen Keller’s autobiography, The Story of My Life.

Along slightly different lines, I recommend David McCullough’s Truman

Harpo Marx’s autobiography

Wouldn’t it have been great if Helen Keller, Malcolm X and Harpo Marx had all gotten together on a book tour?

They could even call it “X Marx the What?”

White Coat, White Cane–How a blind person became a medical doctor.

White Coat, White Cane–How a blind person became a medical doctor.

Chuck Yeager’s autobiography is the most memorable I’ve read.

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. I’m about 3/4 of the way through it now. It’s pretty amazing what he accomplished considering the hardships of life in the new colonies back then.

Tuned in to say Yeager - so I’ll second Rik!

Mick Foley’s Have a Nice Day. That’s right, I said Mick foley.