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Biographies — page 41
2,563 public-domain biographies books, summarised. Page 41 of 54.
The Century of Inventions of the Marquis of Worcester: from the Original MS., with Historical and Explanatory Notes and a Biographical Memoir
Worcester, Edward Somerset, Marquis of
A visionary collection of mechanical concepts, this work preserves the fleeting sparks of genius that ignited the engine of the industrial age. It offers a rare window into the mind of a seventeenth-century aristocrat wrestling with the limits of physical possibility.
The History of the Remarkable Life of John Sheppard: Containing a Particular Account of His Many Robberies and Escapes
Daniel Defoe
A young carpenter turned thief captures the imagination of eighteenth-century London by repeatedly escaping the most secure prisons in the city. His audacity transforms him from a common criminal into a legend of impossible ingenuity.
The Passing of New France
William Wood
HOOK This historical account chronicles the final, desperate struggle of New France, centering on the martial life and tragic end of the Marquis de Montcalm.
'Three Score Years and Ten': Life-Long Memories of Fort Snelling, Minnesota, and Other
Charlotte Ouisconsin Clark Van Cleve
This memoir traverses the nineteenth century through the eyes of a woman whose life began at the dawn of the American frontier and stretched into the era of the modern metropolis. It is a quiet, reflective chronicle of resilience.
William Gilbert, and Terrestial Magnetism in the Time of Queen Elizabeth: A Discourse
Silvanus P. (Silvanus Phillips) Thompson
This discourse serves as both a biography of a pioneering physician and an investigation into the birth of modern experimental science during the Elizabethan era. It captures the transition from medieval superstition to the rigorous, evidence-based study of the physical world.
A Kut Prisoner
Harry Coghill Watson Bishop
A British officer recounts his survival of the grueling Siege of Kut, his subsequent captivity in the Ottoman Empire, and his perilous journey to freedom across the Black Sea.
A Writer's Recollections
Ward, Humphry, Mrs.
The act of looking back carries a quiet, stubborn pride for those who have witnessed an era’s passing. These reflections offer a deliberate, panoramic view of a life steeped in the intellectual and literary fervor of the nineteenth century.
An Astronomer's Wife: The Biography of Angeline Hall
Angelo Hall
This biography of an American woman traces the life of a determined, intellectual spirit navigating the constraints of nineteenth-century society. It serves as both a family tribute and a testament to the quiet dignity of a life committed to learning and motherhood.
Cadet Life at West Point
Hugh T. Reed
A young man’s arrival at the United States Military Academy marks the beginning of a transformative trial by fire. This account documents the rigid, often jarring transition from civilian life to the disciplined existence of a West Point cadet.
Diary from November 12, 1862, to October 18, 1863
Adam Gurowski
This urgent, unfiltered account captures the frantic pulse of Washington during the American Civil War, written by an uncompromising radical who viewed the conflict as a crusade for human rights.
Emile Zola
William Dean Howells
This meditative study explores the complex duality of a titan of literature, examining how a self-proclaimed man of science remained, at his core, an epic poet of profound moral conviction.
Luther and the Reformation:: The Life-Springs of Our Liberties
Joseph Augustus Seiss
The story of a miner's son who challenged the masters of the world, this work traces the spiritual and civil inheritances that shaped the foundations of modern liberty.
The Maréchale (Catherine Booth-Clibborn)
James Strahan
A fearless evangelist transforms the lives of the marginalized across Europe by stripping away religious pretense and offering a radical, unyielding message of divine love. This portrait captures the intense, dramatic reality of a woman who viewed every human soul as a battleground for salvation.
The Memoirs of Maria Stella (Lady Newborough)
Ungern-Sternberg, Maria Stella Petronilla, Baroness
A woman of humble beginnings fights to reclaim a royal identity she believes was stolen at birth through a clandestine, illicit trade of infants.
Indian Nullification of the Unconstitutional Laws of Massachusetts Relative to the Marshpee Tribe
William Apess
The struggle for self-governance by the Mashpee people against state-imposed oversight and land appropriation is a seminal document of nineteenth-century Indigenous resistance. It exposes the legal mechanisms used to strip a community of its rights and dignity.
Ireland Under Coercion: The Diary of an American (2 of 2): (2nd ed.) (1888)
William Henry Hurlbert
Upon the future of Ireland hangs the future of the British Empire. This diary of an American observer captures the turbulent heart of the Irish Land War, offering a sharp, contemporary witness to the struggle between local tradition and the reach of the law.
Life of St. Declan of Ardmore and Life of St. Mochuda of Lismore
Unknown
These medieval Irish biographies depict the lives of two foundational saints, blending historical tradition with local legend to chronicle the early spread of Christianity through the Decies and beyond.
The Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
This is an intimate, unfiltered account of a life defined by extraordinary intellectual achievement, profound social alienation, and a deepening conviction of being the victim of a grand, invisible conspiracy. It remains one of the most famous and contentious pieces of autobiography ever written.
The Life of Joseph Smith, the Prophet
George Q. (George Quayle) Cannon
This biographical account chronicles the tumultuous ministry and violent martyrdom of a nineteenth-century religious leader, portraying his life as a divine mission constantly besieged by prejudice and political betrayal.
The Public Life of Queen Victoria
John McGilchrist
A portrait of a monarch defined by duty, this account explores the intersection of private character and public necessity during the early decades of the Victorian era.
With Rimington
L. March (Lisle March) Phillipps
A first-hand account of the South African War, this narrative captures the transition from the idealism of early colonial combat to the grim, grinding reality of a protracted guerrilla insurgency.
A Doctor in France, 1917-1919: The Diary of Harold Barclay
Harold Barclay
The diary of a physician serving in the American Expeditionary Forces captures the chaotic, unglamorous, and deeply human reality of medical service during the final years of the First World War.
A Narrative of some of the Lord's Dealings with George Müller. Part 3
George Müller
Faith is not a feeling, but a daily, practical reliance on the unseen hand of a provider. This account chronicles the humble, rigorous, and often miraculous sustenance of a Victorian orphanage built entirely upon the foundation of prayer.
Abolition Fanaticism in New York: Speech of a Runaway Slave from Baltimore, at an Abolition
Frederick Douglass
This address offers an unflinching, firsthand account of the struggle for human dignity in the face of institutionalized bondage. It serves as a powerful record of a pivotal moment in the American antislavery movement.
Brook Farm: Historic and Personal Memoirs
John Thomas Codman
The pursuit of a more perfect society is often dismissed as a naive dream, yet this account reveals the profound human reality found when people attempt to live by their highest ideals.
Memoirs of Mistral
Frédéric Mistral
HOOK This memoir invites readers into the sun-drenched landscapes and vanishing traditions of nineteenth-century Provence, as seen through the eyes of its most celebrated poet.
Scientific American Supplement, No. 611, September 17, 1887
Various
This collection of technical reports captures the Victorian era’s relentless pursuit of industrial mastery, offering a vivid window into the engineering and scientific preoccupations of late 1887. It serves as a fascinating record of a world transitioning into modern electrical and chemical standardization.
The Marquis D'Argenson: A Study in Criticism: Being the Stanhope Essay: Oxford, 1893
Arthur Ogle
An idealistic statesman attempts to reform France’s crumbling monarchy through civic reason, only to be overwhelmed by court factionalism, foreign wars, and institutional decay.
A West Pointer with the Boers
John Y. Fillmore Blake
A American cavalry lieutenant leaves his military career behind, heads to South Africa, and leads an Irish unit fighting alongside Boer burghers against the British Empire during the South African War.
Diary of Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys
A man of restless intellect and deep human frailty, a high-ranking naval administrator records the texture of his daily life in Restoration London, capturing everything from grand political intrigue to the most intimate domestic squabbles.
English Men of Letters: Crabbe
Alfred Ainger
George Crabbe stands as a singular, unflinching observer of the human condition, a poet who traded the romanticized pastoral for the grit of the village poorhouse. This biography navigates the life of a man whose verse captured the stark realities of rural existence with a precision that both alienated his…
Home Life on an Ostrich Farm
Martin, Annie, Mrs.
A lively account of settling in the South African Karroo, this memoir chronicles the daily absurdities and triumphs of managing an ostrich farm with wit, resilience, and a deep affection for the wild landscape.
Life of Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen
Sarah Tytler
A panoramic portrait of a monarch’s life, this account navigates the public grandeur of a shifting empire and the private, persistent sorrow of a woman defined by her devotion to her husband.
Some Noble Sisters
Edmund Lee
Devoted sisters nourish, protect, and inspire history's celebrated figures, proving that quiet loyalty can shape the world as profoundly as public genius.
With the "Die-Hards" in Siberia
John Ward
This is a firsthand account of the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War, written by a British officer who observes the disintegration of a society from the chaotic front lines of Siberia. It captures a singular moment of geopolitical uncertainty through the eyes of a man caught between his duty as a soldier…
Andersonville: A Story of Rebel Military Prisons
John McElroy
A boy's direct encounter with total war ends in the world's most infamous prison camp.
Mahomet, Founder of Islam
Gladys M. Draycott
A visionary’s intense conviction welds fractured desert tribes into a unified, world-altering force.
Old John Brown, the man whose soul is marching on
Walter Hawkins
A relentless vow to end human bondage drives a Connecticut farm boy into the bloody skirmishes of Kansas and onto the scaffold at Charlestown.
The Life, Crime, and Capture of John Wilkes Booth
George Alfred Townsend
A sudden shot in a crowded theater turns a nation's triumph into horror, launching a feverish manhunt for an actor turned assassin and the shadowy conspirators who plotted with him.
Andrew Jackson
William Garrott Brown
A tall, fiery youth from the backwoods slashes his way from border brawls and Indian wars to the highest office in the nation, governing by sheer force of an unyielding personal will.
Benjamin Franklin
Paul Elmer More
Practical sense and tireless curiosity drive a printer’s apprentice from the back streets of colonial Boston to the royal courts of Europe, reshaping a rising nation through sheer force of intellect and pragmatic virtue.
Episodes before thirty
Algernon Blackwood
Driven by an impulse to escape a rigid evangelical upbringing, a young Englishman plunges into a decade of severe poverty, betrayal, and grinding labor across North America.
Flying for France: With the American Escadrille at Verdun
James R. (James Rogers) McConnell
They fly light Nieuports into cloud-choked European skies, hunting German reconnaissance planes while shells burst around them in silence.
Full Revelations of a Professional Rat-catcher After 25 Years' Experience
Ike Matthews
A practical Victorian rat-catcher exposes the hidden patterns of urban vermin, delivering shrewd advice on nets, ferrets, and human nature.
Life of Rear Admiral John Randolph Tucker
James Henry Rochelle
Driven by duty across changing flags, an American naval officer journeys from midshipman drills to Confederate ironclad battles, ultimately charting the unknown, turbulent reaches of the upper Amazon.
Memories (volume 2 of 2)
Redesdale, Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford, Baron
Diplomatic missions across the world reveal how power shifts, empires pivot, and historical figures behave when unobserved by their publics.
My Disillusionment in Russia
Emma Goldman
A firsthand account of the Russian Revolution's promise and betrayal, by an American anarchist who lived through it.
Outwitting the Hun: My Escape from a German Prison Camp
Pat O'Brien
Falling from the sky into enemy territory is only the beginning of a extraordinary, desperate journey toward home.