# Recommend Autobiographies. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 3, 2010, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-autobiographies/531069 "2010-03-03T01:21:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2010, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-autobiographies/531069/21 "2010-03-04T16:55:59Z")
I highly recommend these two: [Veeck as in Wreck](http://www.amazon.com/Veeck-As-Wreck-Autobiography-Bill-Veeck/dp/0226852180/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267721524&sr=8-1) by baseball team owner/promoter Bill Veeck, and basketball great Bill Russell’s [Second Wind: Memoirs of Opinionated Man](http://www.amazon.com/Second-Wind-Memoirs-Opinionated-Fireside/dp/0671709895/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267721623&sr=1-1). Both are very interesting and informative, even if you don’t like sports particularly. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2010, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-autobiographies/531069/22 "2010-03-04T17:04:00Z")
Sudhir Venkatesh’s [Gang Leader for a Day](http://www.amazon.com/Gang-Leader-Day-Sociologist-Streets/dp/1594201501) is a very well-written, and remarkably candid, account of his years “embedded” with a Chicago crack gang while he wrote his dissertation on the underground economy of Chicago housing projects. Fascinating stuff - though I will say that the book convinced me that Venkatesh is sort of a terrible human being: On one occasion in particular, he sits in the car while “his” gang boss and a subordinate go out to beat a low-level dealer. He doesn’t call the police, or otherwise try to stop the beating. That may make a sort of sense for an anthropolgist in some isolated village somewhere - but in a country with functioning laws, I would submit that moral men have a duty to try and stop that sort of thing. At least to place a call to the police. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2010, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-autobiographies/531069/23 "2010-03-04T17:07:32Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > More a memoir than an autobio, but I would recommend that everyone read Stephen King’s _On Writing/"_. Particularly to those who claim “King can,t write.” To that, I’ll add Ray Bradbury’s _Zen and the Art of Writing_, which has much memoir/autobio material within it. Also, it’s been updated with the simpler title of _My Years with Ayn Rand_, but I recommend Nathaniel Branden’s _Judgment Night_. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Knig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@Typo\_Knig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Knig)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2010, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-autobiographies/531069/24 "2010-03-04T17:24:13Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > How about Isaac Asimov? He wrote two big volumes of autobiography—_In Memory Yet Green_ and _In Joy Still Felt_—that remind me a bit of Boswell’s _Life of Samuel Johnson_, but with Asimov playing the role of both Johnson and Boswell: full of anecdotes and observations and conversations. The second volume only comes up to 1978. Near the end of his life, he wrote another memoir: _I, Asimov_. Also Fred Pohl’s **The Way the Future Was** , a contender for best title ever, and a great read. Pohl was one of the Futirians, a group of Science Fiction writers and fans. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2010, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-autobiographies/531069/25 "2010-03-04T17:29:11Z")
**The Brass Ring** by Bill Mauldin, which chronicles his development as a cartoonist, a soldier and a skeptic. ---
**Author:** ![Astroboy14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/df705f/32.png) [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2010, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-autobiographies/531069/26 "2010-03-04T17:33:37Z")
Ron Jeremy’s autobiography was quite entertaining. And I’ll second Mick Foley’s book as well. ---
**Author:** ![HelloKitty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecccb3/32.png) [@HelloKitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HelloKitty)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2010, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-autobiographies/531069/27 "2010-03-04T17:55:03Z")
I just finished reading Ozzy Osbourne’s book **I Am Ozzy** , it was excellent! Lots of great stories and you can’t help but be touched by Ozzy’s love of his family. The entire book I felt like I was sitting in a pub listening to Ozzy talk about his crazy life. Great read. I will second **Born Standing Up** by Steve Martin, have always loved him and the book is engaging. One of my favorites is **In The Arena** by Charlton Heston. What an interesting life that man led! Highly recommend this one. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2010, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-autobiographies/531069/28 "2010-03-04T18:03:22Z")
[The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley](The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley) was one of those books I’d have never read if it wasn’t a school assignment but it was really good. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2010, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-autobiographies/531069/29 "2010-03-04T18:12:18Z")
I’ll third Steve Martin’s **Born Standing Up**. He is, semi-surprisingly, an outstanding writer. ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2010, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-autobiographies/531069/30 "2010-03-04T18:20:55Z")
My two very favorite autobiographies: The Road from Coorain by Jill Ker Conway [http://www.amazon.com/Road-Coorain-Jill-Kathryn-Conway/dp/0749398949/ref=ntt\_at\_ep\_dpt\_1](http://www.amazon.com/Road-Coorain-Jill-Kathryn-Conway/dp/0749398949/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1) Girl from Australian outback grows up to be an American University president. and West with the Night by Beryl Markham [http://www.amazon.com/West-Night-Beryl-Markham/dp/0865471185/ref=sr\_1\_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267726749&sr=1-1](http://www.amazon.com/West-Night-Beryl-Markham/dp/0865471185/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267726749&sr=1-1) Expatriate in Kenya. 1st person to fly non-stop West across the Atlantic ---
**Author:** ![Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2010, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-autobiographies/531069/31 "2010-03-04T18:34:50Z")
I really love Asimov’s autobiographies. You might like Richard Feynman’s books, which are collections of essays, many of which are autobiographical. Homer Hickam’s _Rocket Boys_ is based on Hickam’s real experiences, and is a good read. ---
**Author:** ![vdgg81](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/3d9bf3/32.png) [@vdgg81](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vdgg81)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2010, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-autobiographies/531069/32 "2010-03-04T20:20:51Z")
I never had the chance to read Asimov’s two volumes of autobiography, but his last memoir, _I, Asimov_, is a wonderful book. I’ve read it twice and I expect I’ll read it again someday. Giacomo Casanova’s memoirs are also wonderful. I have them in a nine volume edition and have read the first four volumes. They do get a bit tiring read in a row, so I read one a year. I’m about to read the fifth one now. This man’s life has to be read to be believed, he did so much and was so many different things. Although not an atheist he wasn’t particularly religious, he was definitely liberal and, for his time, very science-minded. (He almost became a priest when very young and the stories he tells about the clergy of his time have to be read to be believed. It all ended badly because of a woman, obviously.) Probably not what you wanted, but Montaigne’s _Essays_ are incredible. He’s one of the very best writers I’ve ever read and probably the wisest. Although not an autobiography the essays are incredibly personal and revealing. He writes: “I am myself the matter of my book” and “I study myself more than any other subject. That is my metaphysics and my physics.” After I was done reading the essays for the first time I felt I knew the man better than I’ve ever known anybody. He wasn’t an atheist, nor was he very science-minded, but religion wasn’t too important to him and he was very liberal, in a conservative, 16th century kind of way. Also, I’ve recently read Edmund White’s _My Lives_ and thought it very good. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2010, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-autobiographies/531069/33 "2010-03-04T20:56:06Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > I would prefer the kind done by a person with a few key characteristics that match my own: Atheist, Liberal, Science-minded. But it doesn’t have to fit that. Carl Sagan didn’t write an autobiography per-se, but he references his own life and experiences repeatedly in several of his books including[The Demon Haunted World](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon_haunted_world) and [Billions & Billions](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billions_and_Billions)(which he wrote after being diagnosed with the illness that would ultimately kill him, which he discusses in the book). Both books would be on my “deserted island/spare copies to loan out” lists. Gore Vidal has written two autobiographies- [Palimpsest](http://www.amazon.com/Palimpsest-Memoir-Gore-Vidal/dp/0140260897) and [Point-to-Point Navigation](http://www.amazon.com/Point-Navigation-Memoir-Vintage/dp/0307275019/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_9). He’s not science-minded so much but he’s atheist and liberal in droves and a good- if often very bitchy- writer. He’s also written many autobiographical essays, some of which are on line. If you’re not that familiar with him he’s known everybody: -Grandson of a blind U.S. Senator in the 1920s-1930s so he witnessed the politics of that era first hand as his grandfather’s seeing eye boy -Son of Gene Vidal, a leader in the field of aeronautics (and who had an affair with Amelia Earhart and is portrayed in the recent biopic)- Vidal flew a plane solo when he was 9 (though I don’t think he was a pilot as an adult) -Son of Nina Gore Vidal Auschinschloss, a woman who married into an extremely wealthy D.C. family (giving Vidal an insider/outsider view of very rich and powerful society) -Related by marriage (kinda sorta) to Jackie Bouvier (when Vidal’s mother divorced her second husband he married Jackie’s mom, making Jackie and Lee stepsiblings to Vidal’s half siblings) thus knew her before she married JFK -Good friend of JFK (though an enemy of RFK) -Wunderkind author in the 1940s and 1950s who wrote some of the first mainstream “gay” novels (though he cannot stand being labeled as gay) -Hollywood screenwriter who claims to have written the screenplay for BEN HUR (though Charlton Heston denied it) and to have peppered it with homoeroticism -Close friends with Paul Newman/Joanne Woodward, Tennessee Williams, and a zillion other literary and movie figures; archenemies with Truman Capote, Anais Nin, Charlton Heston and other literary and movie figures Anyway, often over-the-top, but always worth reading. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2010, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-autobiographies/531069/34 "2010-03-04T21:19:07Z")
The only autobiography I’d ever read is Stephen Fry’s. He said on Craig Ferguson’s show the other day that he’s writing a “sequel” BTW. After Fry’s, I read Dawn French’s autobiography **Dear Fatty**. I’m a fan of French’s and I really liked hearing about her interesting life before and after becoming a star. I actually didn’t _read_ it, I _heard_ it on audiobook. French herself did not want to read it, as there are some very rough parts (namely, her father committed suicide when Dawn was a teen) but the person they got to read it sounds almost exactly like her. The book is written as a series of letters to people in her life: her mom, her dad, her brother, Jen Saunders (nicknamed “Fatty”), her husband, her exes, her crushes, etc. Anyway, **Dear Fatty** is not some ground-breaking insight into the life of a modern renaissance woman but, as you know, she runs in the same circles as Stephen Fry so you might enjoy her tale as well. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2010, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-autobiographies/531069/35 "2010-03-04T21:30:33Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > [The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley](The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley) was one of those books I’d have never read if it wasn’t a school assignment but it was really good. I second this one. While he wasn’t an atheist obviously (though he had been, or at least agnostic), the book is (in addition to being a great time-place memoir of black life in NYC before/during WW2) very much focused on critical thinking and self education. MX’s fallout with the Black Muslims and second major conversion (from the N.O.I. to mainstream Sunni Islam) occurred while he and Haley were writing it, which is interesting at times as well as you can tell where he’s made some adjustments to previous statements. Be sure to read Haley’s preface. Malcolm X’s daughter Ilyasah Shabazz also wrote an interesting memoir- [Growing Up X](http://www.amazon.com/Growing-Up-X-Ilyasah-Shabazz/dp/0345444965). It’s more interesting as a slice of life piece than anything else, but it is interesting: she was the daughter of the most famous black separatist in America, but she barely remembered him (in fact she admits the few memories she did have may have just been suggestion- she was not quite 3 when he died) and she grew up in a predominantly white upper middle class suburb of NYC with white friends and teachers. She learned more about her father’s legacy in college than she did from her family (her mother Betty was very busy in the years after her husband’s death completing her education, being single parent to 5 daughters [two unborn when their father was killed], and beginning her career and obviously had a lot of pain where her murdered husband was concerned), so the book is much about growing up in the impossibly large shadow of a larger than life father you never knew and who had you lived in his heyday would have had next to nothing in common with. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2010, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-autobiographies/531069/36 "2010-03-05T00:16:20Z")
I quite enjoyed Andre Agassi’s “Open.” I think even non-tennis fans would enjoy it. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2010, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-autobiographies/531069/37 "2010-03-05T00:56:28Z")
[The Confessions of St. Augustine](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Confessions_of_St._Augustine). [The Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_(Jean-Jacques_Rousseau)). The Autobiography of [Anthony Trollope](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Trollope). [Benjamin Franklin, Self-Revealed](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin,_Self-Revealed), by William Cabell Bruce [The Education of Henry Adams](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Education_of_Henry_Adams). The Autobiography of [William Butler Yeats](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Butler_Yeats). The Americanization of [Edward Bok](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bok). [Michael I. Pupin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_I._Pupin), From Immigrant to Inventor. The Autobiography of [William Allen White](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Allen_White). Charles A. Lindbergh, [The Spirit of St. Louis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spirit_of_St._Louis_(book)). George F. Kennan, [Memoirs](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Frost_Kennan). Vladimir Nabokov, [Speak, Memory](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speak,_Memory). ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2010, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-autobiographies/531069/38 "2010-03-05T01:41:51Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > **The Brass Ring** by Bill Mauldin, which chronicles his development as a cartoonist, a soldier and a skeptic. this reminds me of another military autobiography. Mauldin inherited a cast-off suit from an uncle because it had been hung out to dry in the New Mexican sunshine, which stained it purple on the exposed side. This only made Mauldin want a suit than before, so he joined ROTC for the free uniform. (once the war started, it didn’t seem so “free” in retrospect.) Similarly, Paul Fussell’s _Doing Battle_ tells of how he joined ROTC, not for a free suit, but because cadets were excused from gym; and he would be spared the embarassment of being the overweight kid with the tiny dick in the locker room. ROTC cadets, since they were high school kids with no tanks or planes, were all funnelled into the dirty, dangerous infanty, where Fussell grimly looked back on his original motivation. My al-time favorite war memoir is Robert Graves’ _Goodbye to All That_, from his upper-class English childhood to his days as a junior officer in WWI. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2010, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-autobiographies/531069/39 "2010-03-05T01:49:32Z")
The virtual back-to-back biographies of [Sir Richard Francis Burton](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Richard_Burton) by Byron Farwell and Fawn Brodie make for an interesting contrast of a fascinating person. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2010, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-autobiographies/531069/40 "2010-03-05T02:19:23Z")
> [@Frank](#): > > The virtual back-to-back biographies of [Sir Richard Francis Burton](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Richard_Burton) by Byron Farwell and Fawn Brodie make for an interesting contrast of a fascinating person. I apologize. I missed the “auto” in the title. In that case, I suggest reading the life-long serial autobiography of Sir Richard Francis Burton as expressed in all his published works bar the translations. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-autobiographies/531069.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-autobiographies/531069.md?page=3)