Great Autobiographies.

[Mr. Pedantic]

I love to read autobiographies. There's just something about someone shooting their mouth off about their life without having to worry too much the about consequences because their career is largely over that I love. I haven't picked up President Bush's, yet. Although, I'm not entirely sure if I want to. I hear he keeps it safe and doesn't reveal anything too shocking. One of buddies who actually likes the man (imagine that) thought it was dull. I did, however, enjoy "Richard Nixon on Richard Nixon". Mark Twain's autobiography is also a personal favorite of mine.

What are some other great autobiographies by great men and women?

[dfloyd]

It would be a waste of time I believe. Some good bigraphies/autobiographies are Franklin's Autobiography and The Life of Benvenuto Cellini. Both are excellent. Nancy Mitford's biography of Louis XIV, The Sun King, is also good. Marie Antoinette's biography written a few years ago by .... I can't remember her name .... the widow of the great playwriter whom I can't remember either. There are a lot of biographies about French revolution luminaries. Mark Twain's new autobiography I want to read. It was witheld untill 100 years after his death so it is new and just published this year.

Just remember, Bush says waterboarding is not torture. He says he knows because he asked an attorney.

[Seasider]

On the whole I don't read autobiographies because of the inevitable lack of objectivity on the author's part. If you want to read famous people's reflections on their own lives, journals, diaries and letters are better choices.One autobiography I did like was Vera Brittain's book Testament of Youth written about her experience of WW1. Stephen Fry's latest self-centred offering is, to my mind, tedious, condescending and boring in equal measures, whereas any of Simon Gray's memoirs, especially The Last Cigarette is entertaining, funny and, unflinchingly,warts and all.
Of all the biographies I have read and they are legion, Philip Ziegler's biography of Earl Mountbatten stands out as does Bernard Crick's biography of Orwell and Hermione Lee's biography of Virginia Woolf. But I wouldn't read a biography, however famous the subject and however celebrated the writer if I had no interest in the biographee.

[Patrick_Bateman]

Malcolm X

[Syd A]

Albert Jay Nock's Memoirs of a Superfluous Man is not exactly an autobiography, but it's close enough, and it's fantastic.

[Tallon]

Clive James - Always Unreliable
Stephen Fry - Moab Is My Washpot

Two very charming, funny and witty men, and their books reflect that perfectly.

[Uberzensch]

Malcolm X

Absolutely! A life-changing book. One of the most honest accounts I've read of a man trying to figure out the world and changing his positions along the way.

I'd also highly recommend Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Confessions. Breathtaking. And the model for modern autobiographies.

[goatlips]

I recommend Alan Bennet's two books of memoirs and autobiography: Writing Home and Untold Stories.

[The Atheist]

The Greatest, Muhammad Ali.

[stlukesguild]

Goethe's autobiographical works, including Italian Journey and From My Life: Poetry and Truth, James Boswell's Journals, Rousseau's Confessions, de Quincy's Confessions of an English Opium Eater, St. Augustine's Confessions, Nadezhda Mandelstam's Hope against Hope...

[litera9]

Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom
It's a fascinating look at a very important man.

[Pecksie]

I'm surprised no one's mentioned Casanova's memoirs...

William Godwin's short biography of his deceased wife Mary Wollstonecraft is very candid and moving --- but it earned him (and her) lasting hatred and contempt because of the frank way in which he described his wife's previous affairs.