Looking for the best biographies of all time?
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Here’s what you’ll find on this page…
What Is a Biography?
I’ve scoured the internet for lists of top biographies, I’ve taken your suggestions on the best memoirs and best autobiographies you’ve ever read and I’ve collected them here in the definitive list of best biography books ever written.
What is a biography? As far as this list is concerned, a biography is any story that follows the life of a person. Some books explore events, objects or places. Many of those may use people’s stories to colour their narratives. But the difference between those books and the best historical biographies is that good biographies keep both eyes on their heroes.
The 70 Best Biographies of All Time
Why are some famous biographies ranked higher than others? To stay as objective as possible, I rank all my book recommendations by a combination of what’s most loved (Goodreads rating), what’s most popular (Goodreads review count) and what’s delivered timelessly relevant advice (first publication date).
This isn’t just a whimsical list of my favourite people or their memoirs. It’s a crowdsourced collection of the best biographies ever published as decided by readers and biography lovers like you.
And if there’s a top biography you think I’ve missed off this list? I LOVE book recommendations so if there are great biographies, autobiographies or memoirs that you think deserve mentioning, email me and I’ll be sure to include them in the next round of updates!
Until then, enjoy this list of the 70 best biographies of all time…
Books 1-10: The Top 10 Biographies of All Time
The top 10 best biographies of all time are…
1. Night (The Night Trilogy #1) – Elie Wiesel
2. Man’s Search for Meaning – Viktor E. Frankl (FREE Summary)
3. The Autobiography of Malcolm X – Malcolm X
5. The Diary of a Young Girl – Anne Frank
6. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings – Maya Angelou
7. The Complete Maus – Art Spiegelman
9. “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!” – Richard P. Feynman
10. If This Is a Man • The Truce – Primo Levi
Books 11-70: 60 Good Biographies to Read Next
Here are the next 60 best biographies from my database…
11. My Bondage and My Freedom – Frederick Douglass
12. Autobiography of a Yogi – Paramahansa Yogananda
13. The Story of My Life – Helen Keller
14. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks – Rebecca Skloot
15. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass – Frederick Douglass
16. Totto-chan – Tetsuko Kuroyanagi
19. The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
20. Into Thin Air – Jon Krakauer
21. The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956 – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
22. Long Walk to Freedom – Nelson Mandela
23. The Power Broker – Robert A. Caro
24. The Glass Castle – Jeannette Walls
25. Desert Solitaire – Edward Abbey
26. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl – Harriet Ann Jacobs
27. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt, #1) – Frank McCourt
29. Tuesdays with Morrie – Mitch Albom
30. Unbroken – Laura Hillenbrand
31. The Agony and the Ecstasy – Irving Stone
32. Persepolis – Marjane Satrapi
33. The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt – Edmund Morris
34. The Path to Power – Robert A. Caro
35. Black Like Me – John Howard Griffin
37. Seabiscuit – Laura Hillenbrand
38. West with the Night – Beryl Markham
39. A Moveable Feast – Ernest Hemingway
40. Black Boy – Richard Wright
41. 84, Charing Cross Road – Helene Hanff
42. Travels with Charley – John Steinbeck
43. The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. – Martin Luther King Jr.
44. Narrative of Sojourner Truth – Sojourner Truth
45. My Early Life, 1874-1904 – Winston S. Churchill
46. Up from Slavery – Booker T. Washington
47. The Last Lecture – Randy Pausch
48. Team of Rivals – Doris Kearns Goodwin
49. Born a Crime – Trevor Noah
50. Surprised by Joy – C.S. Lewis
51. A Beautiful Mind – Sylvia Nasar
52. Plutarch’s Lives – Plutarch
53. The Boys in the Boat – Daniel James Brown
55. A Walk in the Woods – Bill Bryson
57. The Last Lion – William Manchester
58. Wind, Sand and Stars – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
59. The Color of Water – James McBride
60. When Breath Becomes Air – Paul Kalanithi
61. Into the Wild – Jon Krakauer
62. Kitchen Confidential – Anthony Bourdain
63. Alexander Hamilton – Ron Chernow
64. First They Killed My Father – Loung Ung
65. Plutarch’s Lives – Plutarch
67. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin – Benjamin Franklin
68. Walden – Henry David Thoreau
69. Steve Jobs – Walter Isaacson
70. What Do You Care What Other People Think? – Richard Feynman
Best Biography FAQs
Why you should read biographies?
The best biographies combine the life-wisdom and lessons you'd expect from nonfiction with the readability and storytelling you'd expect from a novel. They're often easy to read and they're a wonderful way to experience the world through the eyes of someone who may see and have experienced things very differently. Click here to check out my ranked list of the 70 best biographies of all time.
What is the best selling autobiography of all time?
The best selling autobiography of all time is almost certainly The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. While there's no accurate data on best selling biographies, Anne's diary ranks highest on this list of the best selling books of all time, which makes it a likely contender. Other best selling autobiographies include Night (The Night Trilogy, #1) by Elie Wiesel and The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls.
What's the best autobiography to read?
The top two books on this list - Night (The Night Trilogy, #1) and The Autobiography of Malcolm X - are both fantastic autobiographies. Other top-ranked options include famous autobiographies like The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. Want more ideas? Click here to read the full list of best biographies and best autobiographies ever written.
What are some good biographies to read?
The top-ranked biographies on my list (and a good place to start) are Night (The Night Trilogy, #1), The Autobiography of Malcolm X and The Complete Maus (graphic novel). For more ideas on some good biographies to read, check out the full list of the top 70 biography books of all time.
More Book Recommendations
Enjoyed this list of the best biographies of all time? Here’s a breakdown of all the book lists and book recommendations on the site…
More Best Books of All Time (by Type)
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More Best Nonfiction Books (by Topic)
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