Biographies 
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There are a total of 302 valid entries on the list.
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Average Rating:
4.5 stars
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Part biography, part political thriller, part scholarly detective story that draws on letters, diary entries, notes smuggled out of a Berlin prison, and other documents, this true story chronicles the life and brutal death of Mildred Harnack, the American leader of one of the largest underground resistance groups in Germany.
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Through the extraordinary life of Angelica Schuyler Church, a politically astute and socially influential figure, this story reveals how women shaped early American history through diplomacy, personal networks, and a strategic presence in key revolutionary moments.
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"At age 25 in 1951, with the publication of God and Man at Yale, a scathing attack on his alma mater, William F. Buckley, Jr. instantly seized the public stage-and commanded it for the next half century, leading a new generation of activists and ideologues to the heights of political power while he himself attained unique fame and public influence. Ten years before his death in 2008, Buckley chose prize-winning biographer Sam Tanenhaus to tell the...
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"A landmark biography of Charles Sumner, the unsung hero of the American Civil War and Reconstruction Charles Sumner is mainly known as the statesman who barely survived a brutal caning on the Senate floor by the slaveholder Preston Brooks in 1856. This violent episode has obscured Sumner's epic life as one of America's most visionary constitutional thinkers, a man who advocated for multiracial democracy and championed equal rights more than one hundred...
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"An intimate and expertly-researched biography of Frank Wisner, the father of CIA Black Ops, telling the story of his exciting intelligence escapades as well as his lifelong struggle with bipolar disorder"--
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"Written by one of the world's leading experts on the life and literature of Edgar Allan Poe, this biography is a rich and rewarding study for the general reader as well as for the seasoned scholar. Richard Kopley combines a biographical narrative of Poe's enduring challenges-including his difficult foster father, his personal losses, his great struggles with depression and alcoholism, and the poverty that dogged his existence-with close readings...
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"Exploring the creation of the El Cid legend over the centuries, this masterful and evocative biography peels away the layers of myth to reveal the real-life historical figure. El Cid was perhaps the most famous warrior involved in the indiscriminate fighting--irrespective of religion--on the Iberian Peninsula during the eleventh century. In the centuries after his death, he was transformed into a perfect Christian knight. In modernity, he was seen...
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Average Rating:
3 stars
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"The acclaimed Pulitzer Prize finalist and #1 New York Times bestselling author of Galileo's Daughter crafts a luminous chronicle of the most famous woman in the history of science, and the untold story of the many remarkable young women trained in her laboratory who were launched into stellar scientific careers of their own. "Even now, nearly a century after her death, Marie Curie remains the only female scientist most people can name," writes Dava...
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"Jill Bialosky, the poet behind the "tender, absorbing, and deeply moving memoir" (Entertainment Weekly) History of a Suicide, returns with a lyrical portrait of her mother's life, told in reverse order from burial to birth. When Iris Yvonne Bialosky died in an assisted care facility on March 29, 2020, it unleashed a torrent of emotions in her daughter, Jill Bialosky. Grief, of course, but also guilt, confusion, and doubt, all of which were compounded...
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Average Rating:
4.6 stars
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"In April 1944, Rudolf Vrba became the first Jew to break out of Auschwitz--one of only four who ever pulled off that near-impossible feat. He did it to reveal the truth of the death camp to the world--and to warn the last Jews of Europe what fate awaited them at the end of the railway line. Against all odds, he and his fellow escapee, Fred Wetzler, climbed mountains, crossed rivers and narrowly missed German bullets until they had smuggled out the...
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"For the doomed stand American forces made in the Philippines at the start of World War II, two generals received their country's highest military award, the Medal of Honor. One was the charismatic and controversial Douglas MacArthur, whose orders forced him to leave his soldiers on the islands to starvation and surrender but whose vow to return echoed around the globe. The other was the gritty Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright, who became a hero to the...
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"More than a decade after his sudden passing, James Gandolfini still exerts a powerful pull on television and film enthusiasts around the world. His charismatic portrayal of complex, flawed, but always human men illuminated the contradictions in all of us, as well as our potential for grace, and the power of love and family. ... Bailey traces his rise from bit parts to character roles he enlivened with menace and vulnerability, to Tony Soprano, the...
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"A book that explores the ... American novelist and playwright Edna Ferber--winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction--whose work was made into many Academy Award-winning movies. [It specifically examines] the writing of her controversial, international bestselling novel about Texas, and the making of George Stevens's Academy Award-winning epic film of the same name: Giant"--
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"This gripping family memoir of grief, courage, and hope tells the hidden stories of children who escaped the Holocaust, building connections across generations and continents. In 1938, Jewish families are scrambling to flee Vienna. Desperate, they take out advertisements offering their children into the safe keeping of readers of a British newspaper, the Manchester Guardian. The right words in the right order could mean the difference between life...
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Average Rating:
3 stars
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"John Harvey Kellogg was one of America's most beloved physicians; a best-selling author, lecturer, and health-magazine publisher; founder of the Battle Creek Sanitarium; and patron saint of the pursuit of wellness. His youngest brother Will was the founder of the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company, which revolutionized the mass production of food and what we eat for breakfast. In [this book], Howard Markel tells the ... saga of these two ......
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"Drawing from an archive of nearly five thousand letters and advertisements, the riveting, dramatic story of formerly enslaved people who spent years searching for family members stolen away during slavery."--
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"A historical account of wealthy Southern belle Elizabeth Van Lew, whose espionage for Abraham Lincoln and the Union helped win the Civil War"--Provided by publisher.
Wealthy Southern belle Elizabeth Van Lew had it all. Money, charm, wit--the most elegant mansion in Richmond. So why risk everything to become a Union spy? The answer was simple: freedom. Right in the heart of the Confederate capital, Elizabeth played the society lady while building...
20. Mark Twain
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Average Rating:
3.5 stars
Description:
"Born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in 1835, under Halley's Comet, the rambunctious Twain was an early teller of tall tales. He left his home in Missouri at an early age, piloted steamboats on the Mississippi, and arrived in the Nevada Territory during the silver-mining boom. Before long, he had accepted a job at the local newspaper, where he barged into vigorous discourse and debate, hoaxes and hijinks. After moving to San Francisco, he published stories...