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THE LIST (m/v = multi-volume set) 1. Jonathan Eig, Ali: A Life 3:42 2. Mark Leopold, Idi Amin 4:27 3. John Eliot Gardiner, Bach 5:24 4. Roland H. Bainton, Here I Stand: Martin Luther 6:56 5. James Knowlson, Damned to Fame: Samuel Beckett 7:16 6. Jan Swafford, Beethoven 8:09 7. Robert M. Utley, Billy the Kid 8:29 8. Marie Arana, Bolivar 9:16 9. David J. Shal, Something in the Blood: Bram Stoker 9:45 10. Serge Bramly, Leonardo 10:32 11. Juliet Barker, The Brontës 11:04 12. Leslie A. Marchand, Byron (m/v) 11:47 13. Robert K. Massie, Catherine the Great 13:11 14. Ronald Hutton, Charles II 14:13 15. John Gardner, The Life and Times of Chaucer 15:04 16. Brad Gooch, City Poet: Frank O’Hara 15:40 17. Elaine Showalter, The Civil Wars of Julia Ward Howe 17:25 18. Stacy Schiff, Cleopatra 17:52 19. Natalie Dykstra, Clover Adams 18:51 20. Michael Schuman, Confucius 19:33 21. J.C. Beaglehole, Life of Captain James Cook 20:09 22. Diarmaid MacCulloch, Thomas Cromwell 20:51 23. Robert Dallek, Franklin D. Roosevelt 22:10 24. Irving Stone, Clarence Darrow for the Defense 23:22 25. Janet Browne, Charles Darwin (m/v) 24:40 26. Leonard S. Marcus, Dear Genius: Letter of Ursula Nordstrom 25:53 27. Paula Backscheider, Daniel Defoe 27:02 28. Julian Jackson, A Certain Idea of France: Charles du Gaulle 28:18 29. Peter Ackroyd, Dickens 29:39 30. Andrew S. Curran, Diderot 30:24 31. Jonathan Dimbleby, Richard Dimbleby 31:36 32. Joseph Frank, Dostoyevsky (m/v) 32:47 33. David W. Blight, Frederick Douglass 33:21 34. James Winn, John Dryden and his World 34:21 35. Edward Mendelson, Auden (m/v) 35:06 36. Arthur D. Kahn, The Education of Julius Caesar 36:17 37. Philip Magnus, King Edward the Seventh 37:02 38. Jurgen Neffe, Einstein 38:08 39. Marion Meade, Eleanor of Aquitaine 39:20 40. Robert Crawford, Eliot (m/v) 39:56 41. Robert D. Richardson, Emerson (m/v) 42. Ali A. Allawi, Faisal I of Iraq 41:21 43. P.N. Furbank, E.M. Forster 42:22 44. Robert B. Asprey, Frederick the Great 43:10 45. Ramachandra Guha, Gandhi (m/v) 44:00 46. Norman Sherry, The Life of Graham Greene (m/v) 44:41 47. Robert A. Hendrickson, Hamilton (m/v) 45:53 48. Brenda Wineapple, Hawthorne 46:31 49. Carlos Baker, Ernest Hemingway 47:42 50. W.L. Warren, Henry II 48:29 51. Francis Hackett, Henry the Eighth 49:37 52. Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs 50:18 53. Robert A. Caro, Lyndon Johnson (m/v) 52:19 54. W. Jackson Bate, Samuel Johnson 53:55 55. Richard Ellmann, James Joyce 53:42 56. Reiner Stach, Kafka (m/v) 55:14 57. Theodore C. Sorrensen, Kennedy 56:02 58. William Taubman, Khrushchev 57:21 59. Ben Bradlee, jr., The Kid: Ted Williams 58:58 60. William Manchester, Winston Churchill (m/v) 1:00:06 61. Gerald Gunther, Learned Hand 1:01:36 62. Roy Blount, jr., Robert E. Lee 1:02:31 63. Jeffrey C. Stewart, The New Negro: Alain Locke 1:03:14 64. T. Harry Williams, Huey Long 1:04:20 65. Carol Bundy, The Nature of Sacrifice: Charles Russel Lowell, jr. 1:05:13 66. Peter Rob, M: The Man Who Became Caravaggio 1:06:11 67. Sebastian de Grazin, Machiavelli in Hell 1:07:00 68. David Teems, Majestie: King James I/VI 1:08:04 69. Jung Chang & Jon Halliday, Mao 1:09:13 70. Frank McLynn, Marcus Aurelius 1:10:33 71. Susan Quinn, Marie Curie 1:11:40 72. Antonia Fraser, Mary Queen of Scots 1:13:18 73. Hershel Parker, Herman Melville (m/v) 1:13:36 74. Langdon Hammer, James Merrill 1:14:21 75. Edmund Morris, Theodore Roosevelt (m/v) 1:15:11 76. Louisa Hall Tharp, Mrs Jack: Isabella Stewart Gardner 1:16:11 77. Mary Renault, The Nature of Alexander 1:17:19 78. Gale E. Christianson, In the Presence of the Creator: Isaac Newton 1:18:57 79. Richard Zenith, Pessoa 1:19:37 80. John Richardson, A Life of Picasso (m/v) 1:20:48 81. Kenneth Silverman, Edgar A. Poe 1:21:42 82. Peter Hebblethwaite, Pope John XXIII 1:22:37 83. Caroline Fraser, Prairie Fires: Laura Ingalls Wilder 1:24:15 84. John E. Mack, A Prince of Our Disorder: T.E. Lawrence 1:24:47 85. Paula Byrne, The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym 1:26:10 86. Jack Beatty, The Rascal King: James Michael Curley 1:27:02 87. Heather Clark, Red Comet: Sylvia Plath 1:29:48 88. Esther Forbes, Paul Revere 1:30:28 89. Bartholomew Sparrow, The Strategist: Brent Scowcroft 1:31:27 90. Frances Kiernan, Seeing Mary Plain: Mary McCarthy 1:33:38 91. Ryszard Kapuscinski, Shah of Shahs: Mohammad Reza Pahlavi 1:34:16 92. Richard Holmes, Shelley: The Pursuit 1:35:19 93. Mary S. Lovell, The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family 1:35:55 94. Evan S. Connell, Son of the Morning Star: Custer and the Little Big Horn 1:37:13 95. Allan W. Eckert, A Sorrow in our Heart: The Life of Tecumseh 1:38:33 96. Stephen Kotkin, Stalin (m/v) 1:40:28 97. Victoria Wilson, Barbara Stanwyck 1:41:39 98. Jackson J. Benson, John Steinbeck, Writer 1:42:32 99. Angus Wilson, The Strange Ride of Rudyard Kipling 1:43:29 100. Leo Damrosh, Jonathan Swift 1:44:07 101. Charles Moore, Margaret Thatcher (m/v) 1:44:44 102. Juan Williams, Thurgood Marshall 1:45:52 103. Ron Powers, Mark Twain 1:46:47 104. Steven Naifeh & Gregory White Smith, Van Gogh 1:47:59 105. James Thomas Flenner, Washington (m/v) 1:49:44 106. Simon Callow, Orson Welles (m/v) 1:50:30 107. Elizabeth Longford, Wellington (m/v) 1:52:01 108. Hermione Lee, Edith Wharton 1:53:04 109. Justin Kaplan, Walt Whitman 1:54:01 110. Bruce Allen Murphy, Wild Bill: William O. Douglas 1:54:54 111. John C.G. Röhl, Kaiser Wilhelm II (m/v) 1:57:14 112. Philip Ziegler, King William IV 1:58:38 113. Viviane Forrester, Virginia Woolf 1:59:38 114. Nancy Milford, Zelda Fritzgerald 2:00:36
114 sayings in the Gospel of Thomas 114 surahs in the Quran 114 bio rec's from Steve ! "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us..." John 1:14 411 is directory assistance, the information, the hook-up 114/411 interesting # ...
I compiled these into a list. Here they are with rough time stamps - sorry for any mistakes 3:42 Jonathan Eig - [Muhammad] Ali: A Life 4:26 Mark Leopold - Idi Amin The Story of Africa's Icon of Evil 5:24 John Eliot Gardiner - Bach Music in The Castle of Heaven 6:57 Roland Baiton - Here I Stand A Life of Martin Luther 7:11 James Knowlson - Damned to Fame The Life of Samuel Beckett 8:10 Jan Swafford - Beethoven Anguish and Triumph 8:30 Robert Utley - Billy The Kid 9:20 Marie Arana - Bolivar American Liberator 9:50 David J Skal - Something In The Blood [Bram Stoker] 10:30 Serge Bramly - Leonardo The Artist and The Man 11:15 Juliet Barker - The Brontes 11:50 Leslie A Marchand - [Lord] Byron A Portrait 13:10 Robert K Massie - Catherine The Great Portrait of A Woman 14:25 Ronald Hutton - Charles II King of England, Scotland, and Ireland 15:10 John Gardner - The Life and Times of Chaucer 15:49 Brad Gooch - City Poet The Life and Times of Frank O'Hara 17:25 Elaine Showalter - The Civil Wars of Julia Ward Howe 17:55 Stacy Schiff - Cleopatra A Life 18:55 Natalie Dykstra - Clover Adams A Gilded and Heartbreaking Life 19:50 Michael Schuman - Confucius And The World He Created 20:10 J.C. BeagleHole - The Life of Captain James Cook 20:51 Diarmaid MacCulloch - Thomas Cromwell A Life 22:50 Robert Dallek - Franklin D. Roosevelt A Political Life 23:50 Irving Stone - Clarence Darrow For the Defense 24:50 Janet Browne - Charles Darwin Voyaging 25:50 Leonard S. Marcus - Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom 27:30 Paula R. Backscheider - Daniel Defoe His Life 28:00 Julian Jackson - A Certain Idea of France A Life of Charles De Gaulle 29:40 Peter Ackroyd - [Charles] Dickens 31:01 Andrew S Curran - Diderot The Art of Thinking Freely 31:40 Jonathan Dimbleby - Richard Dimbleby A Biography 33:00 Joseph Frank - Dostoevsky A Writer In His Time 33:45 David W Blight - Frederick Douglass Prophet of Freedom 34:25 James Anderson Winn - John Dryden and His World 35:10 Edward Mendelson - Early Auden, Later Auden 36:20 Arthur D Kahn - The Education of Julius Caesar A Biography A Reconstruction 37:20 Philip Magnus - King Edward The Seventh 38:10 Jurgen Neffe - Einstein A Biography 39:20 Marion Meade - Eleanor of Aquitaine A Biography 39:55 Robert Crawford - Young Eliot , Eliot After The Waste Land 40:40 Robert D Richardson Jr - Emerson The Mind On Fire 41:30 Ali A. Allawi - Faisal I Of Iraq 42:30 P N Furbank - E M Forster A Life 43:20 Robert B Asprey - Frederick The Great The Magnificent Enigma 44:00 Ramachandra Guha - Gandhi The Years that Changed The World 1915-1948 45:00 Norman Sherry - The Life of Graham Greene 46:00 Robert Hendrickson - Hamilton I, Hamilton II 46:30 Brenda Wineapple - Hawthorne A Life 47:50 Carlos Baker - Ernest Hemingway A Life Story 48:30 W L Warren - Henry II 49:40 Francis Hackett - The Personal History of Henry The Eighth 50:25 Walter Isaacson - Steve Jobs 52:20 Robert A Caro - The Years of Lyndon Johnson 54:07 W Jackson Bate - Samuel Johnson 54:50 Richard Ellmann - James Joyce 55:10 Reiner Stach - Kafka 56:30 Theodore C. Sorensen - Kennedy 57:30 William Taubman - Khrushchev The Man and His Era 59:20 Ben Bradlee Jr - The Kid The Immortal Life of Ted Williams 1:00:30 William Manchester - The Last Lion [Churchill] 1:01:35 Gerald Gunther - Learned Hand The Man and the Judge 1:02:50 Roy Blount, Jr. - Robert E Lee 1:03:20 Jeffrey C Stewart - The New Negro The Life of Alain Locke 1:04:30 T Harry Williams - Huey Long 1:05:28 Carol Bundy - The Nature of Sacrifice [Charles Russell Lowell Jr] 1:06:10 Peter Robb - M The Man Who Became Caravaggio 1:07:10 Sebastian De Grazia - Machiavelli In Hell 1:08:07 David Teems - Majestie The King Behind The King James Bible 1:09:34 Jon Halliday , Jung Chang - Mao 1:10:40 Frank McLynn - Marcus Aurelius Warrior Philosopher Emperor 1:11:45 Susan Quinn - Marie Curie 1:13:10 Antonia Fraser - Mary Queen of Scots 1:13:45 Hershel Parker - Herman Melville 1:14:35 Langdon Hammer - James Merrill Life and Art 1:15:15 Edmund Morris - Colonel Roosevelt 1:16:15 Louise Hall Tharp - Mrs. Jack A Biography of Isabella Stewart Gardner 1:17:35 Mary Renault - The Nature of Alexander 1:19:00 Gale E Christianson - In The Presence of the Creator Isaac Newton His Times 1:20:00 Richard Zenith - Pessoa 1:21:00 John Richardson - A Life of Picasso 1:21:40 Kenneth Silverman - Edgar A Poe A Biography 1:22:45 Peter Hebblethwaite - Pope John XXIII Shepherd of the Modern World 1:24:10 Caroline Fraser - Prairie Fires The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder 1:25:30 John E Mack - A Prince of Our Disorder The Life of T E Lawrence 1:26:15 Paula Byrne - The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym 1:27:10 Jack Beatty - The Rascal King The Life and Times of James Michael Curley 1:29:50 Heather Clark - Red Comet The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath 1:30:40 Esther Forbes - Paul Revere and The World He Lived In 1:32:10 Bartholomew Sparrow - The Strategist Brent Scowcroft and The Call of National Security 1:33:40 Frances Kiernan - Seeing Mary Plain A Life of Mary McCarthy 1:34:46 Ryszard Kapuscinski - Shah Of Shahs 1:35:20 Richard Holmes - Shelley The Pursuit 1:36:15 Mary S Lovell - The Sisters The Saga of the Mitford Family 1:37:25 Evan S Connell - Son Of the Morning Star Custer and the Little Bighorn 1:38:35 Allan W Eckert - A Sorrow In Our Heart The Life of Tecumseh 1:40:50 Stephen Kotkin - Stalin 1:41:43 Victoria Wilson - A Life of Barbara Stanwyck 1:42:38 Jackson J. Benson - John Steinbeck Writer A Biography 1:43:42 Angus Wilson - The Strange Ride of Rudyard Kipling 1:44:10 Leo Damrosch - Jonathan Swift His Life & His World 1:45:10 Charles Moore - Margaret Thatcher 1:45:55 Juan Williams - Thurgood Marshall American Revolutionary 1:46:50 Ron Powers - Mark Twain 1:48:05 Gregory White Smith , Steven Naifeh - Van Gogh The Life 1:50:00 James Thomas Flexner - Washington The Indispensable Man 1:50:40 Simon Callow - Orson Welles Hello Americans 1:52:40 Elizabeth Longford - Wellington 1:53:09 Hermione Lee - Edith Wharton 1:54:03 Justin Kaplan - Whitman 1:55:10 Bruce Allen Murphy - Wild Bill The Legend and Life of William O Douglas 1:57:20 John C G Rohl - Kaiser Wilhelm II 1:59:15 Philip Ziegler - King William IV 1:59:40 Viviane Forrester - Virginia Woolf A Portrait 2:00:48 Nancy Milford - Zelda
Well now I have to grab my Pinot Grigio and popcorn and settle in with a notebook!!! So looking forward to this. I love biographies and I know there will be some great recommendations in here to add to my list.
I haven't sorted out the problem at all - RU-vid still effectively isn't playing on my MacBook - but I quickly realized that as long as the rest of you can watch these videos, I should keep making them -
@@saintdonoghue well, thanks for that Steve, it is a pain though, especially as you have paid. It's a wonderful video, which I will watch properly tomorrow afternoon. I go to a German lesson in the morning, but will be home by 12.00.
@@saintdonoghueRU-vid has been waging war on adblockers recently - my laptop wasn't playing videos until I disabled one particular adblocker. Could it be that?
Thank you so much for this video I could only imagine how many biographies have been published Just in my lifetime let alone every biography ever published so this makes it a little less stressful picking a good one
My favourite biographies so far have been Red Comet, the Heather Clark biography of Sylvia Plath (glad it made your list - I've read it 3 times!), the Andrew Wilson biography of Patricia Highsmith, and Martin Stannard's Muriel Spark one. I also have a soft spot for BItter Fame, the Anne Stevenson one of Plath despite its many flaws, as that is such a good read, and Plath makes for such a juicy unhinged character. I am delighted to know I have the Early Auden and Later Auden one on my shelf to read already
Thanks very much for all these recommendations, Steve. I have only read the impressive "Cleopatra" by Stacy Schiff, but I took plenty notes and hope to read a few of these other biographies.
[the following notes were taken, listening to your video, while, sadly, unpacking my books from boxes during a failed attempt to move out east from the desert] I'm not surprised you don't like Joyce or Beckett (though I love both) since you tend to be uninterested in Modernist prose fiction; but I am surprised you don't like Edna O'Brien (who I love) who is very much in the vein of Modernist prose methodology, but whose storytelling inclinations tend towards tendencies in traits trending through your own tastes. As for King James, I have been looking for something about him for quite some time and will keep an eye out for David Teems' book, though I'm not sure how one can be "irresponsibly fond of boys" or children in general. Am I the last person in the world to like children? They usually make my day at work. The way I discovered Machiavelli by the way is, as I have learned, very unorthodox: I loved Livy's histories and many years ago found Machiavelli through his "Discourses on Livy." Shortly after, while reading a history of modern philosophy, is when I first heard of "The Prince." I have never read any Antonia Fraser and really, really want to. As for Herschel Parker: his work is very important to me; and not just the work on Melville. The Pessoa biography: I have been very eager to read it since it came out, since I have (yes, sir,) read much Pessoa et. al. The same goes for the Barbara Pym biography. Your opinions on Picasso as an artist are insane, and I am relieved to know you can set your own insane opinions aside to enjoy a biography about that brilliant, visionary artist. I also loved Heather Clarke's book on Plath, by the way; it is my favorite book on Plath. Hermione Lee is among my favorite biographers, alongside Judith Thurman. But Lee I discovered through her book on Wharton, which I read during a big turn-around on my opinions of Wharton. I read some Wharton in my teens and didn't care much for the spotlight on the affluent, but have since revisited those works and read others and have seen more nuance, critque and satire than I previously had, and around the time of my Wharton revisit I read Lee's book on Wharton and loved it. One biography I have been looking forward to reading is a biography of Robertson Davies, a Canadian writer I really love. I once ordered as copy of the biography I am interested in and it was sent to a previous address of mine, and I still have not ordered a 2nd copy of it.
I just finished Defoe's Roxana a few weeks back and was wondering about a good biography of the author so your recommendation of Backscheider is timely. Thanks. A lot of these are nice for narrowing down which biography to read (or start with) among a large number of choices.
I have spent an enthusing afternoon watching the biography video. I have 24 of the mentioned biographies. Haven't I been paying attention to your videos? Why don't I have more? The ones I have are reading highlights though. Our largely unused TV has RU-vid on it so I watched on that, and it worked well because I could read titles and authors. One of my beefs with publishers is the number of dustjackets that either use fancy fonts that are illegible or obscure the name of the author. I filled three pages of my notebook with great suggestions. I do hope you do a follow up video/videos. Thank you do much for putting so much effort in getting this video together, it is very appreciated here. Off to watch today's chapter of Mark's gospel. I'm an atheist brought up in a fundamentalist home, nevertheless I am loving your read through.
Wow, that James Merrill biography looks good! I recently discovered his poetry and just ordered a big book of his letters. I think I’m interested in his life because he includes so many details of it in his poetry.
I have lots of these because you recommended them in other videos. The Hackett bio of Henry VIII was just such fun to read. I have to confess that the Captain Cook book defeated me. Perhaps i only wanted the book because i was beguiled by the name "Beaglehole." Thanks for doing this, Steve.
Somehow, not a letter on Napoleon, but a great list overall and i get depressed at the thought how much time and money it will cost to get and read these books.
Love the conversation & all the recs for great books! I keep a doc for all Steve recommendations, lot to add. In particular, very excited to read book on Edward Vlll, he's usually passed over and quite an interesting monarch. Apart from his numerous entanglements with many women, he was a progressive King. He had a strong social consciousness for that era & he had quite a correspondence with President Teddy Roosevelt. He and Roosevelt had a common interest in conservation. Also, speaking of Roosevelt, I haven't read any of Morris's tomes on Teddy Roosevelt, but will set aside some time to do so. I'm a big fan of TR & the progressive period in US politics.
Im just happen to be searching out a copy of the biography of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle by Hesketh Pearson. Lost my copy somewhere or other. It's great on his life story and in particular a Doctor he was in partnership who the character of Sherlock could be partly based on. Best wishes to you.
I personally witnessed Ted Williams being… what you said. Spent many hours in proximity with him in a non-public setting. I did, however, ask for and get his autograph.
Stefan Zweig bio of Balzac, Zweig bio of Marie Antoinette, Gregorio Maranon bio of Tiberius, and one you will ne'er heard of, the amazing bio by Ramon Diaz Sanchez of Antonio Leocadio Guzman...
I'm surprised you didn't give any mention of Kai Bird's American Prometheus about Oppenheimer, or even Miranda Carter's sweeping group biography on Nicholas II, George V and Wilhelm II, "The Three Emperors." Noteworthy biographies not to be missed, if you ask me. Caught the Harold Bloom reference when you said in passing, "school of resentment." Just can't let it go, can't you? 😂
BRAVO - and thank you for putting in that decade of research to compilate the list - LOL. Have you managed to find out what was wrong with your YT ? is it working properly again ? because you are not allowed to cancel your Booktube channel - we all vote against that
Hah! I haven't figured out the problem, no, but my emails and comments and Voxer messages have made it CRYSTAL clear that I'm not allowed to cancel my channel!
What a resource this is! I'm joining an Orwell read along this year, and keen for a biography, I haven't traditionally been a biography. I know you have thoughts. Please share.
@@saintdonoghue The gods of Serendipity put that book in my hands today! Before I saw your comment, although I checked goodreads whilst at the shop and found that you said I'd wish it would be longer. So I bought it. But I don't think I've ever wanted a book to be longer though!
Just outstanding. Only....PLEASE DON'T TEMPT THE GODS!! Robert Caro is not dead; he's still working on Vol 5 of his truly magnificent LBJ magnum opus. I wonder if you're confusing him with his longtime editor at Knopf, Robert Gottlieb, who died last year?
Well!! You happened to do 'Deep Reading' of this Autobiogrhaphies... OR Just Speed Reading.... I meant, I read one Auto - hence took the best out of it and went on.... Try learning deeply please, you can give best to the World
What a great video, waiting for part 2! I don’t read many biographies but I do have that biography of the Brontes and E.M. Forster on my shelves (the latter thanks to you), waiting to be read :) I’m so happy you praise Hermione Lee’s biography of Edith Wharton as I just bought it last year on vacation in a charity shop in Edinburgh, I love Wharton's work. I’ve been thinking of Zenith’s Pessoa book but the size has been scaring me... The Book of Disquiet is one of my favourite books. Writing down that Woolf biography!
Hands up for a Part 2, or multi-part, divided into sub-genres (“Lives of the Poets” anyone?). I missed hearing the author of the Bach biography conduct last year after he got fired for punching one of his singers - his is the only one of the 100 that I own and which I had considered myself likely to read.
