In the past year or so I have forgone my usual obsession with contemporary fiction and developed a strong interest in biographies, in real lives lived in far away times and places, that contrast so sharply with my own.
I have recently read biographies on the following people;
Richard Feynman
Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara
Mahatma Gandhi
Pablo Escobar
T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia)
Jung Chang (Wild Swans)
Kody Scott (AKA Sanyika Shakur) (Monster: Autobiography of an L.A. Gang Member)
Apsley Cherry-Gerrard
Jim Morrison
I also have a biography of Pablo Neruda pending, but I have yet to find time to read it. I also may acquire the new (definitive?) work on Stalin soon too.
Without really having a clue what I am interested in, what further biographies (from any genre)* can you recommend as recording the progress, trials and excitements of a truly interesting or influential life (for good or ill)?
Thanks.
Except sports, unless TRULY exceptional in some way.
I seem to have some hazy memory of you saying you wrote a bio of Marlene Dietrich, Eve (and there could be others and I could be wrong on the MD book as well).
There’s nothing wrong with self-promotion! C’mon, what are they?
I’ve read Eve’s books amd own a couple of them: **Platinum Girl[/b[ and The Brief, Madcap Life of Kay Kendall. They are written with wit and impeccable scholarship, and I urge people to buy a copy for yourselves and to give at Christmas and Hanukkah.
As for other, lesser works, I’m fond of David McCulllough’s bios of John Adams and Truman.
If you want a the life story of someone you haven’t heard of, how about Trust No One which is the biography of Sidney Reilly - the guy who was one of the inspirations for James Bond.
I’d reccomend Lord Bullock’s parallel biography of Hitler and Stalin, which is just called “Hitler and Stalin; Parallel Lives”. Bullock just died earlier this year, which is a shame, because I think he was a great biographer. (In addition to the parallel biography, and his earlier famous biography of Hitler, he also wrote a bio of Ernest Bevin, which is supposed to be good.)
I don’t particularly like Michael Crichton’s fiction but his autobiography Travels is just about my favourite autobiography. He skips huge chunks of his life to talk about events that actually affected him.
Hannah Nyala’s Point Last Seen is a terrific account of the life of a female tracker trying to deal with an abusive husband.
Dave Eggers’ A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is not fiction or autobiography but is a wonderful reading experience.
Harpo Marx’s autobiography Harpo Speaks is great fun.
Rocket Boys by Homer Hickam is better than the movie it became October Skies and I think the movie is bloody good.
With Nails - The Film Diaries of Richard E. Grant is lovely stuff with lots of movie stuff.
William Goldman’s books Adventures In the Screentrade and What Lie Did I Tell are essential reading for film buffs though not strictly biography.
The Liberators and Aquarium/Inside The Aquarium (depending on the edition for the latter) by Viktor Suvorov, a former GRU agent who defected to Britain. Aquarium is one of the most powerful books I had ever read. Just stunning.
Some others: The Autobiography of Malcolm X Boy by Roald Dahl
I also remember really enjoying Ernest Seton-Thompson’s autobiography when I was younger.
sort of a biography:
Diary of a Century, by Edward Robb Ellis
wonderful, funny, heartwrenching. Basically the best excerpts from his diary from about 80 years of writing in it. I think the diary is at Columbia now. He’s getting laid by hot 20-somethings in his 70s, right about the time he first started smoking dope. Quite a character. Quite a read.
I’m in the middle of Theodor S. Giesel’s biography, The Suess, the Whole Suess and Nothing but the Suess. It includes tons and tons of old drawings and writings.
I Am Alive and You Are Dead: A Journey into the Mind of Philip K. Dick by Emmanuel Carrere was the last biography I read and I liked it a lot, though I think that’s just because I’m obsessed with the subject. PKD led a fascinating and often tragic life, and I think I can understand his writing a lot better now that I know more about him.
I heartily recommend “Memoirs,” by Kay Graham, the late publisher of the Washington Post. Born to a wealthy family, practically nothing was expected of her and she managed to convince herself that she wasn’t worth a damn to anyone. After her husband’s suicide, she took over the reins and steered the paper through some of the most turbulent times the country ever saw (John Mitchell, Attorney General of the United States, told a Post reporter that if she wasn’t careful, “Kay Graham’s going to get her tit caught in the wringer.” vis. the Post’s Watergate investigation). She was a remarkable woman and the book is very well written.
