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Biographies — page 22
1,257 public-domain biographies books, summarised. Page 22 of 27.
Life of Joseph Brant—Thayendanegea (Vol. II): Including the Border Wars of the American Revolution and Sketches of the Indian Campaigns of Generals Harmar, St. Clair, and Wayne
William L. (William Leete) Stone
Framed as both a sweeping military chronicle and a granular biography, this history explores the volatile frontier of the American Revolution and its complicated aftermath. Through the life of the Mohawk leader Thayendanegea, it traces the collision of empire, indigenous sovereignty, and nation-building.
Selections From Josephus
Flavius Josephus
A ancient nation's struggle for identity ends in devastating ruin under the absolute power of imperial Rome.
The History of Napoleon Buonaparte
J. G. (John Gibson) Lockhart
A ruthless ambition propels a Corsican officer from complete obscurity to the master of continental Europe, only for his vast empire to collapse under the weight of its own excess.
The Life of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France
Charles Duke Yonge
A tragic trajectory across the divide of revolution transforms a naive Austrian princess into an enduring, embattled symbol of fallen royalty.
Byron: The Last Phase
Richard Edgcumbe
A fiery, erratic genius undergoes a late-life metamorphosis, leaving behind European dissipation to lead a desperate war for liberty in Greece.
Recollections of a Varied Life
George Cary Eggleston
Life in mid-nineteenth-century America moves across trackless prairies and bloody battlefields toward the bustling editorial rooms of New York. Personal memory weaves a nation’s rustic past into its modern literary awakening.
The Boy Spy: A substantially true record of secret service during the war of the rebellion, a correct account of events witnessed by a soldier
Joseph Orton Kerbey
Drifting in a darkened rowboat across phosphorescent Southern waters, a teenager hazards everything to slip past enemy lines and deliver intelligence to an imperiled Union fleet.
A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth
Unknown
A primary, firsthand record of the Plymouth Plantation’s early months, this journal captures the raw struggle, diplomacy, and survival of the small group that established a new life on the Massachusetts coast.
Apollonius of Tyana, the Philosopher-Reformer of the First Century A.D
G. R. S. (George Robert Stow) Mead
An examination of the first-century philosopher reveals a world rich in ascetic discipline, temple reform, and mysterious spiritual authority.
Father and Son: A Study of Two Temperaments
Edmund Gosse
A devout naturalist strictly raises his son to believe in the literal truth of Scripture, only to watch the boy forge an independent mind that ultimately breaks their spiritual bond.
Life of John Coleridge Patteson
Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary) Yonge
An aristocratic Eton scholar trades a life of comfortable English privilege for the perils of the South Seas, ultimately sacrificing his life to protect the islanders he comes to love.
Model Women
William Anderson
This collection of biographical sketches seeks to inspire young women by presenting historical figures as mirrors for moral development and intellectual growth. Through these lives, the author articulates a vision of womanhood that balances domestic virtue with a burgeoning independence.
Pitching in a Pinch
Christy Mathewson
A legendary pitcher pulls back the curtain on the mental chess match of the diamond, revealing that the game is won as much by nerves and strategy as by a fast arm.
My Mamie Rose: The Story of My Regeneration
Owen Kildare
This account of an illiterate Bowery brawler’s transformation into a man of letters serves as a raw, unflinching mirror to the forgotten corners of Gilded Age New York.
Baron d'Holbach
Max Pearson Cushing
The life of a quiet, wealthy scholar becomes a window into the intellectual firestorm of eighteenth-century France. This biography reconstructs the world of a man who fueled the Enlightenment from his library, not the barricades.
China under the Empress Dowager
J. O. P. (John Otway Percy) Bland
The Empress Dowager Tzŭ Hsi remains one of the most enigmatic figures of the nineteenth century, a woman of extraordinary vitality who steered the Qing Dynasty through its most turbulent and final decades. This account offers an intimate, if critical, exploration of her life, power, and the decaying court she…
Industrial Biography: Iron Workers and Tool Makers
Samuel Smiles
The history of modern industry is not merely a record of grand politics, but a testament to the grit, ingenuity, and quiet labor of the men who forged the tools that built the modern world.
Margaret Ogilvy
J. M. (James Matthew) Barrie
A son’s tribute to his mother, this memoir explores the intricate, humorous, and deeply devoted relationship between a writer and the woman who shaped his imagination. It is a quiet study of love, memory, and the inevitable passage of time.
Occultists & mystics of all ages
Ralph Shirley
These portraits of historical figures seek the thin line where spiritual insight meets legend, exploring how unconventional thinkers have shaped the human search for truth across the centuries.
Robert Browning
C. H. (Charles Harold) Herford
This volume offers a searching exploration of the life and artistic evolution of a singular Victorian poet, tracing his development from obscure intellectual beginnings to his status as a master of the dramatic monologue.
A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents. Volume 8, part 3: Grover Cleveland, First Term
Grover Cleveland
These official records offer a candid look at the administrative rigor and uncompromising principles of a president navigating the tension between public duty and individual claims.
Heroines That Every Child Should Know: Tales for Young People of the World's Heroines of All Ages
Unknown
These biographical sketches offer a curated gallery of women whose courage and conviction shaped their respective worlds. They remain a testament to the enduring human capacity for sacrifice, resilience, and profound moral clarity.
The Boy Life of Napoleon, Afterwards Emperor of the French
Eugénie Foa
The story of Napoleon Bonaparte’s youth is a study in early ambition and the singular grit of a boy who felt destined to command, even when he was only a lonely student in a foreign land.
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Volume 1, No. 3, August, 1850
Various
This collection captures the mid-nineteenth-century zeitgeist, blending historical reflection, political upheaval, and practical advice into a panoramic portrait of an era in constant, restless motion.
Matthew Calbraith Perry: A Typical American Naval Officer
William Elliot Griffis
A resolute commander navigates the transition from wooden sailing ships to the steam-powered era while opening Japan to the wider world.
The Wits and Beaux of Society. Volume 2
Thomson, A. T., Mrs.
These biographical sketches illuminate the vanished world of eighteenth-century British elite society, where wit was a currency as vital as gold and social standing was both a precarious triumph and a gilded cage.
Mungo Park and the Niger
Joseph Thomson
A journey into the heart of an unknown continent, the quest to map the mysterious Niger River stands as a singular monument to human endurance, ambition, and the tragic cost of discovery.
The Red Battle Flyer
Richthofen, Manfred, Freiherr von
A young cavalry officer trades his horse for a cockpit to become the most feared ace of the First World War. This cold, tactical account offers a stark look at the birth of aerial combat through the eyes of a man who treated dogfighting like a sport.
Automobile Biographies: An Account of the Lives and the Work of Those Who Have Been Identified with the Invention and Development of Self-Propelled Vehicles on the Common Roads
Lyman Horace Weeks
This chronicle traces the century-long quest to replace the horse with the engine, detailing the mechanical struggles and societal resistance that defined the birth of the modern automobile.
Stories of Achievement, Volume IV, Authors and Journalists
Unknown
These biographical sketches reveal that the path to literary and professional distinction is rarely paved with ease, but rather with persistent, often grueling, personal struggle. They demonstrate how individuals from vastly different origins transform their hardships into enduring contributions.
A Book of Sibyls: Miss Barbauld, Miss Edgeworth, Mrs Opie, Miss Austen
Anne Thackeray Ritchie
These biographical sketches offer an intimate, appreciative look at four pioneering women of English letters, exploring their domestic lives, their creative struggles, and the enduring humanity found within their pages.
A Sketch of the Life of Brig. Gen. Francis Marion and a History of His Brigade
William Dobein James
This account offers an intimate, firsthand perspective on the Revolutionary War’s Southern theater, documenting how a small, ragged militia turned the tide of independence through relentless endurance and unconventional warfare.
Galileo Galilei and the Roman Curia: From Authentic Sources
Karl von Gebler
The confrontation between a pioneering mind and an unyielding institution serves as a timeless warning about the cost of challenging established truth. A scholar’s pursuit of the stars ultimately leads him into a harrowing struggle for his own life.
Letters of Edward FitzGerald, in Two Volumes. Vol. 1
Edward FitzGerald
The quiet life is often the most observant one, captured here through decades of correspondence that turn the mundane details of English country living into a meditation on friendship, art, and the passage of time.
Shakespeare's Lost Years in London, 1586-1592
Arthur Acheson
This study reconstructs the formative years of a literary giant, arguing that personal vendettas and political alliances shaped the plays we now consider masterpieces.
Recollections and Impressions, 1822-1890
Octavius Brooks Frothingham
A discerning memoir of the nineteenth-century intellectual landscape, this record captures the spiritual evolution of a clergyman transitioning from traditional Unitarianism to the radical horizons of independent thought.
Theodore Watts-Dunton: Poet, Novelist, Critic
James Douglas
This portrait captures the life and artistic convictions of a foundational Victorian critic, whose influence shaped the works of giants like Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Morris while championing the "Renascence of Wonder.
Word Portraits of Famous Writers
Unknown
This collection gathers historical glimpses of celebrated authors, capturing how they appeared to contemporaries rather than how they exist in cold, static portraits. It offers an intimate, often humanizing, look at literary legends.
Chesterton, as seen by his contemporaries
Cyril Clemens
A towering figure of early twentieth-century letters is captured here through the fragmented, affectionate, and vivid memories of those who knew him best.
The Intimate Letters of Hester Piozzi and Penelope Pennington, 1788-1821
Hester Lynch Piozzi
These pages capture the private voice of a celebrated socialite as she chronicles the joys, anxieties, and political upheavals of three decades, offering a window into the intimate world of an eighteenth-century intellectual.
Charles Baudelaire: A Study
Arthur Symons
A portrait of a poet whose genius defined the modern spirit, this study explores the life of a man haunted by beauty, struggle, and the relentless pursuit of artistic perfection.
Father Duffy's story
Francis Patrick Duffy
A chaplain’s eyewitness account of the 165th Infantry—the legendary "Fighting 69th"—captures the raw, harrowing, and humorous reality of the American Expeditionary Force’s journey through the trenches of France during the Great War.
John Patrick, Third Marquess of Bute, K.T. (1847-1900), a Memoir
Hunter Blair, David Oswald, Sir
This memoir offers a portrait of John Patrick Crichton-Stuart, the third Marquess of Bute, an enigmatic aristocrat whose immense wealth and deep intellectual isolation shaped a life of scholarly devotion and religious conviction. It documents the passage of a man who moved from the stifling expectations of high…
Lord Kelvin: An account of his scientific life and work
Andrew Gray
This account of a towering intellect in physical science tracks the life and discoveries of a man who bridged the gap between abstract mathematical theory and the industrial revolution of the nineteenth century.
Amerigo Vespucci
Frederick A. (Frederick Albion) Ober
The life of the man who unwittingly lent his name to two continents unfolds as a study in quiet intellectual ambition, scientific curiosity, and the complex, often cutthroat politics of the Age of Discovery.
Zeppelin: The Story of a Great Achievement
Harry Vissering
A visionary commander turns the disaster of war into a global blueprint for the future of flight. This account captures the relentless pursuit of aerial mastery that bridged the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Samuel Johnson
Leslie Stephen
This portrait captures the enduring humanity of a legendary intellectual, tracing his journey from provincial obscurity to the center of London’s literary life with profound empathy and historical clarity.
Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves, Volume VII, Kentucky Narratives
United States. Work Projects Administration
These voices, captured from the final generation of those who endured American slavery, offer a haunting, first-hand account of a world defined by both unimaginable cruelty and deep human resilience.