BEST biography ever?

[lokariototal]

What's the BEST biography u have ever read????????

Mine is "Napoleon" by Vincent Cronin.... IT CHANGED MY LIFE FOREVER

[mal4mac]

James Joyce by Richard Ellmann

[Red-Headed]

I've read a few in my time. I think it comes down to either Holden's William Shakespeare: His Life & Works or Troyat's Tolstoy.

[fb0252]

two volume Goethe Biography by Nicolas Boyle likely sets the standard. the author has almost the same iq as his subject, and the research, scholarship, and detail are first rate, as is the writing.

[Pecksie]

'Mary Queen of Scots' by Antonia Fraser, probably. With Richard Holmes's 'Shelley: The Pursuit' a close second.

[badtrip]

"Long Hard Road Out Of Hell" by Marilyn Manson and Neil Strauss. Damn great reading material, parts are just brilliant in both narration and content.

[bounty]

im not sure if its the best but the one that came to mind when i read the question was a flame of pure fire by roger kahn, a biography on jack dempsey.

[stlukesguild]

Ummm.... Boswell's Life of Johnson..?

[mortalterror]

Ummm.... Boswell's Life of Johnson..?His mind resembled the vast amphitheatre, the Coliseum at Rome. In the center stood his judgement, which, like a mighty gladiator, combated those apprehensions that, like the wild beasts of the Arena, were all around in cells, ready to be let out upon him.- Boswell, Life of Johnson

Good stuff.

[tamlynn]

My favorite biographies were both autobios by Black Hawk and Benjamin Franklin.

[mortalterror]

My favorite biographies were both autobios by Black Hawk and Benjamin Franklin.
Do you mean Black Elk Speaks by John Neihardt? That was a very nice biography but about as autobiographical as Malcolm X's. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin was fairly good reading as well, better even than Gandhi's.

[Kafka's Crow]

As mentioned above, Ellmann's James Joyce and James Knowlson's Damned to Fame: A Life of Samuel Beckett.