Biographies and autobiographies

[Deleted]

I just read Secret Daughter by June Cross, the daughter of a white mother/black father; because of racial issues (this was the 1950's) her mother ended up giving June to her paternal aunt to raise when she realized that June would be too dark to "pass" as white. She spent a lot of time with June, but never fully claimed her as her daughter.
June came of age during the 60's, went to college then, etc. so
it was interesting to read how she dealt with a lot of racial issues that were only compounded because of the times.

[softtissue]

I have intended to get into biographies more but always get sidetracked by the latest pulp. My favorite bio was Life of the Party about Pamela Digby Churchill Hayward Harriman. Although she was a despicable character, she was like a real-life Leonard Zelig (or Forrest Gump if you prefer) who led a fascinating life. Evidently, without Pamela Bill Clinton would never have met Monica.

[Deleted]

If you're a Beverly Cleary fan, I can't recommend enough her two memoirs: Girl from Yamhill and My Own Two Feet. Lots of stuff from her own life ended up in her books (not so much the Ramona books as her "teen" novels, though).

What I found most interesting is the way she so realistically has written about family relationships, where her characters bicker mildly but love each other throughout and express it, when she and her mother had a pretty screwed up relationship. Her mother was extremely controlling, manipulative, and a harsh woman to live with. Yet Cleary's characters are so normal.

[chonies]

I just finished Journey From the Land of No by Roya Hakakian, which were her memoirs from about 1978-1984, during which she was a teenager in Iran. A lot of it overlapped nicely with Persepolis, but there were major differences. I'd give it a B+, very well written, subtle and senstitive, but sometimes a little too much so. Also, she begins with a ploy--she's sitting in her office in NYC, and she has to explain some misconceptions...which she never really goes back to, although most of them are obliquely revisited here and there.

It was very literary and sensitive but it lacked a lot of the ephemera-type details of the senses--taste, smell, touch, details. These were a bit wispy and thin, but I thought it was a good read nonetheless.

[Cinchona]

Right now, I'm reading three biographies concurrently:

Reckless Youth by Nigel Hamilton. I have to admit that my recent impression on JFK, partly formed by Seymour Hersh's The Dark Side of Camelot, was that he was pretty much the personification of the phrase "no 'there,' there." I'd seen him as a mentally shallow bedhopper who only got anywhere thanks to his father. Reckless Youth presents him as a bedhopper, but a bedhopper with a staggeringly clever mind and a deep and honest interest in the world and how it runs. I've also developed a respect for the humor and lack of complaining with which he handled his many sicknesses. I knew that he had health problems, but not that he was ill almost every day of his life since he was an infant. (The young Kennedy once joked to a friend about giving his autobiography the title of A Medical History.) I'm just at the point that covers his naval service.

Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow. My favorite of the three so far, and a very worthwhile read. I'm especially enjoying all the detail that Chernow used. You get the sense that he didn't leave out anything without feeling that he put too much in. Reading about the adolescent Hamilton's work ethic makes me feel like such a laggard by comparison.

Benjamin Franklin by Walter Isaacson. This one I'm nearly through with. Young Ben Franklin outmatches even Hamilton in discipline and ability. He also is the most fascinating figure of the three in my opinion. I plan to look for the collection of his writings that Isaacson edited.

[Auroranorth]

The last few bios I've read were:

The Titled Americans: Three American Sisters and the English Aristocratic World into Which They Married by Elisabeth Kehoe is a group biography of the Jerome sisters (Jennie Jerome was Winston Churchill's mother.) It's a fascinating look at the late Victorian/Edwardian era and the last days of the British Empire.

Death by Fame: A Life of Elisabeth, Empress of Austria makes very interesting parallels to the late Princess of Wales. It feels kind of trashy but it's still fun.

The Emperor and the Actress: The Love Story of Emperor Franz Josef and Katharina Schratt by Joan Haslip is a good "did he or didn't he cheat with her- certainly he loved her" book. They were involved for a good thirty years, as lovers maybe but definitely as beloved.

[piscessiren]

auroranorth said:

The Titled Americans: Three American Sisters and the English Aristocratic World into Which They Married by Elisabeth Kehoe is a group biography of the Jerome sisters (Jennie Jerome was Winston Churchill's mother.) It's a fascinating look at the late Victorian/Edwardian era and the last days of the British Empire.

Thank you Auroranorth! There's a biography of Jennie Jerome that I read years (okay decades) ago that has since gone out of print and I'm always looking for anything about her.

[Deleted]

Peregrine Churchill and Ralph Martin both wrote bios of Jennie Churchill, Martins is a two volume breaking up her life into with Randolph then after his death. I love Anita Leslie and she also wrote one of JC, Anita is Jennies grand-niece.

I love reading books about sisters, one of my favorites is The Viceroy's Daughters by Anne DeCourcy. Their mother was one of the Americans who married into British aristocracy before the turn of the century. I also own several books about the Mitford sisters, they were a fascinating bunch.

[wilbert]

Has anyone read "The Orientalist" by Tom Reiss? I'm reading right now. Its about a Jew who passed himself off as a Muslim prince in Nazi Germany and also wrote an enduring classic "Ali and Nino" (which I had never heard of). Its a great read, full of forgotten history and the author's journey to discover just who the orientalist was reads like a detective story.

[Deleted]

esoterica said:

. . . So what are your favorite bios/autobios?

David Suzuki's recently released autobiography (titled, believe it or not, The Autobiography) was a really good read. He recently did a speaking tour of Australia, where he sort of reiterated what he said in his autobio, adding in notes and stories here and there. Admittedly I found myself a bit bored by some of the details about <insert random and unheard of foreign culture here>, but overall, it was a good read.

'Parallel Lives', by Alan Bullock was pretty good. I've not read it again recently, but I recall it being fairly decent. He sort of compared Hitler and Stalin and attempted to create a sort of correlation between the two. I think he succeeded in the early parts, as both Hitler and Stalin had strikingly similar upbringings, but their lives later diverged and 'Parallel Lives' ends up more as two biographies in one. So it sort of weakens a bit. But it was good otherwise, particularly because of Bullock's ability to write without inserting his own biases.
I've had Bullock's most well-known book 'Hitler' sitting on my bookshelf for ages*, but have yet to read it. It's a huge-ass book, and I'm slightly afraid of starting it.


*Actually, I packed it away into a box yesterday, so I won't be seeing it for a year or two.

ETA:

cinchona said:

. . . Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow. My favorite of the three so far, and a very worthwhile read. I'm especially enjoying all the detail that Chernow used. You get the sense that he didn't leave out anything without feeling that he put too much in. Reading about the adolescent Hamilton's work ethic makes me feel like such a laggard by comparison . . .

I think I might add this to my list of books to read (you know, like there aren't already 500-odd books on that list).