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Biographies — page 17
2,679 public-domain biographies books, summarised. Page 17 of 56.
Jasmin: Barber, Poet, Philanthropist
Samuel Smiles
This portrait of a humble artisan turned literary titan reveals how one man’s verse bridged the divide between the forgotten folk traditions of the French South and the cultural elite of Paris. It is a testament to the power of art to elevate the common life and serve the needs of the impoverished.
Lives of the English Poets
Samuel Johnson
A titan of eighteenth-century letters turns his sharp, discerning eye toward the architects of English verse, weighing their genius, their inconsistencies, and their moral characters with uncompromising honesty.
The Life of Cervantes
Albert Frederick Calvert
The life of Miguel de Cervantes is as dramatic and adventurous as the fiction he created, tracing the arc of a man who survived war, slavery, and poverty to change literature forever.
An Artilleryman's Diary
Jenkins Lloyd Jones
A vivid, day-to-day record of an artilleryman’s service, documenting the grit, monotony, and hard-won camaraderie found within the ranks of the Union Army.
Thirteen years at the Russian court: (a personal record of the last years and death of the Czar Nicholas II. and his family)
Pierre Gilliard
The final years of the Romanov dynasty are presented through the eyes of a close observer who watched an imperial family transform into a unit of shared suffering and quiet, steadfast faith.
Adam Smith
Francis W. (Francis Wrigley) Hirst
This biography chronicles the life and intellectual evolution of the Scottish philosopher who fundamentally reshaped our understanding of political economy and moral philosophy. It traces his journey from a quiet academic existence to global influence.
The Life of Francis Marion
William Gilmore Simms
This biography chronicles the life of the "Swamp Fox," a commander who transformed the landscape of the American Revolution in the South through ingenuity, resilience, and unconventional warfare. It is a portrait of a man defined by duty rather than glory.
The Use and Need of the Life of Carry A. Nation
Carry Amelia Nation
A woman finds her divine purpose in the destruction of saloons, believing that direct, militant action is the only path to protecting the American home from the scourge of alcohol.
Extracts from the Diary and Correspondence of the Late Amos Lawrence
Amos Lawrence
A nineteenth-century Boston merchant balances the relentless pursuit of commercial success with an evolving, profound devotion to Christian charity and the quietude of domestic life.
The Paston Letters, A.D. 1422-1509. Volume 1 (of 6): New Complete Library Edition
Unknown
These private letters offer an unvarnished look at a family navigating the violent, litigious chaos of fifteenth-century England, where inheritance was a battlefield and survival required a constant, careful hand.
Secret Memoirs: The Story of Louise, Crown Princess
Henry W. (Henry William) Fischer
A princess exchanges her crown for the uncertain life of a fugitive, leaving behind the stifling, decaying opulence of a royal court to claim her own autonomy.
The Emancipation of South America
Bartolomé Mitre
Thou shalt be that which thou oughtest to be; if not, thou shalt be nothing.” This stern mandate from José de San Martín serves as the moral compass for the seismic transformation of a continent.
The Life of Francis Thompson
Everard Meynell
The life of a brilliant, opium-addicted poet unfolds through the eyes of those who rescued him from the London streets, offering an intimate look at the collision of genius and profound human fragility.
The Grand Old Man
Richard B. (Richard Briscoe) Cook
A portrait of a towering Victorian statesman, this account traces the evolution of a man whose moral convictions and political acumen shaped the British Empire for over half a century.
Life of Christ
Giovanni Papini
The story of Jesus is here retold with the urgent, unvarnished intensity of a man who has undergone a profound personal conversion and seeks to reclaim his subject from the detachment of modern scholarship.
Books and bidders
A. S. W. (Abraham Simon Wolf) Rosenbach
The thrill of the chase, the agony of the missed opportunity, and the quiet triumph of securing a rare manuscript define the life of a dedicated book hunter.
The Life and Correspondence of Sir Isaac Brock, K.B.: Interspersed with notices of the celebrated Indian chief, Tecumseh, and comprising brief memoirs of Daniel De Lisle Brock, Esq., Lieutenant E.W. Tupper, R.N., and Colonel W. De Vic Tupper
Brock, Isaac, Sir
This biography chronicles the life of a distinguished British officer, tracing his journey from the Napoleonic wars to his defining role in the defense of Canada during the War of 1812.
Lives of the Founders of the British Museum, Part 1 of 2: With Notices of Its Chief Augmentors and Other Benefactors, 1570-1870
Edward Edwards
This expansive chronicle offers a meticulous, archival record of the individuals whose private obsessions and social status fueled the creation of one of the world’s greatest repositories of human history. It maps the transition of dispersed, often vulnerable collections into the protected, permanent custody of the…
American Boy's Life of Theodore Roosevelt
Edward Stratemeyer
This portrait of a legendary leader captures the relentless drive of a man who transformed his own physical weakness into a symbol of national vitality and purpose. It serves as both a chronicle and a call to action.
The Life of Napoleon I (Volume 2 of 2)
J. Holland (John Holland) Rose
A supreme military genius reshapes the map of Europe through audacity and administrative force, only to watch his vast empire crumble under the weight of endless war, personal overreach, and united national resistance.
Women in the Life of Balzac
Juanita Helm Floyd
This biographical study examines the intense, complex, and often fraught relationships between Honoré de Balzac and the women who shaped his inner life and professional output. It serves as an intimate map of the muse-figures behind his monumental fiction.
Letter on Corpulence, Addressed to the Public
William Banting
HOOK A determined man shares his journey toward health, offering a simple, common-sense dietary shift that permanently transformed his life and challenged the medical conventions of the Victorian era.
The Missing Link in Modern Spiritualism
A. Leah (Ann Leah) Underhill
The Fox sisters, originators of American Spiritualism, recount their journey from a small-town haunting to the center of a national phenomenon. Their testimony serves as an earnest, intimate defense of the unseen forces that shaped their lives.
Life of Lord Byron, Vol. 5: With His Letters and Journals
Thomas Moore
The restless spirit of a romantic icon finds his final years defined by political exile, the tragedy of loss, and a sharp, cynical wisdom that defies his former reputation.
Debs: His Life, Writings and Speeches, with a Department of Appreciations
Eugene V. (Eugene Victor) Debs
A fierce, unyielding plea for working-class solidarity reveals how industrial power shapes American democracy and why corporate wealth must be met with organized labor.
Gallipoli Diary, Volume 1
Ian Hamilton
Naval bombardments fail to clear the straits, sending a hastily appointed general into the Mediterranean to stage an unprecedented amphibious assault with improvised forces and vanishing supplies.
George Fox: An Autobiography
George Fox
A wandering seeker turns away from formal religion, hears an inner voice calling him to absolute truth, and spends a lifetime facing beatings, prisons, and stormy seas to establish a movement built on immediate spiritual experience.
In the World War
Czernin von und zu Chudenitz, Ottokar Theobald Otto Maria, Graf
An insider’s view of high-stakes diplomacy reveals the internal collapse and frantic maneuvers of a doomed empire caught in the gears of global warfare.
Journal and Letters of Philip Vickers Fithian: A Plantation Tutor of the Old Dominion, 1773-1774
Philip Vickers Fithian
A young, pious divinity student leaves New Jersey to tutor the children of a wealthy Virginia planter, keeping a vivid daily record of elite plantation society on the brink of the American Revolution.
Six Major Prophets
Edwin E. (Edwin Emery) Slosson
A captivating exploration of the lives and philosophies of six influential thinkers, offering a unique glimpse into their ideas and impact on the world.
The Lives of the Saints, Volume 01 (of 16): January
S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould
An ancient river is ordered to return to its bed, and a long-dead saint's staff remains imbedded in stone until the rightful bishop touches it.
Charles Lamb
Walter Jerrold
A quiet London clerk transforms the ordinary friction of daily life, tragedy, and ancient literature into some of the most enduring, whimsical essays in the English language.
Thomas Jefferson
Henry Childs Merwin
Born to the Virginia frontier, a planter’s son transforms a lifelong devotion to books, horses, and human liberty into the philosophical engine of a new republic, guiding a young nation through revolution, political warfare, and continental expansion.
The Greville Memoirs, Part 2 (of 3), Volume 1 (of 3): A Journal of the Reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1852
Charles Greville
Inside the private chambers of nineteenth-century power, a sharp-eyed royal official records the shifting alliances, brilliant intellects, and petty frictions that shaped an empire's dawn.
King Robert the Bruce
Alexander Falconer Murison
Driven by a fragile dynastic claim and standard aristocratic ambition, a noble default-vassal to the English crown steps into a desperate war of independence, slowly forging a kingdom from the ash of utter military defeat.
The Mother of Washington and Her Times
Sara Agnes Rice Pryor
A disciplined, deeply researched portrait of colonial Virginia reveals how a land of strict honor, courtly social rituals, and hard agricultural labor forged the austere character of George Washington's formidable mother.
The Story of the Woman's Party
Inez Haynes Gillmore
A small band of relentless women transforms the American political landscape by forcing a reluctant nation to grant them the right to vote.
Garcia the Centenarian and His Times: Being a Memoir of Manuel Garcia's Life and Labours for the Advancement of Music and Science
M. (Malcolm) Sterling Mackinlay
Living a life that spanned a century of profound artistic and scientific transformation, a single visionary musician redefined vocal instruction and changed the course of modern medicine.
Memoirs (Vieux Souvenirs) of the Prince de Joinville
Joinville, François-Ferdinand-Philippe-Louis-Marie d'Orléans, prince de
An eyewitness to France’s nineteenth-century upheavals, a royal prince recounts a life forged at sea, shaped by revolution, and spent in service to a rapidly transforming nation.
My Memoirs, Vol. VI, 1832 to 1833
Alexandre Dumas
A tempestuous landscape of art, theatrical rivalries, and political rebellion unfolds as an energetic young playwright moves through the vibrant, cholera-stricken streets of 1832 Paris.
The Steam Engine Explained and Illustrated (Seventh Edition): With an Account of Its Invention and Progressive Improvement, and Its Application to Navigation and Railways
Dionysius Lardner
From primitive boiler toys and temple trickery to the high-pressure locomotives driving the Industrial Revolution, the mechanism that transformed human civilization is rigorously unspooled.
Celebrated Women Travellers of the Nineteenth Century
W. H. Davenport (William Henry Davenport) Adams
Fierce alpine storms, treacherous African rivers, and the icy seas of the Far North could not deter a remarkable series of nineteenth-century women from shattering Victorian conventions to chart the unknown world.
Einstein, the searcher
Alexander Moszkowski
An extraordinary mind turns its gaze upon the universe, reshaping our fundamental concepts of space, time, and physical reality through quiet reflection and mathematical rigor.
The Oxford Reformers: John Colet, Erasmus, and Thomas More
Frederic Seebohm
Three brilliant minds gather at the turn of the sixteenth century to challenge religious dogmatism, re-examine sacred texts, and envision a society built upon reason and shared humanity.
Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves, Volume II, Arkansas Narratives, Part 6
United States. Work Projects Administration
A remarkably immediate set of voices emerges from these interview pages, recording the memories of elderly Black Americans who lived through the final days of slavery, the Civil War, and the long decades that followed. Recorded in the late 1930s in Arkansas, these testimonies capture lives shaped by forced labor,…
The Bondage and Travels of Johann Schiltberger, a Native of Bavaria, in Europe, Asia, and Africa, 1396-1427
Johannes Schiltberger
Captured as a youth on a medieval battlefield, a Bavarian soldier endures thirty years of captivity, wandering as a servant across the vast domains of Turkish sultans, Tatar warlords, and Egyptian monarchs.
Alfred Tennyson
Andrew Lang
A giant's strength and a child's susceptibility collide in the life of a poet who carved immortal music out of personal sorrow and public indifference.
History of Friedrich II of Prussia
Thomas Carlyle
A ruler's duty is to build, defend, and govern with relentless force, standing firm against the looming chaos of European collapse.