Writers' Lives (nonfiction)

1.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Maya Angelou's Autobiography, #1)
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Maya Angelou's Autobiography, #1) 4.30 avg rating — 568,996 ratings
2.
Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare
Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare 3.87 avg rating — 10,656 ratings
3.
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft 4.34 avg rating — 310,156 ratings
4.
Walden or, Life in the Woods
Walden or, Life in the Woods 3.78 avg rating — 200,858 ratings
4.
Down and Out in Paris and London
Down and Out in Paris and London 4.09 avg rating — 97,525 ratings
6.
A Moveable Feast
A Moveable Feast 4.02 avg rating — 162,879 ratings
7.
The Bohemians: Mark Twain and the San Francisco Writers Who Reinvented American Literature
The Bohemians: Mark Twain and the San Francisco Writers Who Reinvented American Literature 3.82 avg rating — 754 ratings
8.
In Search Of Mary Shelley
In Search Of Mary Shelley 3.63 avg rating — 850 ratings
9.
The Last Lecture
The Last Lecture 4.26 avg rating — 359,330 ratings
10.
The Life of Charlotte Brontë
The Life of Charlotte Brontë 3.85 avg rating — 8,902 ratings
11.
Life on the Mississippi
Life on the Mississippi 3.87 avg rating — 15,347 ratings
12.
The Glass Castle
The Glass Castle 4.32 avg rating — 1,325,776 ratings
13.
Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father
Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father 4.02 avg rating — 1,831 ratings
14.
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? 4.01 avg rating — 45,381 ratings
15.
One Writer's Beginnings
One Writer's Beginnings 4.07 avg rating — 4,047 ratings
16.
Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder
Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder 3.94 avg rating — 19,455 ratings
17.
Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg 4.18 avg rating — 63,004 ratings
18.
Lucy Maud and the Cavendish Cat
Lucy Maud and the Cavendish Cat really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 57 ratings
18.
The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life
The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life
by: Amy Tan
3.94 avg rating — 8,651 ratings
20.
Over the Hills and Far Away: The Life of Beatrix Potter
Over the Hills and Far Away: The Life of Beatrix Potter 3.58 avg rating — 518 ratings
21.
That Summer in Paris
That Summer in Paris 3.89 avg rating — 522 ratings
21.
Dust Tracks on a Road
Dust Tracks on a Road 4.11 avg rating — 8,197 ratings
23.
Long Walk to Freedom
Long Walk to Freedom 4.36 avg rating — 92,338 ratings
23.
I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death
I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death 3.99 avg rating — 49,913 ratings
25.
The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956
The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956 4.33 avg rating — 33,411 ratings
26.
Janet Frame: The Complete Autobiography (Autobiography, #1-3)
Janet Frame: The Complete Autobiography (Autobiography, #1-3) 4.21 avg rating — 2,517 ratings
27.
Louisa: The Life of Louisa May Alcott
Louisa: The Life of Louisa May Alcott 3.90 avg rating — 378 ratings
28.
Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation: A History of Literary Paris in the Twenties and Thirties
Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation: A History of Literary Paris in the Twenties and Thirties 4.07 avg rating — 982 ratings
29.
What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist—the Facts of Daily Life in 19th-Century England
What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist—the Facts of Daily Life in 19th-Century England 3.85 avg rating — 5,732 ratings
30.
The Year of Magical Thinking
The Year of Magical Thinking 3.93 avg rating — 285,023 ratings
31.
The Letters of Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf
The Letters of Vita Sackville-West and Virginia Woolf 4.47 avg rating — 4,854 ratings
32.
Speak, Memory
Speak, Memory 4.08 avg rating — 17,399 ratings
33.
Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self
Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self 3.89 avg rating — 4,340 ratings
33.
Educated
Educated 4.47 avg rating — 1,773,289 ratings
35.
John le Carré: The Biography
John le Carré: The Biography 3.95 avg rating — 987 ratings
36.
Georgette Heyer: Biography of a Bestseller
Georgette Heyer: Biography of a Bestseller 3.93 avg rating — 604 ratings
37.
Between the World and Me
Between the World and Me 4.40 avg rating — 357,432 ratings
38.
Boy: Tales of Childhood (Roald Dahl's Autobiography, #1)
Boy: Tales of Childhood (Roald Dahl's Autobiography, #1) 4.07 avg rating — 72,269 ratings
39.
Agatha Christie: An Autobiography
Agatha Christie: An Autobiography 4.12 avg rating — 12,255 ratings
40.
A grief observed
A grief observed 4.22 avg rating — 91,691 ratings
41.
Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter
Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter 4.13 avg rating — 17,750 ratings
42.
You Don't Have to Say You Love Me
You Don't Have to Say You Love Me 4.14 avg rating — 18,217 ratings
43.
Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt, #1)
Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt, #1) 4.15 avg rating — 650,992 ratings
44.
Fortunate Son: My Life, My Music
Fortunate Son: My Life, My Music 3.81 avg rating — 1,760 ratings
44.
My Bondage and My Freedom
My Bondage and My Freedom 4.38 avg rating — 12,161 ratings
46.
Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay
Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay 3.91 avg rating — 9,507 ratings
47.
Confessions
Confessions 3.59 avg rating — 9,159 ratings
48.
Butterfly in the Typewriter: The Tragic Life of John Kennedy Toole and the Remarkable Story of A Confederacy of Dunces
Butterfly in the Typewriter: The Tragic Life of John Kennedy Toole and the Remarkable Story of A Confederacy of Dunces 3.82 avg rating — 577 ratings
48.
Travels with Charley: In Search of America
Travels with Charley: In Search of America 4.08 avg rating — 103,313 ratings
50.
Shakespeare's Tremor and Orwell's Cough: Diagnosing the Medical Groans and Last Gasps of Ten Great Writers
Shakespeare's Tremor and Orwell's Cough: Diagnosing the Medical Groans and Last Gasps of Ten Great Writers 3.76 avg rating — 435 ratings
51.
Seldom Disappointed: A Memoir
Seldom Disappointed: A Memoir 4.01 avg rating — 775 ratings
51.
In Memory Yet Green: The Autobiography, 1920-1954
In Memory Yet Green: The Autobiography, 1920-1954 4.20 avg rating — 531 ratings
53.
Poet of Revolution: The Making of John Milton
Poet of Revolution: The Making of John Milton 4.08 avg rating — 62 ratings
53.
Danse Macabre
Danse Macabre 3.67 avg rating — 30,583 ratings
53.
One Hundred Portraits: Artists, Architects, Writers, Composers, and Friends
One Hundred Portraits: Artists, Architects, Writers, Composers, and Friends 4.38 avg rating — 29 ratings
53.
Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens 4.10 avg rating — 280 ratings
53.
Time Without Clocks
Time Without Clocks 3.72 avg rating — 61 ratings
53.
A Gentleman of Pleasure : One Life of John Glassco : Poet, Memoirist, Translator, and Pornographer
A Gentleman of Pleasure : One Life of John Glassco : Poet, Memoirist, Translator, and Pornographer 4.13 avg rating — 15 ratings
53.
The Salon of Exiled Artists in California: Salka Viertel took in actors, prominent intellectuals and anonymous people in exile fleeing from Nazism
The Salon of Exiled Artists in California: Salka Viertel took in actors, prominent intellectuals and anonymous people in exile fleeing from Nazism 4.25 avg rating — 12 ratings
53.
Letters
Letters 4.78 avg rating — 18 ratings
53.
Write for Life: Creative Tools for Every Writer
Write for Life: Creative Tools for Every Writer 3.96 avg rating — 986 ratings
53.
In Joy Still Felt: The Autobiography, 1954-1978
In Joy Still Felt: The Autobiography, 1954-1978 4.23 avg rating — 341 ratings
53.
Late Romance: Anthony Hecht―A Poet's Life
Late Romance: Anthony Hecht―A Poet's Life 4.23 avg rating — 22 ratings
53.
Giving Up the Ghost
Giving Up the Ghost 3.95 avg rating — 4,825 ratings
65.
Growing Up Stupid Under the Union Jack
Growing Up Stupid Under the Union Jack 3.81 avg rating — 74 ratings
65.
William Faulkner: American Writer: A Biography
William Faulkner: American Writer: A Biography 3.96 avg rating — 25 ratings
65.
Smile Please: An Unfinished Autobiography
Smile Please: An Unfinished Autobiography
by: Jean Rhys
3.97 avg rating — 1,021 ratings
65.
The Unmasking of Oscar Wilde
The Unmasking of Oscar Wilde 4.25 avg rating — 166 ratings
65.
Beyond the Rock
Beyond the Rock 3.83 avg rating — 100 ratings
65.
The Dead Writer
The Dead Writer 3.80 avg rating — 64 ratings
65.
The Diary of Virginia Woolf, Volume I: 1915-1919
The Diary of Virginia Woolf, Volume I: 1915-1919 4.30 avg rating — 1,743 ratings
65.
Buckley: William F. Buckley Jr. and the Rise of American Conservatism
Buckley: William F. Buckley Jr. and the Rise of American Conservatism 3.77 avg rating — 147 ratings
73.
One Native Life
One Native Life 4.32 avg rating — 2,217 ratings
73.
All I Did Was Ask: Conversations with Writers, Actors, Musicians, and Artists
All I Did Was Ask: Conversations with Writers, Actors, Musicians, and Artists 3.78 avg rating — 1,611 ratings
73.
Dusk of Dawn: An Essay Toward an Autobiography of a Race Concept
Dusk of Dawn: An Essay Toward an Autobiography of a Race Concept 4.20 avg rating — 163 ratings
73.
James Joyce
James Joyce 4.34 avg rating — 2,886 ratings
73.
My Life: An Attempt at an Autobiography
My Life: An Attempt at an Autobiography 4.21 avg rating — 1,017 ratings
73.
The Diary of Virginia Woolf, Volume II: 1920-1924
The Diary of Virginia Woolf, Volume II: 1920-1924 4.38 avg rating — 560 ratings
73.
Miles Gone By: A Literary Autobiography
Miles Gone By: A Literary Autobiography 4.19 avg rating — 544 ratings
80.
Nigger
Nigger 4.40 avg rating — 9,281 ratings
80.
Searching for Charlotte
Searching for Charlotte 3.70 avg rating — 156 ratings
80.
Men We Reaped: A Memoir
Men We Reaped: A Memoir 4.30 avg rating — 27,672 ratings
80.
The Diary of Virginia Woolf, Volume III: 1925-1930
The Diary of Virginia Woolf, Volume III: 1925-1930 4.45 avg rating — 651 ratings
80.
Nearer, My God: An Autobiography of Faith
Nearer, My God: An Autobiography of Faith 3.92 avg rating — 361 ratings
85.
If: The Untold Story of Kipling's American Years
If: The Untold Story of Kipling's American Years 3.61 avg rating — 162 ratings
85.
The Songwriter's Handbook
The Songwriter's Handbook 3.84 avg rating — 50 ratings
85.
The Kit-Cat Club: Friends Who Imagined a Nation
The Kit-Cat Club: Friends Who Imagined a Nation 3.84 avg rating — 51 ratings
85.
Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry
Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry 4.27 avg rating — 1,502 ratings
85.
The Diary of Virginia Woolf: Volume 4, 1931-1935
The Diary of Virginia Woolf: Volume 4, 1931-1935 4.47 avg rating — 304 ratings
85.
Overdrive: A Personal Documentary
Overdrive: A Personal Documentary 3.97 avg rating — 99 ratings
85.
Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women
Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women 3.94 avg rating — 1,839 ratings
92.
The Last American Aristocrat: The Brilliant Life and Improbable Education of Henry Adams
The Last American Aristocrat: The Brilliant Life and Improbable Education of Henry Adams 3.75 avg rating — 409 ratings
92.
Working: Researching, Interviewing, Writing
Working: Researching, Interviewing, Writing 4.44 avg rating — 7,041 ratings
92.
Alexander Pope: A Life
Alexander Pope: A Life 4.33 avg rating — 33 ratings
92.
Oorlogsdagboeken: 1914-1918. Een vrouw vertelt over haar Eerste Wereldoorlog
Oorlogsdagboeken: 1914-1918. Een vrouw vertelt over haar Eerste Wereldoorlog 4.15 avg rating — 59 ratings
92.
The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke
The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke 4.03 avg rating — 310 ratings
92.
The Search for Anne Perry
The Search for Anne Perry 3.28 avg rating — 1,104 ratings
92.
The Diary of Virginia Woolf, Volume V: 1936-1941
The Diary of Virginia Woolf, Volume V: 1936-1941 4.50 avg rating — 303 ratings
92.
Daphne du Maurier
Daphne du Maurier 4.04 avg rating — 1,111 ratings
100.
For Joshua: An Ojibway Father Teaches His Son
For Joshua: An Ojibway Father Teaches His Son 4.36 avg rating — 970 ratings
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