Whose Biographies have You Read?

Cafe Society
21

Albert Speer’s Inside the Third Reich.

22

I second this one - great read. Not a complete history, he covers some lesser known things. Very interesting to read his own words and perspective.

23

I read the Walter Isaacson biography.

24

Biographies in general don’t call out to me unless we’re getting pretty broad with memoirs of relatively short periods. Ones I can recall of the top of my head:

Erwin Rommel
U.S. Grant
Creighton Abrams
Francis Marion
Teddy Roosevelt
George Armstrong Custer
Abraham Lincoln

25

For years, I said that the best biography I had ever read was Richard Ellmann’s Oscar Wilde.

Then I read Hugh Brogan’s Alexis de Tocqueville: A Life.

I also enjoyed River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West

26

Counting autobiographies too:

F. Scott Fitzgerald
Raymond Chandler
Ernest Hemingway
Carson McCullers
Charlie Chaplin (several)
John Lennon
Paul McCartney
Bob Dylan
Tom Waits
Elvis Presley
Charles Schulz
Steve Jobs
Richard Pryor
J.R.R. Tolkien
Samuel Pepys (well, portions at least)

27

Very nice group. I had read many of those also. We should do lunch.

28

Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman is my all-time favorite book. I’ve read it several times, and quote it often.

Also, I’ve read biographies of Bing Crosby, Allan Sherman (2), Bob Newhart, Srinivasa Ramanujan, Jerry Siegel, Charles Schulz, and Stan Lee.

And graphic biographies (well, they weren’t novels) of Bertrand Russell and John Wilkes Booth.

29

Just want to double-check that this is the link you meant to post. It links to Carrie Brownstein bio thread, which links to a Tom Petty bio thread and a Glyn Johns bio thread, but that’s about it I think.

As for biographies, I’ve read dozens and dozens and dozens starting from when I was in early elementary school. I think the first one that I read was on Nathaniel Farragut. It’s always been my favorite type of non-fiction. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to prefer autobiographies, even with the knowledge that most are probably ghost-written. I do, however, appreciate a well-researched biography with citations.

The most recent one that I read is Van Halen Rising by Greg Renoff. It’s a very-well researched history of the band from 1973 through 1978, the year they hit it big.

30

My Father’s Gun: One Family, Three Badges, One Hundred Years in the NYPD by Brian McDonald.

Worth reading, particularly the section on what became known as “The French Connection”.

31

Wired: The Short Life and Fast Times of John Belushi

32

Peter Wright’s “Spycatcher”
Paul Erdős (“The Man Who Loved Only Numbers”)
Lytton Strachey’s “Eminent Victorians” (Thomas Arnold, Florence Nightingale, Cardinal Manning, General Gordon)
One volume of Lord Archer’s “Prison Diary”
One volume of Bosley’s “Life of Johnson”
Shatner’s “Star Trek Memories” and “Star Trek Movie Memories”
Michael Palin’s diaries (1969-1979 and 1980-1988)
Tina Fey’s “Bossypants”
Richard E. Byrd’s “Alone”

33

Sonny Barger

34

Cheryl Crane (Lana Turner’s daughter)
James Dean
Janis Ian
Patty Duke
Helen Keller
Frances Farmer
Joan Crawford’s daughter whose name escapes me

35

I got Schulz’s Peanuts Jubilee: My Life and Art with Charlie Brown and Others for my 21st birthday in January 1976. I wish I still had it… :frowning:

36

U.S. Grant’s autobiography is a fascinating book, especially the Civil War bits. A little bit scary how well he adapted to the principles of “total war.”

Not too long ago I read a biography of Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits. Also scary, and a little creepy. He independently invented the “cult” of modern times, with the heavy brainwashing and isolation for initiates.

37

The Power Broker about Robert Moses

38

How did you find Fraser’s biography of MQoS? I became annoyed reading this. I found Fraser’s biography well written and hugely researched. However, I felt let down as I went through the book. She seemed to give virtually every benefit of the historical doubt to Mary.

39

Thought they were a bit more linked.

Elvis Costello: Elvis Costello memoir out - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board
Yeah, Yeah, Yeah: the story of Modern Pop: Rock Book: Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Story of Modern Pop - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board
Sam Phillips: Rock Bio: Sam Phillips, the Man Who Invented Rock n' Roll - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board
Documentary about Big Star: Documentary Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board
Documentary about Jeff Beck: Jeff Beck geekfest: DVD A Man for All Seasons - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board
**James Brown **documentary - amazing: James Brown Documentary: Mr. Dynamite - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board

By the way, for folks who like Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman, I assume most of you are aware of James Gleick’s bio of Feynman, Genius: https://www.amazon.com/Genius-Life-Science-Richard-Feynman-ebook/dp/B004LRPQIO/ref=pd_sim_351_5?ie=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B004LRPQIO&pd_rd_r=2V070HNP6C2ANH08X3XG&pd_rd_w=jmiUz&pd_rd_wg=b40Uo&psc=1&refRID=2V070HNP6C2ANH08X3XG

A great book. I would also strongly recommend Glieck’s book on the emergence and current dominance of Information Theory, The Information: Amazon.com: The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood eBook : Gleick, James: Books . It is anchored on a biography of the Father of Information Theory, Claude Shannon. It makes the argument that Info Theory has…overtaken? subsumed?..physics in the hierarchy of Sciences, while providing an overview of Info Theory and key milestones in its progression.

40

Older threads I started as reviews of Bios:

That’s a couple of pages into my old subscribed threads…