The Greatest Biography Books of All Time

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This list represents a comprehensive and trusted collection of the greatest books. Developed through a specialized algorithm, it brings together 759 'best of' book lists to form a definitive guide to the world's most acclaimed books. For those interested in how these books are chosen, additional details can be found on the rankings page.

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Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
165 The Autobiography of Malcolm X Alex Haley 1965 American English
237 The Double Helix James D. Watson 1968 American English
320 The Life of Samuel Johnson James Boswell 1791 British English
488 The Right Stuff Tom Wolfe 1979 American English
504 Roots Alex Haley 1976 American English
614 The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas Gertrude Stein 1933 American English
659 The Tipping Point Malcolm Gladwell 2000 American English
677 Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass 1845 American English
711 The Second World War Winston Churchill 1948 British English
719 Hiroshima John Hersey 1946 American English
737 Facundo Domingo Faustino Sarmiento 1845 Argentinian Spanish
740 Eminent Victorians Lytton Strachey 1918 British English
743 The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Rebecca Skloot 2010 American English
764 Wild Swans Jung Chang 1991 Chinese English
798 Parallel Lives Plutarch 100 Greek Greek
813 Reflections on the Revolution in France Edmund Burke 1790 British English
830 The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin 1791 American English
917 The Death and Life of Great American Cities Jane Jacobs 1961 American English
952 The Life of Charlotte Brontë Elizabeth Gaskell 1857 British English
963 The Power Broker Robert Caro 1974 American English
976 The Color of Water James McBride 1995 American English
984 The Worst Journey in the World Apsley Cherry-Garrard 1922 British English
1069 The Devil In The White City Erik Larson 2003 American English
1122 The Emperor of All Maladies Siddhartha Mukherjee 2010 American English
1148 Henry James Leon Edel 1953 American English
1230 Mein Kampf Adolf Hitler 1925 German German
1268 Profiles in Courage John F. Kennedy 1956 American English
1320 Team of Rivals Doris Kearns Goodwin 2005 American English
1331 Small Is Beautiful E. F. Schumacher 1973 British English
1398 Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Harriet Jacobs 1861 American English
1434 Lives of the Caesars Suetonius 121 Roman Latin
1434 Brief Lives John Aubrey 1898 British English
1452 Truman David McCullough 1992 American English
1469 A Distant Mirror Barbara Wertheim Tuchman 1978 American English
1508 Galileo Bertolt Brecht 1938 German German
1520 Rights of Man Thomas Paine 1791 British English
1558 The Drowned and the Saved Primo Levi 1986 Italian Italian
1558 Evicted Matthew Desmond 2016 American English
1573 Moneyball Michael M. Lewis 2003 American English
1574 The Face of Battle John Keegan 1976 British English
1577 Unbroken Laura Hillenbrand 2010 American English
1585 Chronicles Bob Dylan 2004 American English
1592 In the Heart of the Sea Nathaniel Philbrick 2000 American English
1668 Alan Turing Andrew Hodges 1983 British English
1841 The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich William L. Shirer 1960 American English
1887 The Last Lion William Manchester 1983 American English
1897 Rising Tide John Barry 1997 American English
1928 Disraeli Robert Blake 1966 British English
1939 When Breath Becomes Air Paul Kalanithi 2016 American English
1943 Venice Jan Morris 1960 British English
1979 R. E. Lee Douglas Southall Freeman 1934 American English
1987 A Tale of Love and Darkness Amos Oz 2002 Israeli Hebrew
2029 March John Lewis 2013 American English
2056 Citizens Simon Schama 1989 British English
2056 Lives of the Artists Giorgio Vasari 1550 Italian Italian
2056 Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands Mary Seacole 1857 Jamaican English
2077 The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt Edmund Morris 1979 American English
2094 We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families Philip Gourevitch 1998 American English
2094 The Age Of Wonder Richard Holmes 2008 British English
2138 Coming Of Age In Mississippi Anne Moody 1968 American English
2209 Samuel Johnson Walter Jackson Bate 1977 American English
2316 Essays, First And Second Series Ralph Waldo Emerson 1841 American English
2384 Black Elk Speaks John G. Neihardt 1932 American English
2469 Last Train to Memphis Peter Guralnick 1994 American English
2512 The Hare with Amber Eyes Edmund de Waal 2010 British English
2523 The History of the Standard Oil Company Ida Tarbell 1904 American English
2547 The Great Bridge David McCullough 1972 American English
2575 Microbe Hunters Paul de Kruif 1926 American English
2641 The Big Sea Langston Hughes 1940 American English
2641 Life of Christ Giovanni Papini 1921 Italian Italian
2641 Borstal Boy Brendan Behan 1958 Irish English
2641 Midnight In Chernobyl Adam Higginbotham 2024 British English
2961 A Bright Shining Lie Neil Sheehan 1988 American English
2979 Jefferson and His Time Dumas Malone 1948 American English
2985 Pictures At A Revolution Mark Harris 2008 American English
3013 Great Heart James West Davidson, John Rugge 1988 American English
3037 I Have Lived a Thousand Years Livia Bitton-Jackson 1997 Hungarian English
3040 Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa Mungo Park 1799 British English
3045 All But My Life Gerda Weissmann Klein 1957 American English
3054 Gorillas In The Mist Dian Fossey 1983 American English
3127 Cosmos Carl Sagan 1980 American English
3134 John Keats Walter Jackson Bate 1963 American English
3140 Diane Arbus Marvin Israel, Doon Arbus 1972 American English
3179 The Path to Power Robert Caro 1982 American English
3179 Coleridge Richard Holmes 1989 British English
3179 Van Loon's Lives Hendrik Willem van Loon 1942 Dutch English
3214 Memoirs of Cardinal De Retz Cardinal de Retz 1717 French French
3217 Memoirs of Louis XIV Louis de Rouvroy Saint-Simon (duc de) 1740 French French
3218 Naked David Sedaris 1997 American English
3247 The House of Morgan Ron Chernow 1990 American English
3255 James Joyce Richard Ellmann 1959 American English
3267 A Fire on the Moon Norman Mailer 1970 American English
3267 The Man Who Loved Only Numbers Paul Hoffman 1998 American English
3267 Patrimony Philip Roth 1991 American English
3267 Naples 44 Norman Lewis 1978 British English
3267 Oliver Cromwell L. du Garde Peach 1963 British English
3267 Memoirs Of The Author Of A Vindication Of The Rights Of Woman William Godwin 1798 British English
3267 Life Of John Sterling Thomas Carlyle 1851 British English
3267 John Keats Robert Gittings 1968 British English
3267 Mrs. Humphry Ward John Sutherland 1990 British English
3267 The Adams Jefferson Letters Lester J. Cappon 1959 American English
3267 Abraham Lincoln, Speeches And Letters Abraham Lincoln 1907 American English
3436 Becoming Michelle Obama 2018 American English
3456 Beethoven's Letters Ludwig van Beethoven 1866 German German
3456 Memories And Commentaries Igor Stravinsky 1960 Russian English
3456 Dr. Johnson & Mr. Savage Richard Holmes 1993 British English
3456 The Quest For Corvo A. J. A. Symons 1934 British English
3456 The Invisible Woman Claire Tomalin 1990 British English
3456 English Society In The Eighteenth Century Roy Porter 1982 British English
3456 C John Diamond 1998 British English
3456 Climbing Mount Improbable Richard Dawkins 1996 British English
3456 Mendeleyev's Dream Paul Strathern 2000 British English
3456 In Siberia Colin Thubron 1999 British English
3531 This Republic of Suffering Drew Gilpin Faust 2008 American English
3532 Cleopatra Stacy Schiff 2010 Egyptian English
3556 Lust For Life Irving Stone 1934 American English
3582 The Silent Steppe Mukhamet Shayakhmetov 2006 Kazakh English
3582 Memoirs Of A Revolutionist Vera Figner 1920 Russian Russian
3582 The Memoirs Of Princess Dashkova Ekaterina Romanovna Dashkova 1840 Russian Russian
3582 Ella Baker And The Black Freedom Movement Barbara Ransby 2003 American English