The Greatest Memoirs
This selection of memoirs is based on the continuing research carried out for The Greatest Literature of All Time list and further research into memoirs, autobiographies and diaries acclaimed by the world's readers, writers, critics and scholars.
Memoirs, autobiographies and diaries are often differentiated. For this list though, they are considered together as all being nonfictional, first-person, accounts.
You my also be interested in The Greatest Biographies or The Greatest Nonfiction.
The Greatest Memoirs is updated as new works are discovered and appreciation of older works evolves. Please note the revision date when citing the list.
Latest update: July 9, 2025
The 88 Greatest Memoirs, Autobiographies and Diaries
397–400
Confessions
by Augustine of Hippo, Algeria
Nonfiction
c. 1000
The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon
by Sei Shonagon, Japan
Nonfiction
1395
Revelations of Divine Love
by Julian of Norwich, England
Nonfiction
1563
The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini
by Benvenuto Cellini, Italy
Nonfiction
1568
The True History of the Conquest of New Spain
by Bernal Díaz del Castillo, Spain
Nonfiction, originally Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España
1660
The Diary of Samuel Pepys
by Samuel Pepys, England
Nonfiction
1672
The Life Written by Himself
by Avvákum Petróv, Russia
Nonfiction
1782
Confessions
by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Switzerland
Nonfiction, originally Les Confessions
1789
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano
by Olaudah Equiano, Benin
Nonfiction with full title The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, the African
1793
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
by Benjamin Franklin, United States
Nonfiction
1796
Memoirs of My Life and Writings
by Edward Gibbon, England
Nonfiction
1821
Confessions of an English Opium Eater
by Thomas De Quincey, England
Nonfiction
1822
History of My Life
by Giacomo Casanova, Italy
Nonfiction
1840
Two Years Before the Mast
by Richard Henry Dana, Jr., United States
Nonfiction
1845
The Voyage of the Beagle
by Charles Darwin, England
Nonfiction, also known as Journal of Researches
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave
by Frederick Douglass, United States
Nonfiction
1849–1850
Memoirs from Beyond the Grave
by Francois René de Chateaubriand, France
Nonfiction
1852
Roughing It in the Bush
by Susanna Moodie, Canada
Nonfiction
1854
Walden
by Henry David Thoreau, United States
Nonfiction, originally Walden; or, Life in the Woods
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
by Harriet Jacobs, United States
Nonfiction
1883
Life on the Mississippi
by Mark Twain, United States
Nonfiction
1907
The Education of Henry Adams
by Henry Adams, United States
Nonfiction
1913
My Childhood
by Maxim Gorky, Russia
Nonfiction
1914–1935
Autobiographies
by W.B. Yeats, Ireland
Nonfiction
1926
Seven Pillars of Wisdom
by T.E. Lawrence, Wales
Nonfiction, also known as Revolt in the Desert
1929
Good-Bye to All That
by Robert Graves, England
Nonfiction
1930
My Early Life
by Winston Churchill, England
Nonfiction, also known as A Roving Commission: My Early Life
1933
Testament of Youth
by Vera Brittain, England
Nonfiction
Down and Out in Paris and London
by George Orwell, England
Nonfiction
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas
by Gertrude Stein, United States
Nonfiction
1937
Out of Africa
by Isak Dinesen, Denmark
Nonfiction
1942
The World of Yesterday
by Stefan Zweig, Austria
Nonfiction
West with the Night
by Beryl Markham, Kenya
Nonfiction
1945
Black Boy
by Richard Wright, United States
Nonfiction, subtitled A Record of Childhood and Youth
1946
Man's Search for Meaning
by Victor Frankl, Austria
Nonfiction, originally Ein Psychologe erlebt das Konzentrationslager
Autobiography of a Yogi
by Paramahansa Yogananda, India
Nonfiction
1947
The Diary of a Young Girl
by Anne Frank, Germany
Nonfiction, also known as The Diary of Anne Frank
If This Is a Man
by Primo Levi, Italy
Nonfiction, also known as Survival in Auschwitz
1948–1949
Journal
by Franz Kafka, Austria
Nonfiction, also known as The Diaries
1954
My Left Foot
by Christy Brown, Ireland
Nonfiction
1955
Triste Tropiques
by Claude Lévi-Strauss, France
Nonfiction
1956
Night
by Elie Wiesel, United States
Nonfiction
1958
Borstal Boy
by Brendan Behan, Ireland
Nonfiction
1959
Down Second Avenue
by E'skia Mphahlele, South Africa
Nonfiction
1963
Never Cry Wolf
by Farley Mowat, Canada
Nonfiction
1965
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
by as told to Alex Haley, United States
Nonfiction
1967
Speak, Memory
by Vladimir Nabokov, Russia
Nonfiction, subtitled An Autobiography Revisited
1970
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
by Maya Angelou, United States
Nonfiction
1975
The Periodic Table
by Primo Levi, Italy
Nonfiction
1976
The Woman Warrior
by Maxine Hong Kingston, United States
Nonfiction, subtitled Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts
1977
Dispatches
by Michael Herr, United States
Nonfiction
1978
Puberty
by Ivar Lo-Johansson, Sweden
Nonfiction
1982
Wittgenstein's Nephew
by Thomas Bernhard, Austria
Nonfiction
1981
Tattoo-chan
by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, Japan
Nonfiction, subtitled The Little Girl at the Window
Aké: The Years of Childhood
by Wole Soyinka, Nigeria
Nonfiction
1986
Kaffir Boy
by Mark Mathabane, South Africa
Nonfiction
1989
This Boy's Life
by Tobias Wolff, United States
Nonfiction
1993
Before Night Falls
by Reinaldo Arenas, Cuba
Nonfiction
1994
Long Walk to Freedom
by Nelson Mandela, South Africa
Nonfiction
1995
The Liar's Club
by Mary Karr, United States
Nonfiction
1996
Angela's Ashes
by Frank McCourt, Ireland
Nonfiction
1997
Falling Leaves
by Adeline Yen Mah, United States
Nonfiction
I Have Lived a Thousand Years
by Livia Bitton-Jackson, Israel
Nonfiction
Tuesdays with Morrie
by Mitch Albom, United States
Nonfiction
Into Thin Air
by Jon Krakauer, United States
Nonfiction, subtitled A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster
2000
Experience
by Martin Amis, England
Nonfiction
2000
Happening
by Annie Ernaux, Russia
Nonfiction
Kitchen Confidential
by Anthony Bourdain, United States
Nonfiction
On Writing
by Stephen King, United States
Nonfiction
First They Killed My Father
by Loung Ung, United States
Nonfiction, subtitled A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers
2002
A Tale of Love and Darkness
by Amos Oz, Israel
Nonfiction
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
by Dave Eggers, United States
Nonfiction
2003
Reading Lolita in Tehran
by Azar Nafisi, Iran
Nonfiction
2004
Chronicles: Volume One
by Bob Dylan, United States
Nonfiction
2005
The Year of Magical Thinking
by Joan Didion, United States
Nonfiction
The Glass Castle
by Jeannette Walls, United States
Nonfiction
2006
Eat, Pray, Love
by Elizabeth Gilbert, United States
Nonfiction, subtitled One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia
2007
A Long Way Gone
by Ishmael Beah, Sierra Leone
Nonfiction, subtitled Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
Three Cups of Tea
by Gregory Mortenson, David Oliver Rehn, United States
Nonfiction
2008
The Years
by Annie Ernaux, England
Nonfiction, originally Les Années
2010
The Hare with Amber Eyes
by Edmund de Waal, England
Nonfiction
Just Kids
by Patti Smith, United States
Nonfiction
2011
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
by Jeanette Winterson, England
Nonfiction
2012
Wild
by Cheryl Strayed, United States
Nonfiction, subtitled From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
2015
Between the World and Me
by Ta-Nehisi Coates, United States
Nonfiction
Negroland
by Margo Jefferson, United States
Nonfiction
The Argonauts
by Maggie Nelson, United States
Nonfiction
