Best-selling biographies of all time

I love great biography books. Whether it's about a hero, celebrity, business mogul, or dastardly villain, biographies give an amazing insight into the mindset of success and hard work.

And while biographies aren't necessarily white-knuckle page-turners or complex Lit-RPG, they're sure to provide an interesting read.

In this article, you will learn:

• The importance of a biography – both as a writer and a reader
• Our top picks for the best biographies of all time

Mind you, this is a highly subjective article. If you don't see your favorite biography on this list, let us know in the comments below what you believe deserves to be on this list and why. And with that, let's jump right into some good lessons and even better titles.

Our Best Biography Books

• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
• Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin
• Titan: The Life of John D Rockefeller, Sr. by Ron Chernow
• Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson
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  Hey everyone,

  Oooh, I love an annual roudup, don’t you? A chance to look back on the best and brightest of the year, a way to reflect on where we’ve been.

  Where I’ve been is reading. I read 100 books this year (if I can finish this last one today), and a lot of them were history and biography. So I thought I’d share them!

  Now these are my favorites of what I’ve read in 2024. A lot of them didn’t come out this year. So hopefully this is resurface some old favorites for you.

  I wrote a full review of my experience reading this book in October, but this book has really stuck with me. The imagery that

  Iris Jamahl Dunkle

  colors the book with is outstanding, and Sanora Babb’s life was so fascinating. This one had me reading like the wind, if you’ll pardon a pun I’m sure 10,000 other reviewers made.

  See It On Goodreads

  Buy on Bookshop

  Buy on Amazon

  I’m used to biographies with a more strict narrative structure, so I was pleasantly surprised by this book, which confronts the reality and myth of Owain Glyndŵr by examining the actual documents we have left

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  The 30 Best Biographies of All Time

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  Trust book recommendations from real people, not robots 🤓

  Blog – Posted on Monday, Jan 21

  Biographer Richard Holmes once wrote that his work was “a kind of pursuit… writing about the pursuit of that fleeting figure, in such a way as to bring them alive in the present.”

  At the risk of sounding cliché, the best biographies do exactly this: bring their subjects to life. A great biography isn’t just a laundry list of events that happened to someone. Rather, it should weave a narrative and tell a story in almost the same way a novel does. In this way, biography differs from the rest of nonfiction.

  All the biographies on this list are just as captivating as excellent novels, if not more so. With that, please enjoy the 30 best biographies of all time — some historical, some recent, but all remarkable, life-giving tributes to their subjects.

  If you're feeling overwhelmed by the number of great biographies out there, you can also take our 30-second quiz below to narrow it down quickl