Biographies & Memoirs

The Pulitzer Prize-winning critic and acclaimed author of Negroland boldly and brilliantly fuses cultural analysis and memoir to probe race, class, family and art.

Lady Sings the Blues is the inimitable autobiography of one of the greatest icons of the twentieth century. Born to a single mother in 1915 Baltimore, Billie Holiday had her first run-in with the law at aged 13. But Billie Holiday is no victim. Her memoir tells the story of her life spent in jazz, smoky ...

A ground-breaking investigation into the intellectual, psychological, and personal life of American leader James Madison, the Founding Father who did the most, but about whom we know the least

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Thrilling yarns of buffalo hunts, Indian life, and riding with the Pony Express abound in this exciting memoir of life in the Old West. Illustrations by N. C. Wyeth.

A biography that focuses on Cleopatra's ever-shifting identity. Depending on the audience, she might present herself as a goddess, a political leader, or an alluring and exotic woman. Roman statesmen likewise manipulated Cleopatra's image for their own political ends.

The thrilling and previously untold true story of Suzanne Spaak, who abandoned her life of opulence to save the Jewish children of Occupied Paris during the Second World War.

Salvador Dali is the central figure in surrealism and one of the most eccentric artists of the modern age. This title presents a psychologist's take on this extraordinary life.

The fascinating life of one of the great entertainment icons of the 20th century.

"After helping to put Al Capone behind bars, lawman Eliot Ness came to Cleveland, where he did battle with a vicious killer.

'Gloriana', 'Faerie Queene', 'Queen Bess' are just some of the names given to Elizabeth I, the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. The author challenges the many myths and truths surrounding Elizabeth's life and reveals the passionate woman behind the powerful and fearless 'Virgin Queen'.

This collection of 50 true narratives by veterans and active duty personnel spans four wars. It includes tales by a Vietnam vet whose helicopter plummeted to the ground, a marine who improvised when adrift and hungry in the sea and a pilot who learned why a dog is a man's best friend.

"Chika Jeune was born three days before the devastating earthquake that decimated Haiti in 2010. She spent her infancy in a landscape of extreme poverty, and when her mother died giving birth to a baby brother, Chika was brought to The Have Faith Haiti Orphanage that Albom operates in Port Au Prince. ...

A business biography of George Washington, focusing on his many innovations and inventions. George Washington: general, statesman...businessman? Most people don't know that Washington was the country's first true entrepreneur, responsible for innovations in several industries. In George Washington, Entrepreneur, ...

Gershwin's rise as one of the sons of Russian-Jewish immigrants on Manhattan's lower East Side to his unassailable position as the leading composer of his time makes Gershwin the embodiment of the American Dream. This biography evokes the pace and colour of New York in the 1920s and 30s, and firmly places Gershwin at the centre of the Jazz Age.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was an exceptionally prolific and versatile writer. From his 'Storm and Stress' "Gotz von Berlichingen" to "Faust", which evolved over a sixty-year period, he created the prototype of the Romantic hero.

Born in Cleveland in 1968, Halley Berry first gained the public’s attention in 1986 as a runner-up in the Miss USA Pageant. When she turned to acting, her career took off with a key role in Spike Lee’s 1991 film Jungle Fever. It wasn’t until 1999, however, with her Golden Globe-winning performance ...

A journalist's rollicking ride through the romance industry and a heartfelt and hilarious memoir of restoring faith in romantic love When his own romantic life was on the rocks, Avi Steinberg wondered if classical ideas about love still applied. As a compulsive reader, literary giants would be his guide. ...

"In the early 1800s, three young men strode onto the national stage, elected to Congress at a moment when the Founding Fathers were beginning to retire to their farms. Daniel Webster of Massachusetts, a champion orator known for his eloquence, spoke for the North and its business class. Henry Clay of ...

"In June of 1961, A.E. Hotchner visited an old friend in the psychiatric ward of St. Mary's Hospital. It would be the last time they spoke: a few weeks later, Ernest Hemingway was released home, where he took his own life. Their final conversation was also the final installment in a story whose telling ...