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A Literary Saloon and Site of Review
Index of Biographies,
Autobiographies and Memoirs
under review
at
the complete review
Included on this index is any non-fiction book whose main subject is an individual, from dry academic studies to personal diaries.
(For fictional, dramatic, and poetic (ab)uses of real people as characters see our Index of Real People in Works of Fiction.)
Note that on this index the books are listed by Subject, not Author.
Author's names -- where they differ from that of the subject -- are given after the title.
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Note: for books in square brackets ("[...]") we only offer review-overviews
- Walter ABISH: Double Vision (B+) -- self-portrait
- Chinua ACHEBE:
- Johanna ADORJÁN: An Exclusive Love (B+)
-- A Memoir (of her grandparents' suicide pact)
- AKBAR: The History of Akbar (I) (-) -- Abu'l-Fazl's biography
- Anna AKHMATOVA: The Guest from the Future (B) -- György Dalos' study
- Leon Battista ALBERTI: Biographical and Autobiographical Writings (B+)
- ALEXANDER the Great: Sikandar Nama, e bara (A-) -- Nizami's brilliant verse biography
- Henri ALLEG: The Question (B+) -- torture memoir
- Idi AMIN: Talk of the Devil (B+) -- Riccardo Orizio's encounter
- Martin AMIS:
- Aharon APPELFELD:
- Ayi Kwei ARMAH:
- Diana ATHILL: Stet (B+) -- an editor's life
- Naim ATTALLAH: Ghosting (A-) -- Jennie Erdal's memoir
- John AUBREY: John Aubrey, My Own Life (B) -- Ruth Scurr's in-his-own-words biography
- Alan AYCKBOURN: Conversations with Ayckbourn (B+) -- with Ian Watson
- Zahiruddin Muhammad BABUR: Baburnama (B+) -- autobiography
- Murray BAIL: Notebooks: 1970-2003 (B+)
- Honoré de BALZAC: Honoré de Balzac (B+) -- Peter Brooks' overview-study
- Lynn BARBER: An Education (B) -- memoir
- Roland BARTHES: Mourning Diary (-) -- October 26, 1977-June 21, 1978
- John Stewart BELL: Quantum Reflections (--), (ed. J. Ellis and D. Amati) -- essays inspired by Bell's work
- Walter BENJAMIN: Walter Benjamin (A-) -- Jean-Michel Palmier's massive monograph
- Alan BENNETT: The Lady in the Van (B+) -- autobiographical
- Isaiah BERLIN: The Guest from the Future (B) -- György Dalos' study of his meeting with Anna Akhmatova
- John BERGER: Ways of Telling (B) -- Geoff Dyer's study
- Thomas BERNHARD:
- Jeff BEZOS: The Everything Store (B) -- Brad Stone on Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon
- BIBISH: The Dancer from Khiva (B-) -- One Muslim Woman's Quest for Freedom
- Léon BLOY: Léon Bloy (B) -- Rayner Heppenstall's study
- Jean-Bedel BOKASSA: Talk of the Devil (B+) -- Riccardo Orizio's encounter
- Jorge Luis BORGES:
- Grégoire BOUILLIER: Report on Myself (C+) -- memoir
- Matthew BOULTON: The Lunar Men (B+) -- Jenny Uglow's study
- Tycho BRAHE: On Tycho's Island (B) -- J.R.Christianson's biography
- Volker BRAUN: Werktage (B+) -- Arbeitsbuch 1977-1989
- Anders BREIVIK: One of Us (B) -- The Story of Anders Breivik and the Massacre in Norway by Åsne Seierstad
- Hermann BROCH: Dear Mrs. Strigl/Liebe Frau Strigl (B) -- memoir by his son
- Sir Thomas BROWNE: Sir Thomas Browne (B) -- The Opium of Time, by Gavin Francis
- Edward BULWER LYTTON:
- William S. BURROUGHS: The Job (B) -- interviews with Daniel Odier
- George W. BUSH: The President of Good and Evil (B+) -- Peter Singer looks at The Ethics of George W. Bush
- Elias CANETTI:
- Peter CAREY: Wrong About Japan (B) - A Father's Journey with his Son
- Massimo CARLOTTO: The Fugitive (B) - his years on the run
- Rudolf CARNAP:
- Emmanuel CARRÈRE:
- CASANOVA: Marginalia on Casanova (A-) -- by Szentkuthy Miklós
- Willa CATHER: Willa Cather and the Politics of Criticism (B+) -- by Joan Acocella
- Jean François CHAMPOLLION:
- Vikram CHANDRA: Geek Sublime (B) -- autobiographical (title in India: Mirrored Mind)
- CHAUCER: Chaucer (B-) -- Peter Ackroyd's mini-biography
- E.M.CIORAN: An Infamous Past (A-) -- Marta Petreu's study of E.M.Cioran and the Rise of Fascism in Romania
- Bill CLINTON: An Affair of State (A-) -- Richard A. Posner analyzes the Clinton-Lewinsky debacle
- Arthur H. CLOUGH: The Voice of Victorian Sex (B+) -- Rupert Christiansen's biographical essay
- Maryse CONDÉ: What is Africa to Me ? (B) -- memoir of her African years
- Julian COPE:
- DANTE Alighieri:
- Dante (B) -- The Story of His Life, by Marco Santagata
- Dante's Bones (B) -- How a Poet Invented Italy by Guy P. Raffa
- Charles DARWIN: Darwin (B+) -- Ruth Padel's A Life in Poems
- Erasmus DARWIN:
- John DEWEY: The Metaphysical Club (A-) -- Louis Menand's broad survey
- Philip K. DICK: I am Alive and You are Dead (B) -- Emmanuel Carrère's biography
- Tove DITLEVSEN:
- Tahar DJAOUT: Silence is Death (B+) -- Julija Šukys on The Life and Work of Tahar Djaout
- Bill DRUMMOND:
- 17 (B+) -- autobiographical
- 45 (B+) -- autobiographical
- Annual Report (A-) -- autobiographical bits
- Baby Doc DUVALIER: Talk of the Devil (B+) -- Riccardo Orizio's encounter
- Shirin EBADI: Iran Awakening (B+) -- A Memoir of Revolution and Hope
- Adolf EICHMANN: Criminal Case 40/61, the Trial of Adolf Eichmann (B+) -- Harry Mulisch's eyewtiness account
- Albert EINSTEIN:
- T.S.ELIOT: Words Alone (B+) -- Denis Donoghue's study
- James ELLROY: My Dark Places (B+) -- memoir
- Jason EPSTEIN: Book Business (B+) -- publishing memoir
- Jennie ERDAL: Ghosting (A-) -- memoir
- Annie ERNAUX:
- Jenny ERPENBECK: Not a Novel (B+) -- A Memoir in Pieces
- Sergei ESENIN: A Novel Without Lies (B+) -- Anatoly Mariengof's memoir
- ESTERHÁZY Péter: Utazás a tizenhatos mélyére (B+) -- autobiographical musings
- Paul FEYERABEND:
- Gustave FLAUBERT:
- Jonathan FRANZEN: The Discomfort Zone (A-) -- A Personal History
- George MacDonald FRASER: Quartered Safe Out Here (B+) -- recollection of the war in Burma
- Max FRISCH: From the Berlin Journal (B) -- diary, 1973-4
- Stephen FRY: Fat Chance (A-) -- Simon Gray's account of the Cell Mates fiasco
- Ruben GALLEGO: White on Black (B+) -- memoir of being disabled in the USSR
- Gabriel GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ:
- William H. GASS: Conversations With William H. Gass (B), ed. T.G. Ammon
- Edward GIBBON: Memoirs of my own Life (B+) -- autobiography
- Natalia GINZBURG: It's Hard to Talk About Yourself (B) -- radio interviews
- John GITHONGO: It's Our Turn to Eat (B+) -- The Story of a Kenyan Whistle-Blower by Michela Wrong
- Witold GOMBROWICZ:
- Kurt GÖDEL, :
- Juan GOYTISOLO:
- Günter GRASS:
- Alasdair GRAY:
- Simon GRAY:
- Graham GREENE: Greene on Capri (B) -- Shirley Hazzard's memoir
- Janet GROTH: The Receptionist (B) -- An Education at The New Yorker
- Durs GRÜNBEIN: Das erste Jahr (B+) -- Berlin notes, for the year 2000
- Lars GYLLENSTEN: Lars Gyllensten (B) -- Hans Isaksson's monograph
- Hugo HAMILTON: The Speckled People (B) - memoir
- HAN Sorya: Han Sorya and North Korean Literature (B) -- The Failure of Socialist Realism in the DPRK by Brian Myers
- Michèle HALBERSTADT, : La Petite (B+) -- memoir
- David HARE: Acting Up (B-) -- a diary of his acting experience
- Jane Ellen HARRISON: Reminiscences of a Student's Life (B+) -- memoir
- Martin HEIDEGGER: Martin Heidegger's Changing Destinies (A-) -- Catholicism, Revolution, Nazism, by Guillaume Payen
- Michael Henry HEIM: The Man Between (B) -- Michael Henry Heim & A Life in Translation, eds. Esther Allen, Sean Cotter, and Russell Scott Valentino
- HELEN: Helen (B) -- Jerry Pinto on The Life and Times of an H-Bomb
- HELIOGABALUS: The Crimes of Elagabalus (B) -- The Life and Legacy of Rome's Decadent Boy Emperor by Martijn Icks
- Oliver Wendell HOLMES, Jr.: The Metaphysical Club (A-) -- Louis Menand's broad survey
- Robert HOOKE: The Curious Life of Robert Hooke -- Lisa Jardine's biography
- Bohumil HRABAL:
- Victor HUGO: The Temptation of the Impossible (B+) -- Mario Vargas Llosa's study of Victor Hugo and Les Misérables
- John IRVING: My Movie Business (B+) -- memoir
- Edmond JABÈS: Lavish Absence (B+) - Recalling and Rereading Edmond Jabès by Rosmarie Waldrop
- William JAMES: The Metaphysical Club (A-) -- Louis Menand's broad survey
- Wojciech JARUZELSKI: Talk of the Devil (B+) -- Riccardo Orizio's encounter
- B.S.JOHNSON: Like a Fiery Elephant (A) -- Jonathan Coe's biography
- Samuel JOHNSON: Dr.Johnson's Dictionary (US title: Defining the World) (B+) -- Henry Hitchings' account
- Denys JOHNSON-DAVIES: Memories in Translation (B) -- A Life Between the Lines Of Arabic Literature
- James JOYCE: Conversations with James Joyce (B+) -- Arthur Power's recollections
- Ernst JÜNGER: A German Officer in Occupied Paris (B+) -- The War Journals, 1941-1945
- Franz KAFKA: Kafka's Last Trial (B) -- Benjamin Balint on The Case of a Literary Legacy
- Theodor KALLIFATIDES: Another Life (B+) -- On Memory, Language, Love, and the Passage of Time
- Immanuel KANT:
- Lord KELVIN: Degrees Kelvin (B) -- David Lindley's biography
- Wolfgang von KEMPELEN: The Mechanical Turk (B+) -- Tom Standage
- KERTÉSZ Imre: Dossier K. (A-) -- his unusual memoir
- Michael KORDA: Another Life (B+) -- publishing memoir
- Siegfried KRACAUER: Kracauer - A Biography by Jörg Später
- Philippe LANÇON: Disturbance (B) -- Surviving Charlie Hebdo
- D.H. LAWRENCE: Out of Sheer Rage (A-) -- offbeat study by Geoff Dyer
- Michel LEIRIS: Manhood (B) -- A Journey from Childhood into the Fierce Order of Virility
- J.M.G. LE CLÉZIO: The African (B) -- autobiographical
- Hervé LE TELLIER: All Happy Families (B+) -- A Memoir
- Stanislaw LEM: A Stanislaw Lem Reader (B-) -- introduction to Lem and his work, ed. by Peter Swirski
- Vladimir I. LENIN: Lenin's Embalmers (B-) -- Ilya Zbarsky
- John LENNON: The Mourning of John Lennon (B) -- Anthony Elliott
- King LEOPOLD II, of Belgium: King Leopold's Ghost (A-) -- biography by Adam Hochschild
- Edward LIMONOV: Limonov (B+) -- Emmanuel Carrère's biographical account
- Patrice LUMUMBA: The Assassination of Lumumba (-) -- account by Ludo De Witte
- LU Xun: Morning Blossoms Gathered at Dusk (B) -- reminiscences
- Alain MABANCKOU: [The Lights of Pointe-Noire -- A Memoir]
- Johann MAELZEL: The Mechanical Turk (B+) -- Tom Standage
- Naguib MAHFOUZ:
- Dean MAHOMED:
- Bodil MALMSTEN: The Price of Water in Finistère (B) -- sort of a memoir of living in France
- Alberto MANGUEL: A Reading Diary (B)
- Saadat Hasan MANTO: The Pity of Partition (B) - Ayesha Jalal on Manto's Life, Times, and Work across the India-Pakistan Divide
- MÁRAI Sándor: Napló 1984-1989 (A-) -- diary
- James MARCUS: Amazonia (A-) -- Five Years at the Epicenter of the Dot.Com Juggernaut
- Javier MARÍAS:
- MARIE-ANTOINETTE:
- Ann MARLOWE:
- Harry MATHEWS:
- Vladimir MAYAKOVSKY: Mayakovsky (B+) -- A Biography by Bengt Jangfeldt
- Robert McCRUM: My Year Off (B-) -- autobiographical, about recovering from a stroke
- MEHRING, Walter: The Lost Library (B) -- autobiographical
- MENGISTU Haile-Mariam: Talk of the Devil (B+) -- Riccardo Orizio's encounter
- MIR: Zikr-i Mir (B-) -- memoir by the Urdu poet
- MISHIMA Yukio: Persona (B+), INOSE Naoki -- A Biography of Yukio Mishima
- MOBUTU Sese Seko: In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz (B+) -- Michela Wrong's biography
- Patrick MODIANO: Pedigree (A-) -- A Memoir
- Wladyslaw MOES: The Real Tadzio (B+) -- Gilbert Adair's essay on the inpiration for Thomas Mann's Death in Venice
- Augusto MONTERROSO: The Gold Seekers (A-) -- memoir
- Nicholas MOSLEY: Time at War (B) -- WWII memoir
- Thomas MUNCH-PETERSEN: Fatal Error (B+) -- Confessions of an Accidental Killer
- MURAKAMI Haruki:
- MURASAKI Shikibu: The Diary of Lady Murasaki (B+) -- diary
- Iris MURDOCH: Elegy for Iris (also: Iris: A Memoir of Iris Murdoch) (B+) -- memoir by John Bayley
- Les MURRAY: Killing the Black Dog (B+) -- A Memoir of Depression
- Vladimir NABOKOV:
- Azar NAFISI: Reading Lolita in Tehran (B+) -- memoir
- V.S. NAIPAUL:
- NATSUME Sōseki: Sōseki (B) -- John Nathan on Modern Japan's Greatest Novelist
- Joseph NEEDHAM:
- The Man Who Loved China (UK title: Bomb, Book and Compass) (B) -- The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom by Simon Winchester
- My Unwritten Books (A-) -- by George Steiner, one of which was on Joseph Needham
- Irène NÉMIROVSKY:
- Pablo NERUDA:
- John von NEUMANN: The Man from the Future (B+) -- Ananyo Bhattacharya on The Visionary Life of John von Neumann
- Isaac NEWTON:
- Vítězslav NEZVAL: A Prague Flâneur (B) -- Prague in 1937-8
- NGŨGĨ wa Thiong'o:
- Friedrich NIETZSCHE: How Nietzsche Came in From the Cold (B) -- the Tale of a Redemption by Philipp Felsch
- Amélie NOTHOMB: Amélie Nothomb de A à Z (B) -- Michel Zumkir's Portrait d'un monstre littéraire
- David Ernst OPPENHEIM: Pushing Time Away (B+) -- Peter Singer's biography of his grandfather
- Sonia ORWELL: The Girl from the Fiction Department (B) -- Hilary Spurling's portrait
- Yambo OUOLOGUEM: Yambo Ouologuem: Postcolonial Writer, Islamic Militant (B-) -- essays, edited by Christopher Wise
- Oxford English Dictionary: The Professor and the Madman (also: The Surgeon of Crowthorne) (B+) -- study of the men behind it, by Simon Winchester
- Amos OZ: A Tale of Love and Darkness (A) -- memoir
- Orhan PAMUK: Istanbul (B) -- Memories and the City
- Giovanni PAPINI: The Failure (B) -- autobiographical
- Charles S. PEIRCE: The Metaphysical Club (A-) -- Louis Menand's broad survey
- Georges PEREC:
- Fernando PESSOA: Pessoa (A) -- Richard Zenith's biography
- Ricardo PIGLIA:
- The Diaries of Emilio Renzi: Formative Years (B+) -- fictionalized memoir
- The Diaries of Emilio Renzi: The Happy Years (B+)
- The Diaries of Emilio Renzi: A Day in the Life (B+)
- Josep PLA: The Gray Notebook (B+) -- diary 1918-9
- POL POT: Pol Pot (A-) -- Philip Short's biography
- Karl POPPER:
- Richard POSNER: Richard Posner (B) -- William Domnarski's biography
- Dennis POTTER:
- Joseph PRIESTLEY: The Lunar Men (B+) -- Jenny Uglow's study
- Marcel PROUST: How Proust can change your Life (A-) -- Proustian how-to from Alain de Botton
- Alexander PUSHKIN: Pushkin's Button (B-) -- study of his death, by Serena Vitale
- Gregory RABASSA: If This Be Treason (B) -- memoir
- Sergio RAMÍREZ: Adiós muchachos (B) -- A Memoir of the Sandinista Revolution
- Wilhelm REICH:
- Brigitte REIMANN:
- Emma REYES: The Book of Emma Reyes -- A Memoir in Correspondence
- Yasmina REZA: Hammerklavier (B) -- autobiographical vignettes
- Rainer Maria RILKE: Reading Rilke (B+) -- William H. Gass focusses on the Duino Elegies
- Arthur RIMBAUD: Rimbaud the Son (F) - Pierre Michon's take
- Joseph ROTH: Wandering Jew (A-) - The Search for Joseph Roth by Dennis Marks
- Raymond ROUSSEL:
- Salman RUSHDIE: Joseph Anton (B+) - A Memoir
- D.A.F. de SADE: An Erotic Beyond: Sade (A-) -- brief study by Octavio Paz
- Françoise SAGAN: Sagan, Paris 1954 (B), Anne Berest's take on the publication of Bonjour Tristesse
- Inge SARGENT: Twilight over Burma (B) -- My Life as a Shan Princess
- Nicolas SARKOZY: Dawn, Dusk or Night (B) -- A Year with Nicolas Sarkozy by Yasmina Reza
- Marjane SATRAPI:
- David SHIELDS: The Very Last Interview (B)
- André SCHIFFRIN: The Business of Books (B+) -- publishing memoir
- Arno SCHMIDT:
- Arthur SCHOPENHAUER: Schopenhauers Kampf um sein Werk (B+) -- Alfred Estermann on Schopenhauer and his publishers
- W.G.SEBALD: The Emergence of Memory (B+) -- Lynne Sharon Schwartz edits a collection of Conversations with W.G.Sebald
- Ignaz Philipp SEMMELWEIS: Semmelweis (A-) -- Louis-Ferdinand Céline's dissertation
- Queen of SHEBA: Sheba (B) -- Nicholas Clapp goes in search of
- SHIVAJI: Shivaji (B) -- James W. Laine's study of the Hindu King in Islamic India
- Viktor SHKLOVSKY: Shklovsky: Witness to an Era (B-) -- in conversation with Serena Vitale
- Georges SIMENON: When I was Old (B+) -- notebooks, 1960-1963
- Iain SINCLAIR: The Verbals (B) -- in conversation with Kevin Jackson
- Francis SPUFFORD: The Child That Books Built (B) -- reading memoir
- STALIN:
- Koba the Dread (B-) -- Martin Amis' account of
- Stalin (A-) -- Simon Sebag Montefiore on The Court of the Red Tsar
- Stalin's Library (B) -- Geoffrey Roberts on A Dictator and His Books
- Gertrude STEIN:
- Jacob STEINBERG: I Never Had a Best-Seller (B) -- The Story of a Small Publisher
- George STEINER:
- Tom STOPPARD:
- SUGAWARA no Takasue no Musume: The Sarashina Diary (B+) -- A Woman's Life in Eleventh-Century Japan
- Bruna SURFISTINHA: The Scorpion's Sweet Venom (C-) -- The Diary of a Brazilian Call Girl
- TEZUKA Osamu: The Osamu Tezuka Story (B+) -- A Life in Manga and Anime by Ban Toshio
- Paul THEROUX:
- Scarlett THOMAS: 41-Love (B) -- memoir On Addictions, Tennis, and Refusing to Grow Up
- Alice B. TOKLAS: The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (B+) -- (auto)biography by Gertrude Stein
- Michel TOURNIER: The Wind Spirit (A-) -- An Autobiography
- Tomas TRANSTRÖMER: Memories Look at Me (B+) -- A Memoir
- Tonio VAN DER HEIJDEN: Tonio (B+) -- A Requiem Memoir by Adri van der Heijden
- Mario VARGAS LLOSA: A Fish in the Water (A-) -- memoir
- Aleksander WAT: My Century (B) -- The Odyssey of a Polish Intellectual
- James WATT: The Lunar Men (B+) -- Jenny Uglow's study
- Josiah WEDGWOOD: The Lunar Men (B+) -- Jenny Uglow's study
- Otto WEININGER: Otto Weininger (B+) -- Chandak Sengoopta's critical study
- Peter WEISS:
- Briefe (B) -- letters
- Peter Weiss: Leben eines kritischen Intellektuellen --Werner Schmidt's biography
- Fay WELDON:
- Edwin N. WILMSEN: Journeys with Flies (B) -- autobiographical
- Jeanette WINTERSON: Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal ? (B+) -- autobiographical
- Ludwig WITTGENSTEIN
- [Christa WOLF One Day a Year: 1960-2000]
- Marguerite YOURCENAR: With Open Eyes (B+) -- Conversations with Matthieu Galey
- Adam ZAGAJEWSKI: Another Beauty (B+) -- memoir
- Enayat al-ZAYYAT: Traces of Enayat (B) -- Iman Mersal in search of
- Béla ZSOLT: Nine Suitcases (A) - memoir
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