Best Autobiography

[MikeK]

What's the best autobiography you've ever read? I ask because I find it so difficult to find autobiographies that I enjoy, so much so that I've just about given up on autobiographies alltogether. I think that the problem lies in the form itself - a very difficult kind of book to write; so difficult not to be either too easy or too hard on yourself, too self-aggrandizing or too self-debasing, too narcissistic or too removed, too difficult to find the right balance between those polarities. So please, in your answer mention why you like it. How was the author able to make it work?

For me the best autobiography is far and away Malcolm Muggeridge's two-volume "Chronicles of Wasted Time".

[ychustla6]

I recommend the Autobiograpy of Malcolm X. As told to Alex Haley by Malcolm X. I think if anyone begins to read the book without any prior judgement about the man and enters into his world with great curiosity and interest as to who he really was and what he was all about, this book could be one of the best autobiograpies you ever read. He was an extremely intelligent person and this book is very inspiring. It will surprise you.

[MikeK]

Interesting suggestion. The only problem for me would be what you mention in your third sentence. I'm not sure that I could come to it without any prior judgement about the man. Nonetheless, I think I might put it on my list and check it out some time. Thanks

[Zippy]

'A Moveable Feast' by Hemingway. Fantastic read about his time in Paris.

[MikeK]

Hemingway, huh, and the Lost Generation. Is this book very literary, dealing with the circle of writers around him and literature in general? Is it cultural, dealing primarily with Parisien life, or personal, dealing mostly with his own reflections and ruminations?

By the way, you might enjoy a book called "The Breaking Point: Hemingway, Dos Passos, and the Murder of Jose Robles". It's about Hemingway's relationship with Dos Passos with the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War. Very interesting.

[papayahed]

The current one I'm reading is "Madam Secretary". It's the story of Madaliene Albright. I found it fascinating, she has a perspective on world events and leaders that most people will never see. There is a picture Yasser Arafat watching her grandson practicing diving, we don't think of world leaders as having lives.

[Zippy]

Hemingway, huh, and the Lost Generation. Is this book very literary, dealing with the circle of writers around him and literature in general? Is it cultural, dealing primarily with Parisien life, or personal, dealing mostly with his own reflections and ruminations?

It's a mixture, but mostly his reflections and ruminations. The parts dealing with other writers that he met in Paris are probably the most interesting. Although one chapter 'A Matter of Measurement' is very strange indeed, dealing as it does with Hemingway's friend, F. Scott Fitzgerald's doubts about the size of his manhood! I can't think why Hemingway included this, but hey, it's entertaining anyway.

[manofletters]

I nominate John Cowper Powys' "Autobiography" hands down, but have never met anyone else who's read it.

[blp]

I recommend the Autobiograpy of Malcolm X. As told to Alex Haley by Malcolm X. I think if anyone begins to read the book without any prior judgement about the man and enters into his world with great curiosity and interest as to who he really was and what he was all about, this book could be one of the best autobiograpies you ever read. He was an extremely intelligent person and this book is very inspiring. It will surprise you.

I second this. A friend gave it to me recently and I couldn't put it down. Incredibly moving.

I've also recently enjoyed...

The Prime of Life by Simone De Beauvoir

Chronicles by Bob Dylan

All three of these are, in a large measure, books about the pleasure of reading and learning.

I also like

My Last Breath by Luis Bunuel

[beer good]

Dylan's autobiography (if you can even call it that) is indeed a great, if somewhat haphazard, read. As is Johnny Cash's. Stay away from Miles Davis', though; it took me months to be able to listen to his music with the same enjoyment again after I finished it. How could such a bitter man make such amazing music?

[Idril]

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers is my favorite autobiography. It's not about anyone particularly famous but it is a great read, funny and tragic and incredibly touching.

[blp]

I forgot - The Invention of Solitude by Paul Auster I remember being superb - and I don't particularly like his other books.

[Guinivere]

For me it would be Moab is my Washpot, by the brilliant Stephen Fry. His writing is so funny and overall excellent. Known for his way with words and his vast knowledge, the story of his life, carear, and family is a must for Fry fans.

Oh and Golda Meir's autobiography was excellent as well. Especially her time as Prime Minister of Israel during the Munich Olympics massacre. A very insightful book.

[kelby_lake]

Autobiographies really annoy me! I can't bear to read any. I read This Side of Paradise, which was basically autobiographical, except it was 'i this' and 'i that'

[WICKES]

Stephen Fry 'Moab Is My Washpot' (may be regarded as a minor classic in years to come- beautifully written, funny and moving)

Robert Graves 'Goodbye To All That'

David Niven 'The Moon's A Baloon'

[Victoria2133]

I agree with Idril - A Heartbreaking Work is wonderful. Really depressing, but funny at the same time. So you feel terrible for laughing. It kind of confuses your reactions...

I'd also suggest Dreams of My Father and The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama - though some may argue that you'd have to support him to appreciate what he has to say. I don't necessarily believe that.

And I know it's old-school, but the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is a good read. I read it a few months ago and I was struck by how we're told in elementary school that he's a hero, but then we read his autobiography in college and we begin to think he was a bad person. I reread it again in grad school a few years later and came away with the impression that he was just a normal man with a very sophisticated idea of public identity. Maybe it's just me, but I think he had a few things figured out.

[WICKES]

For me it would be Moab is my Washpot, by the brilliant Stephen Fry. His writing is so funny and overall excellent. Known for his way with words and his vast knowledge, the story of his life, carear, and family is a must for Fry fans..


It is a brilliant book isn't it! I think it is the best thing he has ever done- you don't need to be a Fry fan to enjoy it

[EricP]

I would recommend Jean-Paul Sartre's "Words", Richard Wright's "Black Boy", Benjamin Franklin's autobiography, Nabokov's "Speak, Memory", and Emma Goldman's "Living My Life".

[ex ponto]

My recommendations: Knut Hamsun's ''On Overgrown Paths'' - a Norwegian Nobel Prize winner, accused of collaborating with Nazies during the WW II. Interesting, funny and sad lines of nearly deaf, intelligent old man.

''My Inventions'' by Nikola Tesla. You can skipp the technical parts, but the first half of the book, of his childhood and youth, is brilliant. Very, very unusual man!

[Kafka's Crow]

I nominate John Cowper Powys' "Autobiography" hands down, but have never met anyone else who's read it.

You will not meet anybody who has read it! I have read more than half of A Glastonbury Romance and am planning to finish it and start reading Wolf Solent as a brand new copy sits on my bookshelf. Will look at the Autobiography. Should be interesting. Great writer indeed.

[Inderjit Sanghe]

Nabokov's 'Speak, Memory' stands out.

[RichardHresko]

No list of autobiographies could be complete without Augustine's 'Confessions.' A remarkable work on many levels.

[EricP]

No list of autobiographies could be complete without Augustine's 'Confessions.' A remarkable work on many levels.

I would add Jean-Jacques Rousseau's "Confessions" as well.

[DooRag]

Bob Dylan's Autobiography "Chronicles: Vol.1" is a really cool read. Unlike any other autobiog I have ever read. (although I'm sure he made large parts of it up)

[stlukesguild]

There are several strong autobiographies that I have read including Augustine's Confessions, Cellini's Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini, Franklin's Autobiography of Benjamen Franklin, and Henry Adam's The Education of Henry Adams... and we might add Boswell's Journal's... but by far my favorites are Rousseau's Confessions and DeQuincey's Confessions of an English Opium Eater.

[WICKES]

DeQuincey's Confessions of an English Opium Eater.

yes, that is very good- I'd forgotten that one:thumbs_up

[carlin08]

I have always been interested in the nonfiction genre and I'm very intrigued with this tread, especially because there seems to be so many ways to define the term "autobiography."

When someone says that they don't like to read autobiographies, I wonder what their assumptions are about the genre. For instance, if you say you don't enjoy reading autobiographies, does this include memoirs? Is autobiography and memoir even the same thing? The recommendations of "good autobiographies" that you have all given here are so different, and its hard to image that some of these texts even fall into the same category. For instance, how can one consider _A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius_ and _The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin_, or Augustine's _Confessions_, to be in the same category? Arguably, someone who reads Augustine's text is holding different expectations and assumptions about autobiographical writing than someone who reads Egger's memoir.

So I guess this leads me to the very general question: What do you expect from works of nonfiction (specifically autobiographies/memoirs)? Is it simply any text that does not engage in fictitious writing? Or is it more complex than this?

My recommendations:
_Borrowed Time_ Paul Monette (a beautiful writer)
_A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius_ Dave Eggers
_Blackbird_ Jennifer Lauck
_All Souls_ Michael Patrick McDonald
_Lying: A Metaphorical Memoir_ Lauren Slater
_An American Requiem: God, My Father, and the War the Came Between Us_ James Carroll
_Girl Interrupted_ Susanna Kaysen

And two graphic novels:
_Fun Home_ Allison Bechdel (This is an amazing book).
_Blankets_ Craig Thompson

[dfloyd]

When I was a young man in the 60s, I read the Autobiography of Franklin and Benvenuto Cellini. Also, the Travels of Marco Polo and Caesar's Gallic Wars. These are informative books which give a perspective on times other than our own.

[DanielBenoit]

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers isn't the greatest biography I've ever read, but is certainly one of the most creative and funniest.

[mal4mac]

"The Autobiography of J.S. Mill". Mill is that rare thing, a readable philosopher :-) And his life was interesting and weird. His father was a leading intellectual who had him learning Greek as a toddler. You get an account of his interactions with the leading Utilitarians and other thinkers of the day, and also of his nervous breakdown - caused by too much Greek and Utilitarianism. He recovered by reading Wordsworth and other Romantic poets. Somehow, he also found time to have a real job, with the East India Company - a fascinating Victorian mega-corporation that makes Enron look like the corner store...

"Father and Son" - Edmund Gosse. Edmund's father was the inventor of the aquarium, one of Darwin's main field workers, *and* a leader of the extreme Christian sect "The Plymouth Brethren". He hot-housed his son, making him a Church Father before he was a teenager *and* training him to be a marine biologist. Superb personal account of the first round of "Darwin v. The Church" played out as an internal conflict within both Father and Son. Also has a really poignant account of his mother's death from breast cancer.

Neither author is "too self-aggrandizing or too self-debasing, too narcissistic or too removed." They both had very interesting fathers and got to know leading figures through close association, which gave them a lot of interesting things to write about beside themselves. Their upbringings (one Utilitarian, one Christian both Victorian!) probably helped keep them from becoming "full of themselves".

Bertrand Russell's "Autobiography" was also pretty interesting, though his more philosophical autobiography "My Philosophical Development" was better. Modern autobiographies I liked:

Bryan Magee - "Confessions of a Philosopher"
Karen Armstrong - "The Spiral Staircase"

[African_Love]

The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley. I've read it 8 times since I was 13.

[WICKES]

C S Lewis' Surprised By Joy

Robert Graves' Goodbye To All That

Charles Darwin's autobiography

[FROADS]

The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley
^Gripping bio...

Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life by Jon Lee Anderson
^Despite the controversies surrounding his treatment of war prisoners, Guevara lived an adventurous life and this book vividly recounts all his exploits. Fascinating... he died at 39 yet he lived more than many men would at 100

[aliengirl]

The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley. I've read it 8 times since I was 13.

It is really a great biography. When my brother gave it to me I never thought it would turn out to be one of my favorite books. Unputdownable!

[Kyriakos]

I haven't read any autobiographies, but i would suggest Kafka's diaries. They are structured a bit like a novel, you can see the deterioration of his life. The final chapters, with their huge intervals between individual notes, are evident of his desperation... :)

[m.a.l.b.]

"Paula" by Isabel Allende. It basically consists of letters she wrote to her daughter while the latter was in a coma.

Like mentioned above, Malcom X's autobiography was brilliant. It's not that you end up convinced, but you do manage to reach a certain level of understanding. I could not help but admire his courage and intelligence.

[LuggageFan]

'A Moveable Feast' by Hemingway. Fantastic read about his time in Paris.

I read, and enjoyed, that. :)


Chronicles by Bob Dylan

I knew his girlfriend. Interesting tales, for sure.

But to answer the question, don't groan, but Mommie Dearest was a really good one. Also "Joni" was an inspirational autobiography of a quadriplegic girl.

[Emil Miller]

Most autobiographies are very questionable, read the biographies instead.

[Gregory Samsa]

My favorite is Chronicles by Bob Dylan. But when it comes to Dylan I am not objective.

[TheRoyalist]

The Good, The bad and The Bubbly is an autobiography by George Best written while he was still alive. It is a bit dated with some sloppy writing, however, it is full of funny tales and the football genius left nothing out. There are passages of his brushes with the law that are candid. More candid is his revelation about having dinner with six beautiful women; all of whom he had bedded. His off the field exploits are well documented in this book. Great title, too.

Wayne Rooney is not as good with a ball or having a ball as Georgie.

[Pensive]

My Feudal Lord and I might be the only one here but I would admit enjoying Agatha Christie's autobiography too!

[Scheherazade]

I would admit enjoying Agatha Christie's autobiography too!Pensive, please, please, please don't admit to anything!

Without an admission, they cannot use it against you!

:p

[SwedishDemocrac]

J.M. Coetzee's "Youth" is a great autobiography.

[Kafka's Crow]

Finished reading Stephen Fry's 'The Fry Chronicles' last week. A good book. Not as good as 'Moab is My Washpot' (which is exceptional) bit still very good in its own right. Now we can sit back and wait another decade for the third part in which he will talk about his cocaine addiction!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fry-Chronicles-Stephen/dp/0718154835/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1285947682&sr=8-2

[LaMaga]

I'd like to recommend:
-Art Lover by Peggy Guggenheim
-OPEN by Andre Agassi. (even if you don't like sports and know nothing about tennis)
-Lucky Man by Michael J. Fox (surprisingly cerebral)
-It's always Something by Gilda Radner (funny, but depressing)

[mal4mac]

I liked the Autobiography of J.S. Mill. He's not the self-aggrandising sort, but knows his own merits, so he avoids the pitfalls you mention. If you like that, try "Father & Son" by Edmund Gosse. It had a very similar feel to it, and his father was even more interesting than Mill's :)

[kev67]

Auto da Fey by Fay Weldon is probably the best autobiography I have read.

I have not read many autobiographies, but it is sometimes interesting what they put in and what they leave out. I also find it interesting when they give themselves away without seeming to realise it. The book I am thinking of most here is Looking for Trouble by Sir General de la Billiere.

[wordeater]

I haven't read many, but I liked Agatha Christie's autobiography. Charlie Chaplin also wrote a good one.

[Pierre Menard]

Speak, Memory by Nabokov is beautiful. Trademark lyrical prose with that wonderful Nabokov wit that penetrates of all of life's tragedies and sublimity.

[ennison]

Wandering about on a late-night loose end I came on this and realised my favourite book could be described as autobiographical: Uttermost Part of the Earth. But it is so much more than just a life story .

[chrisvia]

I'll regurgitate a lot of the posts:

Confessions, Augustine
Speak, Memory, Nabokov
A Portrait of thew Artist as a Young Man, Joyce
A Moveable Feast, Hemingway

[Ughek]

Like several people here I really liked Malcolm X's 'autobiography'. I've also read Václav Havel's authorized biography, which was also very good, although it was poorly translated.

[Little Gal]

What's the best autobiography you've ever read? I ask because I find it so difficult to find autobiographies that I enjoy, so much so that I've just about given up on autobiographies alltogether. I think that the problem lies in the form itself - a very difficult kind of book to write; so difficult not to be either too easy or too hard on yourself, too self-aggrandizing or too self-debasing, too narcissistic or too removed, too difficult to find the right balance between those polarities. So please, in your answer mention why you like it. How was the author able to make it work?

For me the best autobiography is far and away Malcolm Muggeridge's two-volume "Chronicles of Wasted Time".

I came across a wonderful autobiography, R.K. Narayan's ' My Days'... I took it up out of my strong inclination towards this particular form of writing and I feel in its brilliant simplicity, the sort of ' right balance', amply. You will be surprised with the ease of it. It goes on unfurling like life as we live and see it, you are able relate directly, and it leaves you hungering for more...

[ennison]

A Voice Through a Cloud by Denton Welch is a book I would recommend. There are other books which are partly autobiographical. Many travel book are more about the traveller than the places. I enjoyed Frank Fraser Darling's various books about his years of peripatetic wanderings in the Highlands. They are books by a naturalist but his own rather eccentric personality comes through strongly and probably unintentionally. The same could be said for some of Gavin Maxwell's books.