Even people who would normally never care about something Judy Garland-related marvel at the incredible pathos and dark insanity of these tapes, which come off like Garland performing in a one-woman show written by Samuel Beckett.
posted by Trurl
on Dec 28, 2011 -
27 comments
Chester Brown's autobiographical works such as
I Never Liked You (1.3 MB PDF) placed #38 on
The Comics Journal's
list of the 100 Best Comics of the 20th Century. In his new graphic novel,
Paying For It, he "calmly lays out the facts of how he became not only a willing participant in but also a vocal proponent of one of the world's most hot-button topics--
prostitution".
posted by Trurl
on May 16, 2011 -
46 comments
Still Life with Animated Dogs is a witty and candid cartoon by Paul Fierlinger, animator of Sesame Street's
Teeny Little Super Guy, recounting his life from being a dissident artist in 1960s Czechoslovakia to being a successful animator in the US. He tells his lifestory by talking about the dogs he's owned over the years, Roosevelt, Ike, Johnson and Spinnaker. Warning: Something may get stuck in your eye.
posted by Kattullus
on Dec 27, 2010 -
8 comments
This is Mark Twain. In preparation for the long awaited release of the uncensored
Autobiography of Mark Twain *, the University of California Press and the
Bancroft Library * have put together an informative site about Twain's life. It features two interactive timelines (one in chronological order and one using the order of events as written in the autobiography) with audio excerpts from the autobiography, video of the editors of the Twain Papers offering context, and historic images documenting his life. Also on the site, though confusingly linked as "more about the autobiography", is a short documentary about the Twain archives at the Bancroft. Worth a visit at the very least for this image of
Sexy Sam. Uncensored indeed.
posted by Toekneesan
on Oct 8, 2010 -
14 comments
Perhaps following the original
Stig, the current masked driver on Top Gear announced they would write an autobiography. Un/fortunately the secrecy clause of his contract has been brought up, and the
lawyers rear their heads. There is talk-talk of '
human rights' issues. British radio talk shows seem to be amused (no links fellows, alas)
posted by LD Feral
on Aug 19, 2010 -
27 comments
War Dances:
“I wanted to call my father and tell him that a white man thought my brain was beautiful”. Sherman Alexie doing his thing in The New Yorker, excerpted from his upcoming book (
early review; interview
1,
2.)
posted by Non Prosequitur
on Oct 5, 2009 -
45 comments
Robert Beck was a
pimp. "I got out of it because I was
old. I did not want to be teased, tormented and brutalized by young
whores." While working as an insecticide salesman, one of his customers suggested he write an autobiography. "Iceberg Slim" wrote
Pimp: The Story Of My Life in 3 months. It was the beginning of a literary
career that made him one of the largest selling African-American authors of all time. He
died on April 30, 1992 - one day after the start of the Los Angeles riots.
(previously)
posted by Joe Beese
on Apr 2, 2009 -
40 comments
Shantaram is the story of a violent man's search for the man of peace within himself.
Gregory David Roberts, clip 1,
clip 2,
3 and
4, is an ex-junkie, former gun runner; drugs, forged passports and black market currency dealer; was a member of the Bombay Mafia and close with a Mafia don there; acted in Bollywood movies; fought with the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan; imprisoned in an Australian maximum security prison with a 19 year sentence and escaped to the Bombay slums, where he set up a free clinic. His
semi-autobiography is called Shantaram, which means man pf peace.
Review on Shunya. His
website.
Movie due out in 2009.
[more inside]
posted by nickyskye
on Oct 21, 2008 -
30 comments
When Jamaican-born
Mary Seacole, an experienced nurse, volunteered her services to the British Army during the Crimean War, she was rejected. Undaunted, she travelled to Crimea at her own expense and built a "mess-table and comfortable quarters," which she called the "British Hotel," and began taking care of soldiers. Her work was snubbed by Florence Nightingale, who called Seacole "a woman of bad character" and insinuated that the convalescent hotel was little more than a bordello, but Mary was beloved by the men in her care who called her "Mother Seacole." Her autobiography,
Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands [link goes to full text and illustrations], was published a year after the war ended. Mary, who was feted by high-ranking military men and high-born civilians, went on to other nursing-related pursuits, including a stint as personal masseuse to Alexandra, Princess of Wales. Her work in Crimea was but one highlight in a very interesting life.
[more inside]
posted by amyms
on Aug 12, 2008 -
11 comments
IDP Voices is a site that lets people who are refugess within their
own countries
tell their life stories – in their own words. "The narratives in these pages are valuable complements to the official information on conflicts which governments and international organisations offer. These stories deal with the real lives of real people. The narrators share their personal experiences, their sensations, hopes and dreams, and the impact for them of being forced from their homes. The first IDP Voices oral testimonies project took place in
Colombia. IDP Voices from further countries will be added as the projects progress." The life stories are in English and Spanish and can either be read or listened to. You can
download the whole book of life stories here.
posted by Kattullus
on Nov 8, 2007 -
7 comments
Kid Congo Powers , noted guitar stylist, teenage president of
The Ramones Fan Club, erstwhile member of
The Cramps,
The Gun Club, and
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (also known for his collaborations with
Julee Cruise,
The Legendary Stardust Cowboy,
Khan and others) has produced a
two part online autobiography of sorts for
New York Night Train. It includes
oral histories, available as transcriptions or MP3s, pages from
his Cramps scrapbook, a vintage
Creem article,
free MP3s from his back catalogue, and, of course, his
recipe for enchiladas.
posted by jack_mo
on Feb 12, 2006 -
6 comments
Chapter 1. Excerpt from Bob Dylan's autobiographical book, Chronicles, Volume One.
posted by semmi
on Oct 20, 2004 -
4 comments
"It was surprising how thick the smoke had become. It seems like the world has always needed a scapegoat --someone to lead the charge against the Roman Empire. But America wasn't the Roman Empire and someone else would have to step up and volunteer. I really was never any more than what I was -- a folk musician who gazed into the gray mist with tear-blinded eyes and made up songs that floated in a luminous haze. Now it had blown up in my face and was hanging over me." -- from
Bob Dylan's new autobiography,
Chronicles, with a brief
interview, via
Newsweek
posted by digaman
on Sep 26, 2004 -
14 comments
A million lives. Links to thousands of biographies, autobiographies, memoirs, diaries, letters, narratives, oral histories and more.
posted by pooligan
on Aug 25, 2003 -
3 comments
Olaudah Equiano, or, Gustavus Vassa, the African. 'According to his famous autobiography, written in 1789, Olaudah Equiano (c.1745-1797) was born in what is now Nigeria. Kidnapped and sold into slavery in childhood, he was taken as a slave to the New World. As a slave to a captain in the Royal Navy, and later to a Quaker merchant, he eventually earned the price of his own freedom by careful trading and saving. As a seaman, he travelled the world, from the Mediterranean to the North Pole. Coming to London, he became involved in the movement to abolish the slave trade, an involvement which led to him writing and publishing The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa the African (1789) a strongly abolitionist autobiography ... '
Of interest :-
Ignatius Sancho: African Man of Letters;
Quobna Ottabah Cugoano: a Former Slave Speaks Out;
American Slave Narratives ('From 1936 to 1938, over 2,300 former slaves from across the American South were interviewed by writers and journalists under the aegis of the Works Progress Administration');
Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938;
Excerpts from Slave Narratives.
posted by plep
on Jul 17, 2003 -
8 comments
Way Lay is the homepage of cartoonist Carol Lay, creator of the strip Story Minute. In addition to being one of the few places one can
view the strip without going through Salon's obnoxious free pass system. The site has the best
autobiography I've seen for an artist site and images of earlier
bizarre parodies of Salvador Dali and the Shroud of Turin.
posted by KirkJobSluder
on Apr 24, 2003 -
7 comments
America's greatest quadrapelegic, recovering alcoholic cartoonist has a home
online. John Callahan may be the most hilariously truthful people alive.
This page contains animated versions of some of his best. The collection of
hate mail he's recieved is a hoot as well, if you enjoy laughing at the sanctimonious.
This is one of his best and also the title of his excellent
autobiography.
posted by jonmc
on Mar 14, 2002 -
20 comments
The Nash equilibrium
So at the present time I seem to be thinking rationally again in the style that is characteristic of scientists. However this is not entirely a matter of joy as if someone returned from physical disability to good physical health. One aspect of this is that rationality of thought imposes a limit on a person's concept of his relation to the cosmos....from John F. Nash Jr.'s autobiography for the 1994 Nobel Prize for Economics.
posted by riley370
on Dec 12, 2001 -
8 comments
