What's the best biography or autobiography you've read recently?

[pscot]

I'm currently reading a (necessarily) speculative biography of Shakespeare, Will in the World by Stephen Greenblatt. Greenblatt is a Harvard prof. and editor of the Norton Shakespeare. He knows his Bard. We have a lot of factual information about Shakespeare and Greenblatt combines that with the history of the times and a knowledge of the people Shakespeare necessarily met and interacted with, and constructs a convincing portrait of the man. At the same time I'm reading Acting Shakespeare by John Gielgud, and several of the plays. Gielgud was the premier Shakespearian actor of the 1st half of the 20th century. He's witty, intelligent and brief. Also a great raconteur with considerable insight into the plays.

[Neoma]

1. Not exactly recently, but I liked Warlord by Carlo D'este.

I didn't expect Winston Churchill to be such a badass. I also didn't realize he originally had red hair, but besides that point I don't think don't think people dig much at his life before becoming prime minister. It's worth it.

[pscot]

3. I read Wm. Manchesters 2-part biography

a couple years ago. It was entertaining but kind of one-sided. Churchill had his flaws, but Manchester doesn't really go there.

[Neoma]

5. Oh, Warlord touches his flaws, that's for sure.

He sounds pretty bipolar to me actually. Complaining about his "black dog" and his manic-ish behavior going about. Weird sleeping hours as well.

[pscot]

6. If you can believe Manchester, he put on a brand new pair

of silk drawers and drank a fifth of brandy every day.

[Neoma]

7. Well, I can believe the alcohol consumption.

Since he had a speech impediment, people thought he was drunk. (That's one thing that bugs me about The Kings Speech. He never had a stuttering problem! Argh.) Something about alcohol with breakfasts too.

[Zorro]

11. I was so looking forward to reading Manchester's third volume

but he got too old and senile to finish it. Quite a disappointment.

[limpyhobbler]

2. Woody Guthrie: A Life

By Joe Klein, 1980

Really good. There are some different editions but I really like the cover art on this one.



http://www.woodyguthrie.org/merchandise/alife.htm

[pscot]

4. I saw Arlo once, in concert

Met him, in fact. I guess he's gone all Libertarian these days. Lives on Kauai, where the weather is always fine and the weed is abundant, cheap and the genuine sativa strain.

[limpyhobbler]

8. Sounds like a nice place to live.

I don't know much about Arlo Guthrie but he seems pretty rich and laid back in Hawaii.

[pscot]

22. Three quarters of a century

Still toking.

[pscot]

24. It's a great life if you don't weaken

[kag]

9. I just finished No Ordinary Time

by Doris Kearns Goodwin. It has been on my shelf for years, and I finally bit the bullet. It was long, and I'm a slow reader, so it took me several weeks (ahem..months) to finish. I loved reading about how Eleanor Roosevelt pretty much single-handedly garnered the nomination for her husband's third term by giving a speech in his stead at the convention. Strange to think of what might have happened had she not gone, not given a speech, or not rocked the house the way she did. Would we have even gotten INTO WWII? She was truly incredible.

[pscot]

10. I haven't read that

But I agree, Eleanor was quite amazing. I did read W. H. Brand's A Traitor to His Class recently. She was a prolific writer; hundreds of daily columns and an autobiography and a huge influence on FDR.
Don't say "slow". Say careful, deliberate, thoughtful.

[GeoWilliam750]

44. It is a fascinating book

So much detail around progress in civil rights as well as labour rights, and so much detail about how the wealthy industrialists were willing to effectively take the world hostage in WWII until they were provided with vast profit.

[Zorro]

12. Not recent but last year I read The Honeycomb by Adela Rogers St. Johns

which I found quite fascinating with her observations both as a reporter of early Hollywood and her personal involvement with a number of personalities of the era (Hearst, Valentino, etc.).

I'm about 3/4ths of the way through Julia Phillips's autobiography You'll Never Eat Lunch In This Town Again, which also has some catty remarks about current Hollywood personalities and also describes her decline from a noted producer to freebasing druggie. It takes a real arrogant attitude to do a line of coke in front of everyone in the middle of a marketing meeting.

[pscot]

14. There's a new biography of Barbara Stanwick

you might like. The author is Victoria Wilson. I haven't read it yet, but it sounds interesting. Here's a review to whet your appetite.
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2013/11/barbara_stanwyck_biography_steel_true_by_victoria_wilson_reviewed.html

[SheilaT]

13. Destiny of the Republic:

A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard.

It's about the assassination of President Garfield and is riveting. In the end, it was his doctors who killed him, but everything that happened before, including how he so unexpectedly became president, is just an amazing tale. Millard is an excellent writer and so far has only one other book out, which I haven't read yet, River of Doubt about a journey Theodore Roosevelt took along the Amazon after he left the Presidency. I'll get to it eventually.

[pscot]

15. That sounds like a good one

I'll look for it. Have you read Gore Vidal's American history novels? Not biography as such, but a wonderful tour of 19th century American politics.

[SheilaT]

16. I read some of them a very long time ago, when

they first came out.

I'm old.

[pscot]

17. That's why we have time to loaf around

on the intenet.

[SheilaT]

29. It is very much a different world today.

Garfield had to talk every single day to people petitioning for government jobs. Anyone could walk into the White House back, then. Things have changed very, very much.

[gabeana]

40. I agree this is a great book very fast and easy for such a large book I

Had a hard time putting it down

[cntrygrl]

18. My three books

On a whim I purchased the book entitled, "Sojourner Truth" (1797? - 1883) about a woman who was born in to slavery in my part of the country, near Kingston, NY. This gal was absolutely amazing. She had no education - couldn't read or write. A heroine who fought for the freedmen and women's rights.

Wanting to learn more about NY I read, "Henry Hudson and the Algonquins of New York: Native American Prophecy & European Discovery, 1609" which is very interesting.

Right now I'm reading "Native New Yorkers: The Legacy of the Algonquin People of New York" learning the history of my home state.

[pscot]

19. The best part of reading is the way one book leads you on

to others on related topics. You might like The Island at the Center of the World by Russell Shorto. It's about the Dutch on Manhattan. They were only there for about 75 years, but they really left their stamp on the place. Have you read 1491, by Charles C. Mann? America before Columbus. It just blew me away. There were a lot more Native Americans than the empire builders would like us to know about. Most of our colonial "history" seems to be based on lies or propaganda.

[cntrygrl]

20. Thank you pscot I will

check out those you've mentioned. You posted: "Most of our colonial "history" seems to be based on lies or propaganda." and since leaving high school ('68) I've been amazed at how little we were taught in history class. Yes, much of it was lies and propaganda with so much of the suffering at the hands of the 'conquering' whites that makes me ill. We were never taught how barbaric we whites were.

I never heard of Sojourner Truth, birth name Isabella Baumfree, and how much she contributed to the freed slaves and women's rights. She should be mentioned, IMHO.

Ivan E Pritchard (author of my two books on Hudson and Algonquins) is a direct descendant of that tribe. His writings are amazingly accurate from what I can tell.

Thank you again for mentioning the other books.

[cntrygrl]

31. She was illiterate but dictated naratives. Olive Gilbert

edited for her and you can read it in PDF format here: www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/sojtruth/sojtruth.pdf

Yes, it's said that she did, in fact, suckled many planter's children. On the following link you can scroll down to read a paragraph (page 139) which states that: http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/truth84/truth84.html

[CountAllVotes]

33. Right now I'm reading "Sins of the Father"

Its about Joe Kennedy, Sr. and his life and all of the things he did.

is about all I can say so far and also *eek*!!!

[pscot]

34. My library has it only a a 3M ebook

and I can't read it on my kindle. Very sad.

[CountAllVotes]

36. I bought a hard bound copy of it for $5 from Abebooks.com

Free shipping too and quite a few pictures.

Still reading this book. Very interesting ...

[closeupready]

35. Just started Haywire, by Brooke Hayward - tell you this,

it's gripping from the opening page - she knew how to write, that's for damn sure. Lot of sad stuff but it happened, she wanted to break the Hollywood illusion, I guess. Going to really enjoy this, I think.

[lovemydog]

37. The Autobiography of Angela Davis.

Supplementing it with watching a documentary on her and reading her more recent writings. The book was originally published in the early 1970's. It covers her childhood, intellectual growth, firing from University of California, time on the run and her subsequent trial and acquittal. It's told with great compassion & wit. Very exciting and well written. Since that book she has remained a brilliant humanist, activist and scholar.

[camelfan]

38. So Anyway by John Cleese.

Finishing it tomorrow. It's an illuminating and hilarious book about the life of a comic genius. It covers his childhood, school days including Cambridge University and the Footlights, and his show business career right up until the creation of Monty Python. Highly recommended.

http://amzn.to/1B3QxNW

[womanofthehills]

39. Just finished photographer Sally Mann's memoir "Hold Still"

and now I'm reading Tom Robbins memoir Tibetan Peach Pie.

Interesting reads - both authors lived in Virginia. Mann lived on a farm in Lexington and Robbins in Richmond. Both talk about Jim Crow laws in the south when they were young.

Robbins is his usual funky self but Sally Mann's book was a bit of a surprise - she majored in creative writing in college and it comes through in this book.

[Mendocino]

41. Fatal Passage

The story of the arctic explorer John Rae by Ken McGoogan.

[JonLP24]

42. Harry Truman and Civil Rights: Moral Courage and Political Risks

By Michael Gardner

[pscot]

43. My favorite president

And the first one I was actually aware of.

[The Polack MSgt]

45. My Cross to Bear - Greg Allman

Not because it's a literary classic, just because I am such a fanboy of the Allman Brothers