Biography Books

By Sydney Waterlow. Biography of English Romantic Poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley,(1792-1822), with focus on his rare combination of vision with action.

By Edwin Mims. A biography of American musician and poet, Sidney Lanier, sans a critical study of his work.

In the rich prose writing style that has made the Polish-born Conrad one of the greatest English novelists ever, he provides the reader with a generous sampling of yet another one of his lauded writing style trademarks--his understanding of human struggle, as he details how he came to write after...

By Benjamin Franklin. Although the American Founding Father lived 84 years, (1706-1790), his autobiography covers the first 51 years of his life, (1706-1757), reflecting on his life as a printer; an inventor; a scientist; and politician. Includes an introduction by Charles W. Eliot; a time line...

By Helen Nicolay. Biography detailing the various stages of the life of the 16th President of the United States who guided the nation through its most devastating national experience--the Civil War; and who is considered by many historians to have been the greatest President in U.S. history.

Pulitzer Prize-winning critique of 19th Century educational theory and practice by the American writer and historian, Henry Adams(1838-1918), son of American diplomat, lawyer, politician, and writer, Charles Francis Adams (1807-1886), who was the son of U.S President John Quincy Adams and Louisa...

ALICE HICKEY: Between Worlds is a fast-paced, sometimes troubling memoir of a seven year period spent by the author and psychic Alice Hickey in trying to unwind a skein of bewildering psychic events that had almost cost the author his mind. That effort sends them ricocheting back and...

By Elizabeth C. Gaskell. Excellent portrait of the life of English novelist Charlotte Bronte, written by her close friend Elizabeth C. Gaskell, that sparked a furor at the time of its publication due to its candid narrative about the Bronte family.

By Robert Southey. Focuses on the strong nature of Horatio Lord Nelson's character and the ambiance of his times. The son of a minister with less than a strong body, young Nelson ships off to sea at the ripe age of 12, and ultimately becomes one of the great naval leaders and strategists of all...

A San Francisco journalist falls in love with the daughter of a socially prominent family.