I would recommend then I Owe Russia $1200 by Bob Hope. I have an extra around if you ever want it.
My favorite book of all-time is an autobiography. It’s called Testament of Youth, by Vera Brittain. It’s her memoir of being in the VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachment) during WWI. It goes in and out of print. The BBC did a serial mini-series that was about six or eight episodes in the late 70s, or early 80s, so it was in print then, and it was recently a movie. I haven’t seen the movie, because I can’t imagine not being disappointed by a 2-hr. version of a 667 page book. The mini-series was pretty good (albeit, I haven’t seen it since I was in my 20s).
I first read Testament of Youth when I was 14, and I was so damn impressed by it, I don’t k now where to begin. I was going to name all my children Vera, including the boys, and be the world’s greatest peace activist, and get a degree from Oxford. And be a writer. I’ve read it a couple more times since, the last was in my late 30s, and I still love it.
Coming a very close second is an unusual book usually published under the title The Memoirs of Gluckel of Hameln. It’s a memoir written between 1646 and 1724 by a woman living in a shtetl. She wrote it, she claimed, so her children would know the story of their family. Somehow, it survived, and has been translated into a number of languages. I read it in English. I don’t read Yiddish, and I’m not sure I could understand 17th century Yiddish anyway. This book is so fascinating, I read it almost straight through. If I hadn’t started it in the evening, I probably would have read it straight through. There are very few first-hand accounts of the lives of ordinary people from this period, let alone shtetl Jews, let alone women of any religious persuasion.
Boswell’s Life of Samuel Johnson
Still the best work of biography ever written, after more than 200 years. Highly entertaining, and you can dip into it anywhere.
I’ve read quite a few biographies. My favorite is Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow. It really brought Washington to life as a person, and solidified his greatness in my mind.
Second place: Life Itself by Roger Ebert.
Also worth mentioning:
The Beatles: All These Years: Tune In by Mark Lewishon
Hamilton by Chernow
Life by Keith Richards
Chronicles by Bob Dylan
The four-volume LBJ series by Robert Caro
mmm
I truly enjoyed this one, too, though people give me strange looks when I reference it.
I love, love, love reading and rereading Lillian Hellman’s Pentimento, despite the controversy over her truthfulness. It is just such a fascinating read.
Dave Dravecky’s Comeback is very inspiring, I carry a Dave Dravecky baseball card in my wallet to remind me to have courage.
U.S. Grant’s autobiography. Some very sharp insight into the Civil War. There are places chills will run down your spine. Grant was not a “good man” nor was he a “bad man.” He was a battle-winning machine, almost transcending humanity. His book makes this clear, but with the humanity – and the tragedy – restored via hindsight.
I’ve read that, and enjoyed it, but even more I like In the Arena, which is Heston’s autobiography. When he speaks of civil rights, and mentions the march on Washington, with Dr. King, he says his wife Lydia was further back in the march, and told him “I’ll be we had more fun than you up there with the big dogs!”
“Carrying the Fire” by Apollo 11 astronaut Mike Collins.
This House of Sky by Ivan Doig.
I came here to add this. It’s a huge tome, but I don’t think there’s a page to cut. It was a gripping read.
The book about his son, “Journey”, written with his now ex-wife, is interesting and maddening. People think they have trouble getting health insurance now? It was 10,000 times worse 50 years ago.
Both excellent books!
If you like comedians, Charlie Chaplin’s autobiography…quintessential rags to riches. Carol Burnett has a remarkable life story as well.
When I saw this thread, the first title that came to mind was Leonardo da Vinci: Flights of the mind, by Charles Nicholl. There are a lot of Leonardo biographies out there, but in my opinion Nicholl’s work is the best. He does a terrific job of re-interpreting long-known facts while incorporating a surprisingly impressive volume of information turned up by recent research. Where there are gaps in Leonardo’s life story, he’s able to connecting the dots to provide plausible scenarios of what may have been going on without veering off too far into unwarranted speculation. His writing is also quite poetic. Highly recommended.
I don’t pretend to know what qualifies as a good biography since I will read just about any trashy Hollywood “autobiography”, but two that I found difficult to put down (or turn off in the case of an audiobook) were:
Personal History by Katherine Graham
On the Move by Oliver Sacks
I should have added Steve Martin’s Born Standing Up to my previous post.
mmm
Strongly agree. Excellent book. He willed himself to master his craft to such success.
“Secrets” by Daniel Ellsberg, who released the Pentagon Papers and precipitated Watergate (i.e. the burglars were called Plumbers, because they were originally brought together to ‘plug the leaks’ - a consequence of Ellsberg’s act). He does a great job of explaining his moral dilemma and transformation from cold war hawk to antiwar activist. More than that, Ellsberg offers one of the most fascinating perspectives on the Vietnam War, as he saw it both from the ground level - in fire fights- and at the highest levels of the Pentagon. Your perspective on the war is sure to be changed by the book.
It’s hardly the most rigorous and unflinching biography, but it’s hard to think of one that so entertainingly illuminates both the biographer and biographee (is that a word?).
Reeve Lindbergh wrote several memoirs about her family. Fascinating stuff.
And that other Reeve, Christopher, wrote Still Me, about his life before and after the accident that left him paralyzed. He writes about people treating him like a child because he was disabled, and having to tell them “I’m an adult man. If you can’t treat me like one, you can leave.”
I read this book before the accident that left me with a disabled left hand. I’ve used that line a lot. It’s amazing how people think physical disabilities make you stupid.