Best Biographies
Last updated: October 07, 2025
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1
Hildegard of Bingen
by Fiona Maddocks -
2
Arnold Schoenberg
by Charles Rosen -
3
Benjamin Britten: A Life in the Twentieth Century
by Paul Kildea -
4
Elisabeth Lutyens and Edward Clark: The Orchestration of Progress in British Twentieth-Century Music
by Annika Forkert -
5
Becoming Ella Fitzgerald: The Jazz Singer Who Transformed American Song
by Judith Tick
The Best Music Biographies, recommended by Andrew Ford
The Best Music Biographies, recommended by Andrew Ford
Biographies of musicians are a good way to learn more about music without getting too technical, argues musicologist and composer Andrew Ford, author of the brilliant Shortest History of Music. He chooses five of his favorite music biographies, books that set “a life in the context of the times and a musical life in the context of the music.”
Five of the Best U.S. Political Biographies, recommended by William Cooper
Biographers create character studies of fascinating people, through which we might insight into the historical context and the systems these individuals functioned within. Here, journalist and attorney William Cooper recommends five U.S. political biographies and memoirs that allow readers special access to the rooms where American decision-making takes place.
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1
Bits and Pieces
by Whoopi Goldberg -
2
Bitter Crop: The Heartache and Triumph of Billie Holiday's Last Year
by Paul Alexander -
3
John Lewis: A Life
by David Greenberg -
4
Profiles in Mental Health Courage
by Patrick J. Kennedy & Stephen Fried -
5
3 Shades of Blue: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, and the Lost Empire of Cool
by James Kaplan -
6
What I Ate in One Year
by Stanley Tucci
The Best Biography & Memoir Audiobooks of 2024, recommended by AudioFile Editors
The Best Biography & Memoir Audiobooks of 2024, recommended by AudioFile Editors
From Whoopi Goldberg telling you the story of her life to the biography of a civil rights icon, from the lives of three jazz greats and Billie Holiday’s last year to what Stanley Tucci ate in a year, AudioFile magazine’s best biography and memoir audiobooks of 2024.
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1
I Would Meet You Anywhere: A Memoir
by Susan Kiyo Ito -
2
Secret Harvests: A Hidden Story of Separation and the Resilience of a Family Farm
by David Mas Masumoto -
3
Rotten Evidence: Reading and Writing in an Egyptian Prison
by Ahmed Naji, translated by Katharine Halls -
4
How to Say Babylon: A Memoir
by Safiya Sinclair -
5
Story of a Poem: A Memoir
by Matthew Zapruder
The Best Memoirs: The 2024 NBCC Autobiography Shortlist, recommended by May-lee Chai
The Best Memoirs: The 2024 NBCC Autobiography Shortlist, recommended by May-lee Chai
It's been a “phenomenal” year for autobiographical writing, says May-lee Chai—the award-winning author and chair of the judges for this year's National Book Critics Circle prize for autobiography. Here she offers us a tour of the five memoirs that made their 2024 shortlist.
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1
G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century
by Beverly Gage -
2
The Grimkés: The Legacy of Slavery in an American Family
by Kerri K. Greenidge -
3
Mr. B: George Balanchine’s Twentieth Century
by Jennifer Homans -
4
Metaphysical Animals: How Four Women Brought Philosophy Back to Life
by Clare Mac Cumhaill & Rachael Wiseman -
5
Up from the Depths: Herman Melville, Lewis Mumford, and Rediscovery in Dark Times
by Aaron Sachs
The Best Biographies of 2023: The National Book Critics Circle Shortlist, recommended by Elizabeth Taylor
The Best Biographies of 2023: The National Book Critics Circle Shortlist, recommended by Elizabeth Taylor
Talented biographers examine the interplay between individual qualities and greater social forces, explains Elizabeth Taylor—chair of the judges for the 2023 National Book Critics Circle award for biography. Here, she offers us an overview of their five-book shortlist, including a garlanded account of the life of J. Edgar Hoover and a group biography of post-war female philosophers.
Notable Memoirs of 2023, recommended by Cal Flyn
Five Books deputy editor Cal Flyn selects the best recent autobiographical writing in this round-up of notable memoirs of 2023—taking in new work from such literary giants as Janet Malcolm and Annie Ernaux, the writer other writers are raving about, and a humorous debut depicting life in a haunted antiquarian bookshop.
The Best Literary Biographies, recommended by Lyndall Gordon
The inner life is a mystery but the best biographies expose the hidden kernel of a person, says literary biographer and academic, Lyndall Gordon. She picks five books that push the boundaries of the genre.
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1
All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days: The True Story of the Woman at the Heart of the German Resistance to Hitler
by Rebecca Donner -
2
The Last King of America: The Misunderstood Reign of George III
by Andrew Roberts -
3
Burning Boy: The Life and Work of Stephen Crane
by Paul Auster -
4
The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World
by Jonathan Freedland -
5
Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne
by Katherine Rundell -
6
Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist's Memoir of the Jim Crow South
by Winfred Rembert
Award Winning Biographies of 2022, recommended by Sophie Roell
Award Winning Biographies of 2022, recommended by Sophie Roell
In telling stories of lives that are often very different from our own and yet connected to us by our common humanity, biographies are some of the most compelling nonfiction books around. Five Books editor Sophie Roell rounds up some of the biographies that have won or been shortlisted for prizes in 2022.
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1
A Little Devil in America: Notes In Praise Of Black Performance
by Hanif Abdurraqib -
2
Gay Bar: Why We Went Out
by Jeremy Atherton Lin -
3
A Farewell to Gabo and Mercedes: A Son's Memoir of Gabriel García Márquez and Mercedes Barcha
by Rodrigo Garcia -
4
A Ghost in the Throat
by Doireann Ní Ghríofa -
5
Concepcion: An Immigrant Family’s Fortunes
by Albert Samaha
The Best Memoirs: The 2022 NBCC Autobiography Shortlist, recommended by Marion Winik
The Best Memoirs: The 2022 NBCC Autobiography Shortlist, recommended by Marion Winik
Autobiography is evolving; increasingly we find the field dominated by 'genre-fluid' books that plait memoir together with strands of cultural criticism, history, journalism or even poetry. Here, Marion Winik, the memoirist and critic, talks us through the five books that have been shortlisted in the National Book Critic's Circle autobiography category—and describes the face of memoir in 2022.
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1
Stranger in the Shogun's City: A Japanese Woman and Her World
by Amy Stanley -
2
The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard Keynes
by Zachary D. Carter -
3
The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X
by Les Payne & Tamara Payne -
4
Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath
by Heather Clark -
5
The Equivalents: A Story of Art, Female Friendship, and Liberation in the 1960s
by Maggie Doherty
The Best Biographies: the 2021 NBCC Shortlist, recommended by Elizabeth Taylor
The Best Biographies: the 2021 NBCC Shortlist, recommended by Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor, the author, critic and chair of the National Book Critics’ Circle biography committee, discusses their 2021 shortlist for the title of the best biography—including a revelatory new book about the life of Malcolm X, a group biography of artists in the 1960s, and a book built from a cache of letters written in Japan’s shogun era.