Welcome to Biographies & Memoirs where the focus is life stories, from presidents to rock stars, athletes to activists, celebrities to anyone who's made a difference. If their story has been put into words, we'll cover it.
Besides biography reviews, we'll discuss what makes them good reads and the questions they raise. Your participation in the discussion forums is welcomed.
Do you wonder what distinguishes an autobiography from a memoir? How many first ladies have written their memoirs? What is an "unauthorized" biography? We'll answer these and all questions you have in the Bio Blog.
If you'd like a particular biography or autobiography --including your own!-- reviewed by our writers, please email me.
"There is properly no history; only biography" --Ralph Waldo Emerson
Against The Current by Frances Kroll Ring
In: Biographies/Memoirs (general)
Author Frances Kroll Ring, Fitzgerald's personal secretary, reveals the famous Jazz Age author's final year and a half, as he attempts to finish The Last Tycoon. more...
Jim Pollard The Kangaroo Kid by Dolph Grundman
Dolph Grundman's biography examines not only a great Minneapolis Lakers star of the past, but the early days of the NBA as well. more...
Review – Silverstein and Me by Marv Gold
Marv Gold, fellow cartoonist & lifelong buddy of Shel Silverstein, has written a quirky, funny and seemingly appropriate biographical tribute to his friend. more...
Review - Searching For Whitopia by Rich Benjamin
In: Biographies/Memoirs (general)
Scholar Rich Benjamin seeks out and lives in several white American enclave communities in an effort to understand what they are about and why they are quickly growing. more...
Jack Kerouac's Good Blonde and Others
In: Biographies/Memoirs (general)
Published nearly 25 years after Jack Kerouac's death, Good Blonde and Others collects a variety of his essays, criticisms, and autobiographical articles from magazines. more...
Autobiography vs. Memoir—What's the Difference?
In: Biographies/Memoirs (general)
If an autobiography is one's self-written life story, yet one retires to "write her memoirs," aren't they really the same thing? more...
Review – Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life
In: Biographies/Memoirs (general)
Chicago writer Amy Krouse Rosenthal's autobiographical Encyclopedia of An Ordinary Life is fresh, thought-provoking and hard to put down. more...
Bob Dylan Performing Artist 1960-1973
The first volume of this 3-book series, subtitled The Early Years, covers a lot of ground and sets up author Paul Williams' basic arguments regarding Dylan's art. more...
All feature articles in Biographies/Memoirs
All contributors in Biographies/Memoirs
Open – An Autobiography by Andre Agassi
By:
Francine Brokaw
Children of Dust: A Memoir of Pakistan
By: Lindsey Mason
In: Biographies/Memoirs (general)
By: Sara Carroll
Against the Grain by Geoffrey Nyarota
By: Farai Muchemwa
Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior
In: Biographies/Memoirs (general)
By: Rebekah Richards
All contributing articles in Biographies/Memoirs