Let's get a biography thread going! What are the best biographies and who are the best biographers?
I'm currently looking for a biography of Toussaint Louverture. Would appreciate any recommendations.
Taking some liberty with the genre classification, you may want to check George, Nicholas and Wilhelm: Three Royal Cousins and the Road to World War I, by Miranda Carter
"Olivar Asselin" and "Colette" are the only biographies I have ever read.
One is about a french canadian journalist who, despte his quite advanced age and statut as a french canadian surrounded by englishmen, still rolled with it and fought on WW1. He was one of the few french canadian to actively participate in the war and most likely the reason frenchies got out of the british Commonwealth.
The other is an european author, who wrote a popular novel serie, starring Claudine, a young student who likes gay inuendos. What's interesting here is that Colette had a famous mentor for a husband, who took most of the praise though. Colette was bisexual too kek.
Plutarch
>>7630050
Plutarch and the Gospel of Matthew.
Marquez's General in his Labyrinth on the life of Bolivar
Heinz Guderian "Panzer Leader"
Memoirs of Hadrian and I, Claudius if you like a narrative or fiction bent.
The Truth About Muhammad- Founder of the World's Most Intolerant Religion is a well researched but clearly biased biography that got the author banned from the UK for a bit.
The Killing of Crazy Horse
Napoleon the Great by Andrew Roberts.
It's one of my favorite history books, and probably the best biography l've ever read.
>>7630050
Truman, McCullough. Unprecedented detail about the man who dropped the bomb
>>7630050
CLR James' Black Jacobins is not a biography but worth the read, OP if you like non-fiction. Brilliant work, in my arrogant opinion senpai.
Garibaldi's "My Life" is a great read.
>>7630578
>tfw you got the wrong Napoleon biography by Andrew Roberts
>>7632156
What's bad about this one?
>>7630585
David McCullough is outstanding, as is Doris Kearns Goodwin.
>>7632179
No idea actually. It's on my to be read list. I just know it came out before Napoleon the Great. Not that that means it's out of date, though. One year shouldn't mean too much when it comes to a figure as old as Napoleon.
>>7630050
Just marathoned the first sentence of Life of Anthony by Athanasius. What did I think of it?
Peter the Great: His Life and World by Robert K. Massie is a personal favorite. I've also heard great things about the rest of his Romanov bios.
Also, The Last Lion volumes are pretty awesome, about Churchill.
Can anybody rec a good biography of Stalin?
>>7632251
In the Court of the Red Tsar by Simon Sebag Montefiore is excellent.
His "biography" of Jerusalem is really good too, in that he frames the book as a traditional biography. His family are elite English Jews who were were very responsible for early zionism, and he fully discloses this and frankly seems to feel a good deal of self loathing about it.
>>7632251
kotkin
>>7632286
http://bookzz.org/book/1246907/b5c4fd
epub
>>7632286
dont do this montefoire is pop history
read kotkin
>>7632291
do a quick search of EDU sites with the name of that book, and you will find plenty of syllabi with it present. I would agree that it is not a highly sophisticated source analysis for a post-grad history seminar, but it is certainly a serviceable and respectable biography
>>7630050
Madison Smartt Bell.
Then read his trilogy of novels about the Haitian Revolution
Is this any good?
I'm looking for something like this, but I'm not that into dude old money, mescaline n firearms lmao.
I like Burroughs but want something that's more on the technical side. Like Lewis Porter's bio on Coltrane.
>>7630578
His biography on Lord Salisbury is also excellent.
Anyone have a good suggestion on Beethoven? I've read a few Mozart biographies, including his letters, and would like to see how the two compare.
The American Prometheus is a excellent bio, would recommend if you are interested in physics or the atomic bomb.Oppenheimer went from being well respected for his work on the bomb, to being labelled a communist and his name ruined
>>7632467
this is the best Burroughs bio by far. Literary Outlaw is terrible precisely because "dude old money, mescaline n firearms lmao", plus "magic lol! Burroughs might have been magic who knows!" Call Me Burroughs is Burroughs' life, Miles maintains distance from his subject, and it is as exhaustive a bio as I have read, without any irrelevant tangents.
>>7630050
>tfw the Haitian revolution was the worst thing to ever happen to it
I just started Endgame (bobby fischer) and about 100 pages in I am pretty hooked.
>>7632291
>biography
>pop history
can you have pop biographies? I mean I cant think of a bigger example of a popular biographer than David McCullough, and the guy is treasured by readers and academics alike.
>>7633635
Well, more narrative historical fiction, but you get the drift
>>7630666
Agreed. The Black Jacobins is a must-read.
>>7633057
Cooper, Barry (2008). Beethoven. Oxford University Press US. ISBN978-0-19-531331-4. Retrieved 15 April 2012.
best thread on /lit/ right now, have gotten like 7 solid books qued up
>>7633688
You best be pickin up the Modern Library Plutarch
>>7632291
Upon graduating the religious studies department gave me Jerusalem. I haven't finished it despite graduating 3 years ago, but it was good from what I read
>>7633716
I started with the Greeks way before it was a meme
>>7633752inb4 guns germs and steel, bought it when it was still relevant a decade ago
>>7633752
Does the Oxford Rome history cover the whole history? (Kingdom to fall of West)
>>7633810
Last essay is on Christianity's influence and the reign of Diocletian, which is suggested as the "end of antiquity" which I sort of disagree with, but then I do just read this stuff for fun.
Bumpin
>>7633568
Thanks m8. I leafed thru and it looked pretty good. I'll good back and take a closer look.
>>7633752
why do you treat your paperbacks so poorly?
>>7635706
I read them 10 times and throw them in backpacks/never been NEET.
>>7633752
nice pynchon
>>7630050
For information on historical non-fiction I really like to consult the Guide to Historical Literature. It's a publication of the American Historical Association and lists the better historical works roughly up to the year the Guide was published. Each entry has an annotation saying why the work is important. The Guide is divided by periods and geographically. Found at better libraries. Ask the librarian or check the catalog.
>>7635818
Check oxfordbibliographies.com
>>7632156
>>7632179
>>7632198
>tfw the hardcover of the newer text if fucking beautiful
>tfw $200
I genuinely have no idea what the fuck the difference is between "A Life" and "The Great"
What could possibly have cropped up between 2014 and 2015 to warrant a whole new text on Napoleon?
>>7635884
That is beautiful
>>7635884
>I genuinely have no idea what the fuck the difference is between "A Life" and "The Great"
From what I can see The Great is somehow updated from A Life. Though on amazon the first chapter seems exactly the same from what I can see. Maybe ones EU ones US?
>>7635884
>tfw no qtB Napolaboo book
>>7635788
silly wagecuck. what a foolish thing to do, ruining all those books.
my paperbacks are pristine, even ones I've read three or four times retain their "just off the shelf" luster.
>>7635916
Pathetic frogposter but on topic I also throw my books down open to keep the page when I'm busy and on my nightstand.
>>7635907
"A Life" is 140 pages longer than its successor, according to amazon. You may be right about the international version; "Life" was printed in the US, "Great" in the UK.
Really frustrating. I've heard "Life" is THE Napoleon bio to get, and god damn does that white hardcover look beautiful, but I'd feel like an idiot to discover they're the same book.
>>7635939
40% of A Life is references so maybe they just cut down on the for the localisation, I have no idea desu maybe I'll email him
>>7635952
What do you mean by references? Like footnotes?
>>7635958
I checked and I over exaggerated a little; from 68-88% of the book is notes like pic related, then from there onward its annotated bibliography. Whether the hard copy is the same I don't know, ask >>7632156
>>7635952
Refer him to thread pls.
>>7635974
Notes kick in at page 810. Pic shows remaining pages. I really hate that my copy of this book has a misprint inf with that one page corner that didn't get cut to proper size.
>>7636020
Found something. The amazon.com listing for "Great" says 832 pages, but the amazon.co.uk listing says 976 pages, exactly the same number as "A Life."
I have no idea why the amazon.com listing says what it does, but this is pointing more and more to them being the same book.
Bummer about that page though!
>>7636037
I still want that qtB hardback
fuckin cmon
>>7630050
My favorite biography has to be T. Harry Williams' one on Huey Long. Which is an absolute treat to read, even if it is almost a 1000 pages long. It really does make you understand how upset the political situation could have become in America during the 1920s and 30s.
Anyone read this? I saw it in B&N the other day and considered it.
I like Phillip short's biographies personally. Mao was exceptional
>>7636066
I don't know whats up with Amazon, a book my dad wrote is on sale there for a 'minimum' $2000. When he sells it for $15 from his store
>>7632243
Peter the Great: His Life and World is excellent, definitely worth the long read.
>>7636059
Yeah I totally agree. $150+ markup over the american version, but damn does it look pretty.
>>7632156
I thought it was the same book, simply retitled?
>>7636092
the sequel was better imo
>>7636206
>he didn't read the thread
You would have been very helpful 2 hours ago m8
>>7636218
no, i didn't, my bad.
>>7632156
>>7632179
>>7635884
>>7635907
I'm the guy who first posted about the book up-thread, they're the exact same book. The Great just cuts down some of the fat like notes and such and is a bit more expensive.
Whwn l bought it around March of last year, A Life was 45 Euro-dollars, while the Great was 51, l think.
>>7635884
tfw too poor to buy that ....mérde
The only good biographies are the auto-kind. Reading Jefferson's now.
>>7636721
>I prefer unreliable narrators in my nonfiction
>>7636984
>I prefer to read someone else's words on the subject instead of their own
>>7636099
hey jackson
