Best Biographies of 2017 by KIRKUS

Title: Leonardo Da Vinci

This new biography brings Leonardo da Vinci to life; based on thousands of pages from Leonardo's astonishing notebooks and new discoveries about his life and work, Walter Isaacson weaves a narrative that connects his art to his science.

Author(s): Walter Isaacson

ISBN 13: 9781501139154
Pages: 624

This book is in (2) other book lists, learn more.

Title: Stalin

The Pulitzer Prize finalist author of Uncivil Society presents a history of the world during the build-up to World War II from the vantage point of Joseph Stalin's sea of power, exploring how in the aftermath of achieving dictatorial power ...

Author(s): Stephen Kotkin

ISBN 13: 9781594203800
Pages: 1184

Title: Hank and Jim

Biographer and film historian Scott Eyman spoke with Fonda's widow and children as well as three of Stewart's children, plus actors and directors who had worked with the men - in addition to doing extensive archival research to get the full ...

Author(s): Scott Eyman

ISBN 13: 9781501102172
Pages: 384

Title: Ali

"Based on more than 500 interviews, including Muhammad Ali's closest associates, and enhanced by access to thousands of pages of newly released FBI records, this is a ... story of a man who became one of the great figures of the twentieth ...

Author(s): Jonathan Eig

ISBN 13: 9780544435247
Pages: 640

This book is in (2) other book lists, learn more.

Title: Lou Reed

Now, just a few years after Reed's death, Rolling Stone writer Anthony DeCurtis, who knew Reed and interviewed him extensively, tells the provocative story of his complex and chameleonic life.

Author(s): Anthony DeCurtis

ISBN 13: 9780316552424
Pages: 560

Title: Calder

More than 350 illustrations in color and black-and-white--including little-known works and many archival photographs that have never before been seen--further enrich the story.

Author(s): Jed Perl

ISBN 13: 9780307272720
Pages: 687

Title: Freud

An assessment of psychoanalysis and the views of its creator reveals Sigmund Freud's blunders with patients, his misunderstandings about the psychological controversies of his time, and how he advanced his career on the appropriated ...

Author(s): Frederick Crews

ISBN 13: 9781627797177
Pages: 768

Title: Hoover

Hoover: An Extraordinary Life in Extraordinary Times is the epic, poignant story of the deprived boy who, through force of will, made himself the most accomplished figure in the land, and who experienced a range of achievements and failures ...

Author(s): Kenneth Whyte

ISBN 13: 9780307597960
Pages: 728

Title: The Kelloggs

" --Bing Crosby From the much admired medical historian ("Markel shows just how compelling the medical history can be"--Andrea Barrett) and author of An Anatomy of Addiction ("Absorbing, vivid"--Sherwin Nuland, The New York Times Book ...

Author(s): Howard Markel

ISBN 13: 9780307907271
Pages: 544

Title: The Songs We Know Best

"A biography focusing on the poet John Ashbery's early life"--

Author(s): Karin Roffman

ISBN 13: 9780374293840
Pages: 336

Title: Henry David Thoreau

Many books have taken up various aspects of Thoreau’s character and achievements, but, as Laura Dassow Walls writes, “Thoreau has never been captured between covers; he was too quixotic, mischievous, many-sided.” Two hundred years ...

Author(s): Laura Dassow Walls

ISBN 13: 9780226344690
Pages: 615

Title: Churchill and Orwell

A fascinating dual biography of Winston Churchill and George Orwell, with a focus on the pivotal years from the mid-1930s through the 1940s, when their farsighted vision and inspired action in the face of the threat of fascism and communism ...

Author(s): Thomas E. Ricks

ISBN 13: 9781594206139
Pages: 339

Title: Goethe

A biography of the "German Shakespeare" draws on letters, diaries, notebooks, and correspondence to create a comprehensive picture of the writer's genius.

Author(s): Rüdiger Safranski

ISBN 13: 9780871404909
Pages: 651

Title: The Invention of Angela Carter

"With unprecedented access to its subject's personal records and informed by fresh, unvarnished anecdotes from family, friends, and colleagues, Edmund Gordon's biography provides the first full account of Angela Carter's amazing life and ...

Author(s): Edmund Gordon

ISBN 13: 9780190626846
Pages: 504

Title: Toscanini

Arturo Toscanini (1867--1957) was famed for his dedication, photographic memory, explosive temper and impassioned performances.

Author(s): Harvey Sachs

ISBN 13: 9781631492716
Pages: 923

Title: Six Encounters with Lincoln

Explores the psychology, character, and leadership of the sixteenth president as evidenced by six encounters with his constituents, from an awkward meeting with Army officers on the eve of the Civil War to a White House conversation with a ...

Author(s): Elizabeth Brown Pryor

ISBN 13: 9780670025909
Pages: 480

Title: Jonathan Swift

A rich and riveting portrait of the man behindGulliver s Travels, by a vivid, ardent, and engaging author New York Times Book Review)."

Author(s): John Stubbs

ISBN 13: 9780393239423
Pages: 752