The Greatest Biography Books Since 1950

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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
304 The Double Helix James D. Watson 1968 American English
306 The Autobiography of Malcolm X Alex Haley 1965 American English
788 Roots Alex Haley 1976 American English
868 Henry James Leon Edel 1953 American English
885 A Tale of Love and Darkness Amos Oz 2002 Israeli Hebrew
903 Wild Swans Jung Chang 1991 Chinese English
909 The Warmth Of Other Suns Isabel Wilkerson 2010 American English
1007 The Death and Life of Great American Cities Jane Jacobs 1961 American English
1038 Cosmos Carl Sagan 1980 American English
1345 The Naked Ape Desmond Morris 1967 British English
1392 Evicted Matthew Desmond 2016 American English
1474 Chaos James Gleick 1987 American English
1542 The Devil In The White City Erik Larson 2003 American English
1575 Borstal Boy Brendan Behan 1958 Irish English
1627 Dora Bruder Patrick Modiano 1997 French French
1641 Disraeli Robert Blake 1966 British English
1763 Small Is Beautiful E. F. Schumacher 1973 British English
1817 The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Rebecca Skloot 2010 American English
1893 The Soul of a New Machine Tracy Kidder 1981 American English
1901 The Power Broker Robert Caro 1974 American English
1974 The Emperor of All Maladies Siddhartha Mukherjee 2010 American English
2022 The Color of Water James McBride 1995 American English
2160 The Immense Journey Loren Eiseley 1957 American English
2198 The Last Lion William Manchester 1983 American English
2205 The Gate of Heavenly Peace Jonathan Spence 1981 American English
2222 The Theory And Practice Of Hell Eugen Kogon 1950 German German
2338 Master of the Senate Robert Caro 2002 American English
2390 The Face of Battle John Keegan 1976 British English
2396 The Drowned and the Saved Primo Levi 1986 Italian Italian
2479 The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich William L. Shirer 1960 American English
2484 The Good War Studs Terkel 1984 American English
2522 The Passage Of Power Robert Caro 2012 American English
2610 What It Takes Richard Ben Cramer 1992 American English
2710 Alan Turing Andrew Hodges 1983 British English
2810 The Agony and the Ecstasy Irving Stone 1961 American English
2887 John Keats Walter Jackson Bate 1963 American English
2898 Moneyball Michael M. Lewis 2003 American English
2991 Frederick Douglass David W. Blight 2018 American English
3074 Patrimony Philip Roth 1991 American English
3084 Diane Arbus Marvin Israel, Doon Arbus 1972 American English
3140 Great Heart James West Davidson, John Rugge 1988 American English
3171 The Tipping Point Malcolm Gladwell 2000 American English
3194 The Best And The Brightest David Halberstam 1972 American English
3235 When Breath Becomes Air Paul Kalanithi 2016 American English
3242 The Great Bridge David McCullough 1972 American English
3249 A Distant Mirror Barbara Wertheim Tuchman 1978 American English
3311 Growing Up Russell Baker 1982 American English
3399 Portrait Of A Marriage Nigel Nicolson 1973 British English
3455 Profiles in Courage John F. Kennedy 1956 American English
3495 The Return Of Martin Guerre Natalie Zemon Davis 1983 Unknown English
3501 Borges Adolfo Bioy Casares 2006 Argentine Spanish
3547 Samuel Johnson Walter Jackson Bate 1977 American English
3604 Limonov Emmanuel Carrère 2011 French French
3617 The Right Stuff Tom Wolfe 1979 American English
3637 Child Of The Revolution Wolfgang Leonhard 1955 German German
3807 Rousseau and Revolution Will Durant, Ariel Durant 1967 American English
3833 Повесть о жизни Konstantin Paustovsky 1956 Russian Russian
3919 Staying Power Peter Fryer 1984 British English
3942 A Fire on the Moon Norman Mailer 1970 American English
3946 Antériorité Des Civilisations Nègres Cheikh Anta Diop 1954 Senegalese French
4060 Serengeti Shall Not Die Bernhard Grzimek 1959 German German
4066 Lives Other Than My Own Emmanuel Carrère 2009 French French
4071 Private Renaissance Maria Bellonci 1985 Italian Italian
4075 Seabiscuit Laura Hillenbrand 2001 American English
4157 We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families Philip Gourevitch 1998 American English
4204 Ghana Kwame Nkrumah 1957 Ghanaian English
4291 Conversations With Igor Stravinsky Robert Craft 1959 American English
4381 How To End A Story Helen Garner 2021 Australian English
4388 James Joyce Richard Ellmann 1959 American English
4416 A Bright Shining Lie Neil Sheehan 1988 American English
4454 Mountains Beyond Mountains Tracy Kidder 2003 American English
4506 Truman David McCullough 1992 American English
4520 Last Train to Memphis Peter Guralnick 1994 American English
4521 Te Puea Michael King 1978 New Zealand English
4522 The True Confessions Of An Albino Terrorist Breyten Breytenbach 1983 South African English
4576 No Ordinary Time Doris Kearns Goodwin 1994 American English
4580 The Autobiography Of A Runaway Slave Miguel Barnet 1966 Cuban Spanish
4613 Gulag Anne Applebaum 2003 American English
4618 An Angel At My Table Janet Frame 1984 New Zealand English
4619 Rising Tide John Barry 1997 American English
4716 A Life of Picasso John Richardson 1991 British English
4759 Amiria Amiria Manutahi Stirling, Anne Salmond 1976 New Zealand English
4776 The Life Of Katherine Mansfield Anthony Alpers 1980 New Zealand English
4849 Peking Story David Kidd 1960 American English
4855 The Gift Horse Hildegard Knef 1970 German German
4930 Running Jean Echenoz 2008 French French
4979 The Hare with Amber Eyes Edmund de Waal 2010 British English
5015 The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt Edmund Morris 1979 American English
5130 All But My Life Gerda Weissmann Klein 1957 American English
5131 Hitler Joachim Fest 1973 German German
5156 Coleridge Richard Holmes 1989 British English
5163 Forgotten Kingdom Peter Goullart 1955 Russian English
5235 Memories And Commentaries Igor Stravinsky 1960 Russian English
5278 The Strange Ride of Rudyard Kipling Angus Wilson 1977 British English
5286 Gandhi's Truth Erik H. Erikson 1969 American English
5310 The Adams Jefferson Letters Lester J. Cappon 1959 American English
5329 Grant Ron Chernow 2017 American English
5358 Team of Rivals Doris Kearns Goodwin 2005 American English
5361 Hölderlin Peter Härtling 1976 German German
5381 Longitude Dava Sobel 1995 American English
5388 The Family, Sex and Marriage in England 1500-1800 Lawrence Stone 1977 British English
5443 1587, A Year Of No Significance Ray Huang 1981 Chinese English
5470 And There Was Light Jacques Lusseyran 1963 French French
5474 Working Studs Terkel 1974 American English
5492 The Lost Daniel Mendelsohn 2006 American English
5523 Mao's China And After Maurice Meisner 1977 American English
5575 Audubon Robert Penn Warren 1969 American English
5577 Women, Race, And Class Angela Davis 1981 American English
5588 Caste Isabel Wilkerson 2020 American English
5595 Poetry And Truth From My Own Life Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 2004 German English
5599 The Lost City of Z David Grann 2009 American English
5642 Enlightenment Now Steven Pinker 2018 American English
5652 The Unfortunate Experiment Sandra Coney 1988 New Zealand English
5691 All God’s Dangers Theodore Rosengarten 1974 American English
5719 Manhood For Amateurs Michael Chabon 2009 American English
5736 Redemption Songs Judith Binney 1995 New Zealand English
5759 Earthly Paradise Colette 1966 French French
5780 Entangled Life Merlin Sheldrake 2020 British English
5808 Prairie Fires Caroline Fraser 2017 American English
5932 King Jonathan Eig 2023 American English