Biographies and such

[wokeem]

I've recently began reading Lincoln by David Herbert Donald for a Political Science course I'm taking this semester and can honestly say that I am enjoying it quite thoroughly. I've never been one to read biographies to be perfectly honest, but this novel has sparked somewhat of an interest in me for the genre. What I love about it, besides the genuine insight and interesting subject matter, is that this work has genuine literary merit. It's well written, and the prose is exceptional.

I was wondering, does anyone here have further recommendations for me regarding (auto)biographical works? Especially those which transcend the genre and are appealing on a purely aesthetic (by this I mean based purely on the quality of the writing,) level?



:drool5:

[sixsmith]

I'm not a big reader of biographies but those that I have aesthetically enjoyed include:

The Life of Samuel Johnson - James Boswell
Experience - Martin Amis
James Joyce - Richard Ellman
Unreliable Memoirs/Falling Towards England/May Week Was in June/North Face of Soho - Clive James
Patrimony - Philip Roth
Things I didn't know - Robert Hughes

[RaoulDuke]

I too am not a great reader of biographies, but I found Manson: In His Own Words morbidly fascinating. By no means an aesthetic masterpiece, but intriguing none the less.

E: Apologies wokeem, I completely misread your first post. I'm going to leave this recommendation up because I still think it's worth a read, but as far as biographies that appeal on a purely aesthetic level..... I have no experience of them and therefore have no recommendations to make!

[dfloyd]

The autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini, the reannaisance silversmith
The autobigraphy of Benjamin Franklin
The Lives of the Twelve Caesars by Suetonius.

[Barbarous]

Nabokov's Speak, Memory is a great autobiography!

[mal4mac]

James Joyce - Richard Ellmann
J.S. Mill - Autobiography
Gosse - Father & Son
Magee - Confessions of a Philosopher

[JBI]

Augustine is considered the main voice of the tradition.

As such, this is one genre where the whole "transcendence" bit is rather difficult, since biographies only are really interesting to those interested in the people's biographies. As such, one of my professor's book on Emperor Wuze Tian of China to me is a fantastic read; sex, politics, and ruthlessness, but to others it is perhaps dry (and impossible to get a hold of). Likewise, Augustine to me is a snore.

The only way with this genre, I think, is to just look for personalities that interest you; there are a few fun ones, of course, here is what in my university the undergrad biography course reads, as an idea:

Julian Barnes, Flaubert's Parrot; William Burroughs, Junky; Gerald Durrell, My Family and Other Animals; Sigmund Freud, Leonardo da Vinci; and William Godwin, Memoirs of the Author of ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.’


As well as 18th century works like Johnson and Walton. But there we have it; not to interesting to people outside of that tradition; if looking at transcendence then it is more difficult.

To me, the problem I think is in the genre; either the book is made to sell, so sexed up, or made to be informative, so boring. There is the subsequent genre of "pseudo-biography" which is more political, such as Jung Chang's Mao: the Unknown Story, which is essentially a deliberate fabrication to support American political ideals, and sell the most copies, but those are rare. Nobody, for instance, is going to particularly enjoy a 1500 page tomb on Richard Nixon; his life, albeit important, is not that interesting.

[wokeem]

Thank you everybody! Now it's time for me to go out and make some additions to my bookshelf that I won't get to for a couple of years!

[Basil]

I always thought Flush by Virginia Woolf was the best biography ever written about a dog (Elizabeth Barrett Browning's pet cocker spaniel). And it's available online!

http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/w/woolf/virginia/w91f/

[David Lurie]

I've recently began reading Lincoln by David Herbert Donald for a Political Science course I'm taking this semester and can honestly say that I am enjoying it quite thoroughly. I've never been one to read biographies to be perfectly honest, but this novel has sparked somewhat of an interest in me for the genre. What I love about it, besides the genuine insight and interesting subject matter, is that this work has genuine literary merit. It's well written, and the prose is exceptional.

Great book indeed! Its political and historical perspective can be discussed but the quality of the writing is indisputable.
Just to mention a few good biographies I have read:
- Titan - The life of J.D. Rockefeller by Ron Chernow
- Mornings on horseback (Theodore Roosevelt) by David McCullough
- King of the world (Muhammad Ali) by David Remnick

[Kafka's Crow]

Augustine is considered the main voice of the tradition.

As such, this is one genre where the whole "transcendence" bit is rather difficult, since biographies only are really interesting to those interested in the people's biographies. As such, one of my professor's book on Emperor Wuze Tian of China to me is a fantastic read; sex, politics, and ruthlessness, but to others it is perhaps dry (and impossible to get a hold of). Likewise, Augustine to me is a snore.

The only way with this genre, I think, is to just look for personalities that interest you; there are a few fun ones, of course, here is what in my university the undergrad biography course reads, as an idea:

Julian Barnes, Flaubert's Parrot; William Burroughs, Junky; Gerald Durrell, My Family and Other Animals; Sigmund Freud, Leonardo da Vinci; and William Godwin, Memoirs of the Author of ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.’


As well as 18th century works like Johnson and Walton. But there we have it; not to interesting to people outside of that tradition; if looking at transcendence then it is more difficult.

To me, the problem I think is in the genre; either the book is made to sell, so sexed up, or made to be informative, so boring. There is the subsequent genre of "pseudo-biography" which is more political, such as Jung Chang's Mao: the Unknown Story, which is essentially a deliberate fabrication to support American political ideals, and sell the most copies, but those are rare. Nobody, for instance, is going to particularly enjoy a 1500 page tomb on Richard Nixon; his life, albeit important, is not that interesting.

I read St Augustine's 'Confessions' recently and found it very interesting. I had read excerpts from it while studying Shakespeare, Milton, Eliot and Beckett for over two decades and reading the whole thing was a pleasure because it kept on bringing back the days of my youth when I grappled with above writers.

[kfan]

The Education of Henry Adams is a masterpiece of autobiography that could easily be described as transcendent. It is not only a history but a literary work of art.

kfan

[JBI]

I read St Augustine's 'Confessions' recently and found it very interesting. I had read excerpts from it while studying Shakespeare, Milton, Eliot and Beckett for over two decades and reading the whole thing was a pleasure because it kept on bringing back the days of my youth when I grappled with above writers.

As I said, to each their own. I have yet to be able to make it beyond 50 pages; each time I try I just get bored.

[bounty]

wokeem let me know if youre a fan at all of boxing and/or baseball. ive read some wonderful sport biographies over the yrs.