Writers' lives books
Writers' lives books to start from. Open one to see books like it, or tell BookSense what you loved for four picks made for you.
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New to the genre? These 5 are the books to read first.
Life of Samuel Johnson
James BoswellBuilds a full portrait of Johnson from conversations, letters and close observation, and is often called the first modern biography.
Lives of the English Poets
Samuel JohnsonShort lives of English poets joined to critical judgments, an early model for writing about authors' lives and work together.
Eminent Victorians
Giles Lytton StracheyFour short, ironic portraits of Victorian public figures that changed the tone of biography.
James Joyce
Richard EllmannA detailed life of Joyce that uses letters and manuscripts to explain how Ulysses and Finnegans Wake came out of his circumstances.
Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain
Justin KaplanTraces the tension between Samuel Clemens's business life and the public persona of Mark Twain.
Chosen and described with AI from our notes on the genre.
More writers' lives books
- Lytton Strachey
Lytton StracheyMichael Holroyd - George Eliot
George EliotGordon Sherman Haight - Ernest Hemingway
Ernest HemingwayCarlos Baker - Vita
VitaVictoria Glendinning - Nora
NoraBrenda Maddox - Coleridge
ColeridgeRichard Holmes - Philip Larkin
Philip LarkinAndrew Motion - The Silent Woman
The Silent WomanJanet Malcolm - Virginia Woolf
Virginia WoolfHermione Lee - Jane Austen
Jane AustenClaire Tomalin - Memoirs of a dutiful daughter
Memoirs of a dutiful daughterSimone de Beauvoir1900 - I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
I Know Why the Caged Bird SingsMaya Angelou1969