Best Biographies: The 70 BEST Biography Books of All Time

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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

A haunting account of the events leading up to and during the author’s internment and survival in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps as a young teenager – by author, poet and holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel.

Published 1958 // 115 pages // Rated 4.3 over 1,055,000 reviews on Goodreads

2. Man’s Search for Meaning – Viktor E. Frankl (FREE Summary)

A gruelling and yet deeply liberating insight into the why behind each of our whats and hows – by holocaust survivor, psychologist and founder of logotherapy, Viktor Frankl.

Published 1946 // 165 pages // Rated 4.4 over 497,500 reviews on Goodreads

3. The Autobiography of Malcolm X – Malcolm X

An eye-opening, powerful biography that reveals the mind behind one of the most outspoken leaders of black pride and black nationalism in the 20th Century – by activist, Malcolm X, and journalist, Alex Haley.

Published 1965 // 466 pages // Rated 4.3 over 234,600 reviews on Goodreads

4. Endurance – Alfred Lansing

Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage

An incredible memoir of exploration, leadership and two-year struggle for survival against all odds during Shackleton’s failed attempt to cross the Antarctic in 1914 – by journalist and writer, Alfred Lansing.

Published 1959 // 282 pages // Rated 4.4 over 100,500 reviews on Goodreads

5. The Diary of a Young Girl – Anne Frank

The accessible, precocious, heartwarming and deeply tragic memoir of the author’s early teens and final years in hiding from Nazi occupation in Amsterdam during the second half of WW2 – by teenager and aspiring writer Anne Frank.

Published 1947 // 283 pages // Rated 4.2 over 3,061,100 reviews on Goodreads

6. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings – Maya Angelou

A beautifully written, raw and vulnerable autobiography of the author’s early years and struggles overcoming trauma and racism – by poet, memoirist and civil rights activist, Maya Angelou.

Published 1969 // 289 pages // Rated 4.3 over 455,800 reviews on Goodreads

7. The Complete Maus – Art Spiegelman

A clever and haunting Pulitzer Prize winning graphic novel that uses zoomorphism (animals-as-humans) to tell the story of the author’s father’s survival of the holocaust – by cartoonist, Art Spiegelman.

Published 1986 // 296 pages // Rated 4.5 over 163,400 reviews on Goodreads

8. The Choice – Edith Eger

Embrace the Possible

A moving and uplifting memoir of the author’s struggles through the ghetto, concentration camps and death marches during her near-miss survival of the holocaust – by psychologist and holocaust survivor, Edith Eger.

Published 1959 // 289 pages // Rated 4.6 over 51,300 reviews on Goodreads

9. “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!” – Richard P. Feynman

Adventures of a Curious Character

An eccentric, intelligent and entertaining memoir of the incredible life of one of the greatest minds of the 20th Century – by ground-breaking theoretical physicist and one of humanity’s most engaging teachers, Richard Feynman.

Published 1985 // 391 pages // Rated 4.2 over 178,400 reviews on Goodreads

10. If This Is a Man • The Truce – Primo Levi

A lucid and unpretentious memoir of the author’s arrest and incarceration at Auschwitz concentration camp in the final years of the Second World War – by chemist, writer and holocaust survivor, Primo Levi.

Published 1947 // 419 pages // Rated 4.5 over 17,000 reviews on Goodreads

Books 11-70: 60 Good Biographies to Read Next

Here are the next 60 best biographies from my database…

Best Biography FAQs

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…

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Arthur Worsley
I founded TAoL to discover and share the best wisdom on how to live long and prosper. Before that I studied Psychology, Philosophy & Physiology at Oxford and consulted at McKinsey. Still curious? Learn more or take my FREE productivity quiz.