The 44 Greatest Biographies
▽ Introduction
△ Introduction
Biographies, memoirs and autobiographies are among the most appealing kinds of nonfiction for the genereal public. Everyone it seems appreciates the story of someone's life, especially the life of an interesting person.
For the Greatest lists though, we are distinguishing these literary forms to give them each their due. A biography is an account of the life of another person, living or dead. A memoir is an account of some period or aspect of the author's life. An autobiography is like a memoior but it covers the author's entire life.
This list focuses on major works of biography, covering all times, places and cultures.
The selection is based on the continuing research carried out for The Greatest Literature of All Time and The Greatest Works of Nonfiction, with further research intointo biographies acclaimed by the world's readers, writers, critics and scholars.
Latest update: September 14, 2026
c.370 BCE
Cyropaedia
by Xenophon, Greece
Nonfiction, also known as The Education of Cyrus
c.100 CE
Parallel Lives
by Plutarch, Greece
Nonfiction, also known as The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans and Plutarch's Lives
121 CE
The Twelve Caesars
by Suetonius, Rome
Nonfiction, also known as Lives of the Caesars
1550–1568
Lives of the Artists
by Giorgio Vasari, Italy
Nonfiction, also known as The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects
1693
Brief Lives
by John Aubry, England
Nonfiction
1791
Life of Samuel Johnson
by James Boswell, England
Nonfiction
1857
The Life of Charlotte Brontë
by Elizabeth Gaskell, England
Nonfiction
1918
Eminent Victorians
by Lytton Strachey, England
Nonfiction
1922
Napoleon
by Emil Ludwig, Germany
Nonfiction
1934
Erasmus of Rotterdam
by Stefan Zweig, Austria
Nonfiction
1943
Saint Genet: Actor and Martyr
by Jean-Paul Sartre, France
Nonfiction
1950
Florence Nightingale: 1820-1910
by Cecil Woodham-Smith, Wales
Nonfiction
1953–1972
Henry James: A Life
by Leon Edel, United States
Nonfiction
1959
James Joyce
by Richard Ellman, United States
Nonfiction
1962
Renoir, My Father
by Jean renoir, France
Nonfiction
1966
Disraeli
by Robert Blake, England
Nonfiction
1967
Nicholas and Alexandra
by Robert K. Massie, United States
Nonfiction, subtitled An Intimate Account of the Last of the Romanovs and the Fall of Imperial Russia
1972
Virginia Woolf: A Biography
by Quentin Bell, England
Nonfiction
1974
The Power Broker
by Robert A. Caro, United States
Nonfiction, subtitled Robert Moses and the Fall of New York
The Eagles Die
by George Richard Marek, United States
Nonfiction, subtitled Franz Joseph, Elisabeth, and Their Austria
1975
Samuel August from Sevedstorp and Hanna i Hult
by Astrid Lindgren, Sweden
Nonfiction
1979
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt
by Edmund Morris, United States
Nonfiction
1982
Summer in Baden-Baden
by Leonard Tsypkin, Russia
Nonfiction
1983
Alan Turing: The Enigma
by Andrew Hodges, England
Nonfiction
Frida
by Hayden Herrera, United States
Nonfiction, subtitled A Biography of Frida Kahlo
1988
Tolstoy: A Biogdraphy
by A.N. Wilson, England
Nonfiction
1990
Dickens
by Peter Ackroyd, England
Nonfiction
1993–2000
W.E.B. Du Bois
by Peter Ackroyd, England
Nonfiction, subtitled A Biography 1868-1963
1994
The Kid Stays In The Picture
by Robert Evans, United States
Nonfiction, subtitled A Notorious Life
1998
A Beautiful Mind
by Sylvia Nasar, United States
Nonfiction
2001
Savage Beauty
by Nancy Milford, United States
Nonfiction, subtitled The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay
2003
Beethoven: The Music and the Life
by Lewis Lockwood, United States
Nonfiction
2004
Alexander Hamilton
by Ron Chernow, United States
Nonfiction
Will in the World
by Stephen Greenblatt, United States
Nonfiction, subtitled How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare
2007
Einstein: His Life and Universe
by Walter Isaacson, United States
Nonfiction, subtitled His Life and Universe
2010
Washington: A Life
by Ron Chernow, United States
Nonfiction
2011
Steve Jobs
by Walter Isaacson, United States
Nonfiction
Catherine the Great
by Robert K. Massie, United States
Nonfiction, subtitled Portrait of a Woman
2012
The Black Count
by Tom Reiss, United States
Nonfiction, subtitled Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo
2013
Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life
by Hermione Lee, England
Nonfiction
Birth Certificate
by Mark Thompson, England
Nonfiction, subtitled The Story of Danilo Kiš
2014
Joan of Arc: A History
by Helen Castor, England
Nonfiction
2017
Woolloomooloo: A Biography
by Louis Nowra, Australia
Nonfiction
2018
Barracoon
by Zora Neale Hurston, United States
Nonfiction, subtitled The Story of the Last "Black Cargo"
