Mul ty biography books
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Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
Ron Chernow’s Alexander Hamilton is not only the inspiration for a hit Broadway musical, but also a work of creative genius itself. It divulges the details of Jobs’ little-known childhood and tracks his fateful path from garage engineer to leader of one of the largest tech companies in the world — not to mention his formative role in other legendary companies like Pixar, and indeed within the Silicon Valley ecosystem as a whole.
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Instead, it’s her artistic brilliance and immense resolve to leave her mark on the world — a mark that will not soon be forgotten, in part thanks to Herrera’s dedicated work.
9. The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit by Michael Finkel
Fans of Into the Wild and The Lost City of Z will find their next adventure fix in this 2017 book about Christopher Knight, a man who lived by himself in the Maine woods for almost thirty years.
Indeed, no one exists in a vacuum, not even Shakespeare — hence the conscious depiction of him in this book as a “will in the world,” rather than an isolated writer shut up in his own musty study.
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If you're looking for more inspiring nonfiction, check out this list of 30 engaging self-help books, or this list of the last century's best memoirs!
Best Biographies
New Biographies
Among the new biographies coming out in 2025, the lives of literary figures have been particularly prominent, including new books about Robert Louis Stevenson, the Scottish adventure writer, and Shakespeare’s rival Christopher Marlowe, who was stabbed to death aged 29.
According to this 1941 biography, it’s the barely-surviving sharecropper families who were severely impacted by the American “Dust Bowl” — hundreds of people entrenched in poverty, whose humanity Evans and Agee desperately implore their audience to see in their book.
12. Fans of Adam McKay’s Vice, this is the book for you.
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And she kept up that trademark humor throughout it all, inspiring her husband’s work and injecting some of her own creative flair into it along the way.
30. This massive undertaking of over 800 pages details every knowable moment of the youngest Founding Father’s life: from his role in the Revolutionary War and early American government to his sordid (and ultimately career-destroying) affair with Maria Reynolds.
Wilson closely examines her early family and relationships, feelings and experiences, with information taken from her meticulous diaries — setting a strong precedent for other Plath biographers to follow.
15. Johnson himself was a surprisingly cunning figure, gradually maneuvering his way closer and closer to power. But that didn’t stop Stephen Greenblatt, who in 2004 turned out this magnificently detailed biography of the Bard: a series of imaginative reenactments of his writing process, and insights on how the social and political ideals of the time would have influenced him.
Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford
This appropriately lyrical biography of brilliant Jazz Age poet and renowned feminist, Edna St. Vincent Millay, is indeed a perfect balance of savage and beautiful. What you may not know is that these nuclear pioneers also had a fascinating personal history.
While Millay’s poetic work was delicate and subtle, the woman herself was feisty and unpredictable, harboring unusual and occasionally destructive habits that Milford fervently explores.
24. Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life by Ruth Franklin
Another Gothic figure has been made newly known through this work, detailing the life of prolific horror and mystery writer Shirley Jackson.
But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best.”
― Marilyn Monroe
“So many books, so little time.”
― Frank Zappa
“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.”
― Albert Einstein
“A room without books is like a body without a soul.”
― Marcus Tullius Cicero
“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.”
― Bernard M.
Baruch
“You've gotta dance like there's nobody watching,
Love like you'll never be hurt,
Sing like there's nobody listening,
And live like it's heaven on earth.”
― William W. Purkey
“You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.”
― Dr.
Seuss
“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”
― Mae West
“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”
― Mahatma Gandhi
“In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.”
― Robert Frost
“If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.”
― J.K.
Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
“Don’t walk in front of me… I may not follow
Don’t walk behind me… I may not lead
Walk beside me… just be my friend”
― Albert Camus
“If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.”
― Mark Twain
“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
― Maya Angelou
“Friendship ...
Grann tells the story of Percy Fawcett, the archaeologist who vanished in the Amazon along with his son in 1925, supposedly in search of an ancient lost city. These compelling reads offer intimate portraits and have earned accolades across numerous literary discussions.
Their passion for each other bled into their passion for their work, and vice-versa — and in almost no time at all, they were on their way to their first of their Nobel Prizes.
22. You too? In it, Walter Isaacson weaves a narrative that shows how Leonardo da Vinci's art and science intersected, and how his innovative studies of anatomy, fossils, birds, flying machines, and more made him a true Renaissance man.
is born at the moment when one man says to another "What!