Help me find some fascinating autobiographies (or biographies!)
June 15, 2006 6:52 PM Subscribe
Looking for fascinating life-stories like this, Philipe Petit's "To Reach the Clouds." (He was the guy who tight-rope walked between the WTC towers.)
I am searching for auto/biographies about people who have lived in the last 70-80 years, which are NOT best selling books. They can be anyone who has lived an interesting life.
Quirky or moving life stories, even in article form, would be best. I'm not interested in books/articles about one common man's heroic dealings with cancer, that type of thing, but more along the lines of strange, fascinating or outrageous stories about real or famous people who have lived in the past 70 years. Particular incidents, whistleblowers, goals sought after and achieved against incredible odds, etc. Epic stories of presidents interest me less than one period in one person's life which is interesting enough to merit their own book/article. You get the idea.
Please help me find these hidden gems!
This post was deleted for the following reason: removed by request
I don't think it can be moved, MattS. You should just cut and paste it and email Matt/Jess to delete (and flag it).
posted by dobbs at 7:12 PM on June 15, 2006
posted by dobbs at 7:12 PM on June 15, 2006
This is pushing the envelope as it is an autobiography published near the end of the author's life 78 years ago, but I really enjoyed it. The author was a newspaperman and it reads like a news article, quick and easy, while providing a window into an interesting period of US history. It's available online at no charge through the LOC:
California copy, by George F. Weeks.
Weeks, George F., 1852?-
CREATED/PUBLISHED
Washington, D.C., Washington college press, 1928.
SUMMARY
George F. Weeks (b. ca. 1852) was a young reporter in New York City in 1876, when tuberculosis drove him to the healthier climate of California, where he spent his first months at a sanatorium near San Bernardino. He then worked on the San Francisco Chronicle and later published papers in Bakersfield and Alameda. California copy (1928) contains Week's memoirs of his journey west, and his life as newspaperman, with tales of politics, crime, and labor violence in the cities where he worked. His move to Mexico around 1906 ends Week's chronological narrative, and the last third of the book is devoted to unrelated pieces: reminiscences of a stagecoach ride, tales of California miners, an earthquake, fishing, Ambrose Bierce, etc
posted by buggzzee23 at 8:18 PM on June 15, 2006
California copy, by George F. Weeks.
Weeks, George F., 1852?-
CREATED/PUBLISHED
Washington, D.C., Washington college press, 1928.
SUMMARY
George F. Weeks (b. ca. 1852) was a young reporter in New York City in 1876, when tuberculosis drove him to the healthier climate of California, where he spent his first months at a sanatorium near San Bernardino. He then worked on the San Francisco Chronicle and later published papers in Bakersfield and Alameda. California copy (1928) contains Week's memoirs of his journey west, and his life as newspaperman, with tales of politics, crime, and labor violence in the cities where he worked. His move to Mexico around 1906 ends Week's chronological narrative, and the last third of the book is devoted to unrelated pieces: reminiscences of a stagecoach ride, tales of California miners, an earthquake, fishing, Ambrose Bierce, etc
posted by buggzzee23 at 8:18 PM on June 15, 2006
Well okay, if this isn't being hoped. My post on Carlo Mollino may fit the bill. He certainly led an interesting life.
posted by tellurian at 8:21 PM on June 15, 2006
posted by tellurian at 8:21 PM on June 15, 2006
Mig Pilot: The Final Escape of Lt. Belenko
"Viktor Belenko was a Soviet fighter pilot who defected to Japan in the 1970s -- in his top-secret Mig 25 "Foxbat", at the time the world's fastest and most feared interceptor."
No Surrender: My Thirty-Year War
"In the spring of 1974, Second Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda of the Japanese army made world headlines when he emerged from the Philippine jungle after a thirty-year ordeal."
posted by mrbill at 8:38 PM on June 15, 2006
"Viktor Belenko was a Soviet fighter pilot who defected to Japan in the 1970s -- in his top-secret Mig 25 "Foxbat", at the time the world's fastest and most feared interceptor."
No Surrender: My Thirty-Year War
"In the spring of 1974, Second Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda of the Japanese army made world headlines when he emerged from the Philippine jungle after a thirty-year ordeal."
posted by mrbill at 8:38 PM on June 15, 2006
I wish everyone would do this... given that my firm blocks the green and allows the blue :(
posted by missbossy at 8:50 PM on June 15, 2006
posted by missbossy at 8:50 PM on June 15, 2006
The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom by Slavomir Rawicz.
From the Amazon summary: Cavalry officer Slavomir Rawicz was captured by the Red Army in 1939 during the German-Soviet partition of Poland and was sent to the Siberian Gulag along with other captive Poles, Finns, Ukranians, Czechs, Greeks, and even a few English, French, and American unfortunates who had been caught up in the fighting. A year later, he and six comrades from various countries escaped from a labor camp in Yakutsk and made their way, on foot, thousands of miles south to British India, where Rawicz reenlisted in the Polish army and fought against the Germans. The Long Walk recounts that adventure, which is surely one of the most curious treks in history.
I've read this book, it is good, and he sees some weird shit in the Himalayas.
posted by marxchivist at 9:05 PM on June 15, 2006
From the Amazon summary: Cavalry officer Slavomir Rawicz was captured by the Red Army in 1939 during the German-Soviet partition of Poland and was sent to the Siberian Gulag along with other captive Poles, Finns, Ukranians, Czechs, Greeks, and even a few English, French, and American unfortunates who had been caught up in the fighting. A year later, he and six comrades from various countries escaped from a labor camp in Yakutsk and made their way, on foot, thousands of miles south to British India, where Rawicz reenlisted in the Polish army and fought against the Germans. The Long Walk recounts that adventure, which is surely one of the most curious treks in history.
I've read this book, it is good, and he sees some weird shit in the Himalayas.
posted by marxchivist at 9:05 PM on June 15, 2006
Alexandra David-Neel.
Tenzin Palmo.
Shridhar Chillal. Auctioned.
Nicola Tesla.
Freda Bedi aka Sister Palmo.
Ernst Lothar Hoffman.
Mulk Raj Anand, founded Marg.
John Hillaby. (walked everywhere)
Sam Manekshaw.
Howard Zinn.
Uys Krige.
posted by nickyskye at 9:40 PM on June 15, 2006
Tenzin Palmo.
Shridhar Chillal. Auctioned.
Nicola Tesla.
Freda Bedi aka Sister Palmo.
Ernst Lothar Hoffman.
Mulk Raj Anand, founded Marg.
John Hillaby. (walked everywhere)
Sam Manekshaw.
Howard Zinn.
Uys Krige.
posted by nickyskye at 9:40 PM on June 15, 2006
The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom by Slavomir Rawicz.
There is still quite some question as to whether this is factual.
posted by Neiltupper at 10:12 PM on June 15, 2006
Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones was a pretty good read. He's worked with practically everyone in the music business and had quite an interesting life.
The book uses the gimmick of alternating chapters written by him with chapters written about him by friends and family. It works really well because you get a richer perspective.
posted by euphorb at 10:12 PM on June 15, 2006
The book uses the gimmick of alternating chapters written by him with chapters written about him by friends and family. It works really well because you get a richer perspective.
posted by euphorb at 10:12 PM on June 15, 2006
And there's the strange tale of Donald Crowhurst who attempted to "win" the Sunday Times around the world single handed yacht race by wandering around the Atlantic ocean for several months before he abandoned his boat and his life. His logs make fascinating reading.
posted by Neiltupper at 10:20 PM on June 15, 2006
posted by Neiltupper at 10:20 PM on June 15, 2006
This modern lost-at-sea narrative is quite compelling reading. And full of handy tips if you are ever on a rubber raft in the middle of the Atlantic.
posted by Rumple at 11:04 PM on June 15, 2006
posted by Rumple at 11:04 PM on June 15, 2006
Also this biography of a Haida woman is very interesting if you are into aboriginal history.
The diaries of Viktor Klemperer are a fascinating (1500 page) account of the rise and fall of the Third Reich as told by a rather ordinary man, yet an extraordinary one, being a Jewish Linguist who survived in Dresden until the end of the war. It melds the highly personal, idiosyncratic with the sweep of history. Volume 1, Volume 2
The novelist Neville Shute's autobiography -- mainly concerned with his career as a hydrogen airship designer, is excellent. it's called Slide Rule.
posted by Rumple at 11:21 PM on June 15, 2006
The diaries of Viktor Klemperer are a fascinating (1500 page) account of the rise and fall of the Third Reich as told by a rather ordinary man, yet an extraordinary one, being a Jewish Linguist who survived in Dresden until the end of the war. It melds the highly personal, idiosyncratic with the sweep of history. Volume 1, Volume 2
The novelist Neville Shute's autobiography -- mainly concerned with his career as a hydrogen airship designer, is excellent. it's called Slide Rule.
posted by Rumple at 11:21 PM on June 15, 2006
This worked out quite well for me, actually.
I've stopped reading the green, since it became so fast, and would have totally missed these great links, had the query appeared there, instead.
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 12:07 AM on June 16, 2006
I've stopped reading the green, since it became so fast, and would have totally missed these great links, had the query appeared there, instead.
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 12:07 AM on June 16, 2006
I can't believe that no one has mentioned Errol Flynn's My Wicked Wicked Ways. There may be the odd embellishment here and there, but as an absolutely riveting page-turner, it's hard to beat.
If you are looking for tales of Hollywood, being a slave master, brothels in Marseille, drinking with David Niven, then this is for you. It is utterly outrageous and great fun.
Also Niven's book The Moon's a Balloon is fantastic too.
posted by ClanvidHorse at 12:19 AM on June 16, 2006
If you are looking for tales of Hollywood, being a slave master, brothels in Marseille, drinking with David Niven, then this is for you. It is utterly outrageous and great fun.
Also Niven's book The Moon's a Balloon is fantastic too.
posted by ClanvidHorse at 12:19 AM on June 16, 2006
Running The Amazon by Joe Kane - fantastic read
from amazon -
It was an ill-assorted multinational party of 10 men and one woman; their object was to run the 4200 miles of the Amazon, from a snowfield in the Peruvian Andes to the Atlantic Ocean. Kane was the only American in the group. Of the original 11, only four, Kane among them, reached the sea, six months after the start. This is a spine-tingling adventure narrative that leaves the reader eager to learn what next will befall these hapless travelers. They encountered extremes of weather, altitude sickness, suicidal rapids, armed guerrillas; they met Indians who had never encountered white people; they camped on the grounds of a cocaine factory. Kane gives a vivid account of running the rapids--some of the members were swept into the river, barely escaping death. It was a grueling journey and a historic one--this expedition was the first to paddle the entire length of the Amazon.
posted by vronsky at 12:44 AM on June 16, 2006
from amazon -
It was an ill-assorted multinational party of 10 men and one woman; their object was to run the 4200 miles of the Amazon, from a snowfield in the Peruvian Andes to the Atlantic Ocean. Kane was the only American in the group. Of the original 11, only four, Kane among them, reached the sea, six months after the start. This is a spine-tingling adventure narrative that leaves the reader eager to learn what next will befall these hapless travelers. They encountered extremes of weather, altitude sickness, suicidal rapids, armed guerrillas; they met Indians who had never encountered white people; they camped on the grounds of a cocaine factory. Kane gives a vivid account of running the rapids--some of the members were swept into the river, barely escaping death. It was a grueling journey and a historic one--this expedition was the first to paddle the entire length of the Amazon.
posted by vronsky at 12:44 AM on June 16, 2006
This is a great post and I'm looking forward to checking out the suggested books.
May I offer Tristran Jones Incredible Voyage - a story of sailing from the Dead Sea to Lake Titikaka. It does have a great first sentance:
My sixteenth transatlantic crossing under full sail was fairly uneventful, with the exception of glancing off a basking whale about six hundred miles to the east of Bermuda.
And it gets better...
posted by quarsan at 12:50 AM on June 16, 2006
May I offer Tristran Jones Incredible Voyage - a story of sailing from the Dead Sea to Lake Titikaka. It does have a great first sentance:
My sixteenth transatlantic crossing under full sail was fairly uneventful, with the exception of glancing off a basking whale about six hundred miles to the east of Bermuda.
And it gets better...
posted by quarsan at 12:50 AM on June 16, 2006
Try Jesus Land, by Julia Scheeres. It's the account of her childhood with her cold Jesus Freak parents and adopted black brothers. Particularly interesting is when she and one of her brothers were sent away to a scary Jesus Freak camp against their will.
http://www.juliascheeres.com/
posted by parrot_person at 12:50 AM on June 16, 2006
http://www.juliascheeres.com/
posted by parrot_person at 12:50 AM on June 16, 2006
ANNALS OF THE FIREBREATHER by Marcel Horne: A society drop-out finds the carnival, learns to eat fire, discovers counter-culture Vancouver in the 1960s, writes a mythic remembrance for his son. ISBN 0-88778-064-4, (ISBNs have changed, but that's 1973, Peter Martin Associates, Toronto)
KURT GERSTEIN: THE AMBIGUITY OF GOOD by Saul Friedlander (Knopf, 1969). Other bios exist. Gerstein was a quixotic Christian German who came to oppose Hitler and, after a schizophrenic relative was murdered at the Hademar asylum during the pre-holocaust T-4 program, joined the SS in order to find out what was really going on. Soon enough he was asked to help determine the efficacy of the carbon monoxide gassing of Jews and gypsies at Belzec, the first death camp. Other SS officers wanted to use cyanic acid-based gas -- Zyklon B -- and Gerstein was ordered to compare the two. From 1942 until he hanged himself in 1945, Gerstein tried to find a way to make himself of use -- as a witness, a saboteur, an infiltrator. He could do nothing of value. Gerstein represents the dilemma of an ordinary man caught up in great historic forces. His importance lies in his representative status as a "good German" and as a lesson, possibly, to all of us.
SAUL ALINSKY created the community organizer. From his Chicago Industrial Areas Foundation, Alinsky reached out to organize for change all over America. Numerous radicals of the 1960s learned at Alinsky's knee. The greatest testimony to his legacy is that American conservatives cross themselves and spit when speaking his name. The best source on him is a series of documentary interviews done in Canada by the National Film Board: "Encounter with Saul Alinsky".
posted by CCBC at 1:02 AM on June 16, 2006
KURT GERSTEIN: THE AMBIGUITY OF GOOD by Saul Friedlander (Knopf, 1969). Other bios exist. Gerstein was a quixotic Christian German who came to oppose Hitler and, after a schizophrenic relative was murdered at the Hademar asylum during the pre-holocaust T-4 program, joined the SS in order to find out what was really going on. Soon enough he was asked to help determine the efficacy of the carbon monoxide gassing of Jews and gypsies at Belzec, the first death camp. Other SS officers wanted to use cyanic acid-based gas -- Zyklon B -- and Gerstein was ordered to compare the two. From 1942 until he hanged himself in 1945, Gerstein tried to find a way to make himself of use -- as a witness, a saboteur, an infiltrator. He could do nothing of value. Gerstein represents the dilemma of an ordinary man caught up in great historic forces. His importance lies in his representative status as a "good German" and as a lesson, possibly, to all of us.
SAUL ALINSKY created the community organizer. From his Chicago Industrial Areas Foundation, Alinsky reached out to organize for change all over America. Numerous radicals of the 1960s learned at Alinsky's knee. The greatest testimony to his legacy is that American conservatives cross themselves and spit when speaking his name. The best source on him is a series of documentary interviews done in Canada by the National Film Board: "Encounter with Saul Alinsky".
posted by CCBC at 1:02 AM on June 16, 2006
We Die Alone - David Howarth
If this story of espionage and survival were a novel, readers might dismiss the Shackleton-like exploits of its hero as too fantastic to be taken seriously. But respected historian David Howarth confirmed the details of Jan Baalsrud's riveting tale. It begins in the spring of 1943, with Norway occupied by the Nazis and the Allies desperate to open the northern sea lanes to Russia. Baalsrud and three compatriots plan to smuggle themselves into their homeland by boat, spend the summer recruiting and training resistance fighters, and launch a surprise attack on a German air base. But he's betrayed shortly after landfall, and a quick fight leaves Baalsrud alone and trapped on a freezing island above the Arctic Circle. He's poorly clothed (one foot is entirely bare), has a head start of only a few hundred yards on his Nazi pursuers, and leaves a trail of blood as he crosses the snow. How he avoids capture and ultimately escapes--revealing that much spoils nothing in this white-knuckle narrative--is astonishing stuff. Baalsrud's feats make the travails in Jon Krakauer's Mt. Everest classic Into Thin Air look like child's play. In an introduction, Stephen Ambrose calls We Die Alone a rare reading experience: "a book that I absolutely cannot put down until I've finished it and one that I can never forget." This amazing book will disappoint no one. --John J. Miller
posted by vronsky at 4:53 AM on June 16, 2006
If this story of espionage and survival were a novel, readers might dismiss the Shackleton-like exploits of its hero as too fantastic to be taken seriously. But respected historian David Howarth confirmed the details of Jan Baalsrud's riveting tale. It begins in the spring of 1943, with Norway occupied by the Nazis and the Allies desperate to open the northern sea lanes to Russia. Baalsrud and three compatriots plan to smuggle themselves into their homeland by boat, spend the summer recruiting and training resistance fighters, and launch a surprise attack on a German air base. But he's betrayed shortly after landfall, and a quick fight leaves Baalsrud alone and trapped on a freezing island above the Arctic Circle. He's poorly clothed (one foot is entirely bare), has a head start of only a few hundred yards on his Nazi pursuers, and leaves a trail of blood as he crosses the snow. How he avoids capture and ultimately escapes--revealing that much spoils nothing in this white-knuckle narrative--is astonishing stuff. Baalsrud's feats make the travails in Jon Krakauer's Mt. Everest classic Into Thin Air look like child's play. In an introduction, Stephen Ambrose calls We Die Alone a rare reading experience: "a book that I absolutely cannot put down until I've finished it and one that I can never forget." This amazing book will disappoint no one. --John J. Miller
posted by vronsky at 4:53 AM on June 16, 2006
Motoring With Mohammed
In 1978 Eric Hansen found himself shipwrecked on a desert island in the Red Sea. When goat smugglers offered him safe passage to Yemen, he buried seven years' worth of travel journals deep in the sand and took his place alongside the animals on a leaky boat bound for a country that he'd never planned to visit.
As he tells of the turbulent seas that stranded him on the island and of his efforts to retrieve his buried journals when he returned to Yemen ten years later, Hansen enthralls us with a portrait -- uncannily sympathetic and wildly offbeat -- of this forgotten corner of the Middle East. With a host of extraordinary characters from his guide, Mohammed, ever on the lookout for one more sheep to squeeze into the back seat of his car, to madcap expatriates and Eritrean gun runners- and with landscapes that include cities of dreamlike architectural splendor, endless sand dunes, and terrifying mountain passes, Hansen reveals the indelible allure of a land steeped in custom, conflicts old and new, and uncommon beauty.
Also by Hansen - Stranger In The Forest, about a walk across Borneo. Magical.
posted by vronsky at 5:02 AM on June 16, 2006
In 1978 Eric Hansen found himself shipwrecked on a desert island in the Red Sea. When goat smugglers offered him safe passage to Yemen, he buried seven years' worth of travel journals deep in the sand and took his place alongside the animals on a leaky boat bound for a country that he'd never planned to visit.
As he tells of the turbulent seas that stranded him on the island and of his efforts to retrieve his buried journals when he returned to Yemen ten years later, Hansen enthralls us with a portrait -- uncannily sympathetic and wildly offbeat -- of this forgotten corner of the Middle East. With a host of extraordinary characters from his guide, Mohammed, ever on the lookout for one more sheep to squeeze into the back seat of his car, to madcap expatriates and Eritrean gun runners- and with landscapes that include cities of dreamlike architectural splendor, endless sand dunes, and terrifying mountain passes, Hansen reveals the indelible allure of a land steeped in custom, conflicts old and new, and uncommon beauty.
Also by Hansen - Stranger In The Forest, about a walk across Borneo. Magical.
posted by vronsky at 5:02 AM on June 16, 2006
Dan Rice: The Most Famous Man You've Never Heard Of - 19th century.
posted by stbalbach at 5:37 AM on June 16, 2006
posted by stbalbach at 5:37 AM on June 16, 2006
"harpo speaks", by Harpo Marx - autobiography of harpo marx.
"maiden voyage", by Tania Aebi - an 18 year old girl's solo circumnavigation in a 26' sailboat.
posted by rmd1023 at 5:44 AM on June 16, 2006
"maiden voyage", by Tania Aebi - an 18 year old girl's solo circumnavigation in a 26' sailboat.
posted by rmd1023 at 5:44 AM on June 16, 2006
Patrick Leigh Fermor
Marie Missie Vassiltchikov
Missie's sister Tatiana Metternich
M.M. Kaye. Forget the novels, her lasting contribution is in her memoirs. Fascinating stuff.
posted by IndigoJones at 5:48 AM on June 16, 2006
Marie Missie Vassiltchikov
Missie's sister Tatiana Metternich
M.M. Kaye. Forget the novels, her lasting contribution is in her memoirs. Fascinating stuff.
posted by IndigoJones at 5:48 AM on June 16, 2006
It's pretty well known now that his books were fictious, but the autobiographies of Lobsang Rampa still make for fascinating (and very entertaining) reading. Basically, he was a guy from the U.K. who claimed to have been trained as a Tibetan lama, including undergoing trepanation in his most famous book, "The Third Eye".
posted by stinkycheese at 6:13 AM on June 16, 2006
posted by stinkycheese at 6:13 AM on June 16, 2006
Sidney Bechet, Treat It Gentle
Mister Jelly Roll: The Fortunes of Jelly Roll Morton, New Orleans Creole and "Inventor of Jazz" (wonderful oral reminiscences of the early days of jazz by one of its great creators, not nearly as mendacious as used to be alleged)
Peter Kropotkin, Memoirs of a Revolutionist (his description of breaking out of a tsarist prison is as gripping as The Great Escape)
Rene Belbenoit, Dry Guillotine (escape from Devil's Island)
posted by languagehat at 6:45 AM on June 16, 2006
Mister Jelly Roll: The Fortunes of Jelly Roll Morton, New Orleans Creole and "Inventor of Jazz" (wonderful oral reminiscences of the early days of jazz by one of its great creators, not nearly as mendacious as used to be alleged)
Peter Kropotkin, Memoirs of a Revolutionist (his description of breaking out of a tsarist prison is as gripping as The Great Escape)
Rene Belbenoit, Dry Guillotine (escape from Devil's Island)
posted by languagehat at 6:45 AM on June 16, 2006
Under the Wire, by William Ash. It was a best-seller in the UK but got very little attention in the US.
Ash has had an amazing life. He spent his early 20s as a hobo during the pre-War years. Then he went to Canada and volunteered for the British army in order to fight Hitler--even though, at the time, doing so meant giving up his American citizenship. Eventually he got shot down by the Germans, only to become one of WWII's great escape artists, escaping from a dozen different POW camps.
It's quite a story. I've just started reading it, but thus far, it's told with an easygoing humor that belies the extraordinary adventures he's had.
posted by yankeefog at 6:46 AM on June 16, 2006
Ash has had an amazing life. He spent his early 20s as a hobo during the pre-War years. Then he went to Canada and volunteered for the British army in order to fight Hitler--even though, at the time, doing so meant giving up his American citizenship. Eventually he got shot down by the Germans, only to become one of WWII's great escape artists, escaping from a dozen different POW camps.
It's quite a story. I've just started reading it, but thus far, it's told with an easygoing humor that belies the extraordinary adventures he's had.
posted by yankeefog at 6:46 AM on June 16, 2006
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posted by MattS at 6:54 PM on June 15, 2006