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
4080 The Life Of Jesus Ernest Renan 1863 French French
4159 We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families Philip Gourevitch 1998 American English
4160 China To Me Emily Hahn 1944 American English
4169 The History of the Standard Oil Company Ida Tarbell 1904 American English
4206 Ghana Kwame Nkrumah 1957 Ghanaian English
4293 Conversations With Igor Stravinsky Robert Craft 1959 American English
4383 How To End A Story Helen Garner 2021 Australian English
4390 James Joyce Richard Ellmann 1959 American English
4418 A Bright Shining Lie Neil Sheehan 1988 American English
4421 Memoirs Of The Author Of A Vindication Of The Rights Of Woman William Godwin 1798 British English
4421 Life Of John Sterling Thomas Carlyle 1851 British English
4456 Mountains Beyond Mountains Tracy Kidder 2003 American English
4508 Truman David McCullough 1992 American English
4522 Last Train to Memphis Peter Guralnick 1994 American English
4523 Te Puea Michael King 1978 New Zealand English
4524 The True Confessions Of An Albino Terrorist Breyten Breytenbach 1983 South African English
4578 No Ordinary Time Doris Kearns Goodwin 1994 American English
4582 The Autobiography Of A Runaway Slave Miguel Barnet 1966 Cuban Spanish
4615 Gulag Anne Applebaum 2003 American English
4620 An Angel At My Table Janet Frame 1984 New Zealand English
4621 Rising Tide John Barry 1997 American English
4636 The Medici George Frederick Young 1910 Unknown English
4670 Beethoven's Letters Ludwig van Beethoven 1866 German German
4718 A Life of Picasso John Richardson 1991 British English
4761 Amiria Amiria Manutahi Stirling, Anne Salmond 1976 New Zealand English
4778 The Life Of Katherine Mansfield Anthony Alpers 1980 New Zealand English
4851 Peking Story David Kidd 1960 American English
4853 The American Political Tradition Richard Hofstadter 1948 American English
4854 Melbourne David Cecil 1939 British English
4857 The Gift Horse Hildegard Knef 1970 German German
4865 Scientific Autobiography and Other Papers Max Planck 1922 German German
4932 Running Jean Echenoz 2008 French French
4982 The Hare with Amber Eyes Edmund de Waal 2010 British English
4991 Madame Curie - A Biography by Eve Curie Eve Curie 1937 French French
5018 The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt Edmund Morris 1979 American English
5032 Lust For Life Irving Stone 1934 American English
5132 All But My Life Gerda Weissmann Klein 1957 American English
5133 Hitler Joachim Fest 1973 German German
5158 Coleridge Richard Holmes 1989 British English
5165 Forgotten Kingdom Peter Goullart 1955 Russian English
5236 Memories And Commentaries Igor Stravinsky 1960 Russian English
5279 The Strange Ride of Rudyard Kipling Angus Wilson 1977 British English
5287 Gandhi's Truth Erik H. Erikson 1969 American English
5307 Lee's Lieutenants Douglas Southall Freeman 1943 American English
5311 The Adams Jefferson Letters Lester J. Cappon 1959 American English
5330 Grant Ron Chernow 2017 American English
5359 Team of Rivals Doris Kearns Goodwin 2005 American English
5362 Hölderlin Peter Härtling 1976 German German
5382 Longitude Dava Sobel 1995 American English
5389 The Family, Sex and Marriage in England 1500-1800 Lawrence Stone 1977 British English
5444 1587, A Year Of No Significance Ray Huang 1981 Chinese English
5471 And There Was Light Jacques Lusseyran 1963 French French
5475 Working Studs Terkel 1974 American English
5493 The Lost Daniel Mendelsohn 2006 American English
5524 Mao's China And After Maurice Meisner 1977 American English
5576 Audubon Robert Penn Warren 1969 American English
5578 Women, Race, And Class Angela Davis 1981 American English
5589 Caste Isabel Wilkerson 2020 American English
5596 Poetry And Truth From My Own Life Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 2004 German English
5600 The Lost City of Z David Grann 2009 American English
5643 Enlightenment Now Steven Pinker 2018 American English
5653 The Unfortunate Experiment Sandra Coney 1988 New Zealand English
5692 All God’s Dangers Theodore Rosengarten 1974 American English
5720 Manhood For Amateurs Michael Chabon 2009 American English
5737 Redemption Songs Judith Binney 1995 New Zealand English
5760 Earthly Paradise Colette 1966 French French
5763 Dear Theo Irving Stone, Jean Stone 1937 American English
5781 Entangled Life Merlin Sheldrake 2020 British English
5809 Prairie Fires Caroline Fraser 2017 American English
5863 The Big Sea Langston Hughes 1940 American English
5933 King Jonathan Eig 2023 American English
5957 The Education Of Everett Richardson Silver Donald Cameron 1977 Canadian English
5972 Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands Mary Seacole 1857 Jamaican English
6005 Shakespeare And Company Sylvia Beach 1959 American English
6005 The Story Of My Life Giacomo Casanova 1822 Italian French
6005 The Life Of Rancé François-Auguste-René de Chateaubriand 1844 French French
6005 Van Gogh Antonin Artaud 1947 French French
6080 John Keats Robert Gittings 1968 British English
6148 A Giacometti Portrait James Lord 1965 American English
6161 Something Beautiful For God Malcolm Muggeridge 1971 British English
6165 Present at the Creation Dean Acheson 1969 American English
6190 Iacocca Lee Iacocca 1984 American English
6229 The Chinese Enlightenment Vera Schwarcz 1986 Unknown English
6249 Parting the Waters Taylor Branch 1988 American English
6259 The Allure Of Chanel Paul Morand 1976 French French
6266 Lowest Of The Low Günter Wallraff 1985 German German
6278 Citizens Simon Schama 1989 British English
6304 A Life Of Her Own Émilie Carles 1977 French French
6379 Leonardo Da Vinci Walter Isaacson 2017 American English
6410 The Fighting Fisherman Raymond Fraser 1981 Canadian English
6417 Florence Nightingale Cecil Woodham-Smith 1950 British English
6451 Rome And A Villa Eleanor Clark 1952 American English
6478 Second World War John Keegan 1989 British English
6500 The Black Count Tom Reiss 2012 French English
6502 Vermeer Lawrence Gowing 1952 British English
6526 The Private Life of Chairman Mao Li Zhi-Sui 1994 Chinese English
6537 Hunger Roxane Gay 2017 American English
6579 Venice Jan Morris 1960 British English
6595 The Rape Of Nanking Iris Chang 1997 American English
6596 The Invention Of Nature Andrea Wulf 2015 German English
6599 Benjamin Franklin Carl Van Doren 1938 American English
6611 The Russian Revolution Richard Pipes 1990 American English
6612 Hidden Valley Road Robert Kolker 2020 American English
6613 Gorillas In The Mist Dian Fossey 1983 American English
6655 Invisible Child Andrea Elliott 2021 American English
6661 Mendeleyev's Dream Paul Strathern 2000 British English
6664 How The Word Is Passed Clint Smith 2021 American English
6674 Minor Characters Joyce Johnson 1983 American English
6717 The Son of a Servant August Strindberg 1886 Swedish Swedish
6717 My Life Leon Trotsky 1930 Russian Russian
6737 The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup Susan Orlean 2001 American English
6748 The Silent Steppe Mukhamet Shayakhmetov 2006 Kazakh English
6763 Citizen And Subject Mahmood Mamdani 1996 Ugandan English
6767 Harriet, The Moses Of Her People Sarah H. Bradford 1886 American English
6788 The Splendid And The Vile Erik Larson 2020 American English
6858 Young Man Luther Erik H. Erikson 1958 German English
6881 Tinísima Elena Poniatowska 1992 Mexican Spanish
6882 Lincoln at Gettysburg Garry Wills 1992 American English
6886 Dr. Johnson & Mr. Savage Richard Holmes 1993 British English
6918 English Society In The Eighteenth Century Roy Porter 1982 British English