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Biographies — page 47

2,563 public-domain biographies books, summarised. Page 47 of 54.

Cover of Colonel John Brown, of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, the Brave Accuser of Benedict Arnold

Colonel John Brown, of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, the Brave Accuser of Benedict Arnold

Archibald Murray Howe

A resolute soldier and early champion of New England democracy faces betrayal, bureaucratic indifference, and a fatal ambush while trying to expose a famous traitor.

Biographies6 min read
Cover of Eminent doctors: Their lives and their work

Eminent doctors: Their lives and their work

G. T. (George Thomas) Bettany

A rigorous historical survey reveals how British medical science emerged from medieval superstition through the steady, unglamorous labor of passionate observation and physical dissection.

Biographies6 min read
Cover of From Boniface to Bank Burglar

From Boniface to Bank Burglar

George M. (George Miles) White

A hotelkeeper turned burglar crafts an unsparing record of 19th-century American bank heists, official corruption, and the steep cost of a life outside the law.

Biographies7 min read
Cover of Indian Biography; Vol. 2 (of 2)

Indian Biography; Vol. 2 (of 2)

B. B. (Benjamin Bussey) Thatcher

A quiet battle for historical truth runs through this book. Benjamin Bussey Thatcher reconstructs the lives of native leaders who shaped North America, resisting both colonial mythmaking and the easy erasure of indigenous sovereignty.

Biographies6 min read
Cover of Mrs. Siddons

Mrs. Siddons

Nina H. Kennard

A girl born to a troupe of wandering actors climbs through poverty, harsh rejections, and punishing tours to become the undisputed queen of English tragedy.

Biographies5 min read
Cover of My Private Menagerie: from The Works of Theophile Gautier Volume 19

My Private Menagerie: from The Works of Theophile Gautier Volume 19

Théophile Gautier

When the young French Romantic writer Théophile Gautier took in his first pets, he could not have anticipated that his Paris home would eventually harbor generations of cats, performing dogs, and carriage horses.

Biographies10 min read
Cover of Nelka: Mrs. Helen de Smirnoff Moukhanoff, 1878-1963, a Biographical Sketch

Nelka: Mrs. Helen de Smirnoff Moukhanoff, 1878-1963, a Biographical Sketch

Michael Moukhanoff

Living across two continents and through a century of sudden, total collapse, one woman searches relentlessly for an inner peace equal to her exterior courage.

Biographies6 min read
Cover of Old Friends at Cambridge and Elsewhere

Old Friends at Cambridge and Elsewhere

John Willis Clark

Behind the solemn facades of nineteenth-century Cambridge, brilliant minds bickered over college rules, mapped the stars, translated ancient texts, and built the intellectual foundations of the modern world.

Biographies6 min read
Cover of Old Plantation Days: Being Recollections of Southern Life Before the Civil War

Old Plantation Days: Being Recollections of Southern Life Before the Civil War

N. B. (Nancy Bostick) De Saussure

A quiet home, a vast network of fields, and an entire social order dissolve almost overnight into flight, smoke, and memory.

Biographies6 min read
Cover of Roger Williams, Prophet and Pioneer of Soul-Liberty

Roger Williams, Prophet and Pioneer of Soul-Liberty

Arthur Barsazou Strickland

A stubborn Puritan minister is banished into a freezing wilderness, only to transform his exile into the founding vision of American religious freedom.

Biographies6 min read
Cover of Stirring Incidents in the Life of a British Soldier: An Autobiography

Stirring Incidents in the Life of a British Soldier: An Autobiography

Faughnan, Thomas, active 1835-1883

Enlisting into the ranks of the British Army, a working-class Irishman leaves behind rural hardship to spend decades marching, sailing, and fighting across the globe in service of the Empire.

Biographies5 min read
Cover of The Marx He Knew

The Marx He Knew

John Spargo

A reverent old cigarmaker passes down the unwritten history of socialism's foundational theorist through the intimate memories of a lifelong friendship.

Biographies6 min read
Cover of Thirty Years in Australia

Thirty Years in Australia

Ada Cambridge

A quiet domestic intimacy illuminates this thirty-year journey across a rapidly changing young nation.

Biographies5 min read
Cover of Thomas D'Arcy McGee

Thomas D'Arcy McGee

Alexander Brady

A fugitive revolutionist transformed into a founding father finds that the ultimate test of statecraft lies not in pulling a kingdom down, but in forging a nation out of diverse, divided provinces.

Biographies6 min read
Cover of Fénelon: The Mystic

Fénelon: The Mystic

James Mudge

An exploration of divine love, high-minded devotion, and ecclesiastical intrigue, this portrait traces how a gentle seventeenth-century archbishop maintained an unshakeable inner peace through exile, bitter theological warfare, and the shifting favors of the French crown.

Biographies6 min read
Cover of Four American Leaders

Four American Leaders

Charles William Eliot

A calm, measured evaluation of character shows how personal virtues, practical intelligence, and quiet spiritual independence build the durable foundations of a free republic.

Biographies6 min read
Cover of Historic Girlhoods, Part One

Historic Girlhoods, Part One

Rupert Sargent Holland

These stories follow historical records to trace how ten young girls—from medieval saints to London authors—navigated the expectations, perils, and ambitions of their youth to become influential women.

Biographies6 min read
Cover of John Nicholson, the Lion of the Punjaub

John Nicholson, the Lion of the Punjaub

R. E. Cholmeley

In the dust of nineteenth-century India, a British officer’s iron will and terrifying presence command both the terror of insurgents and the absolute, divine devotion of the local tribes.

Biographies6 min read
Cover of McClure's Magazine, Vol. 6, No. 3, February 1896

McClure's Magazine, Vol. 6, No. 3, February 1896

Various

A vibrant cross-section of late nineteenth-century culture, this issue captures an era when high literary ambition and popular journalism marched side by side.

Biographies7 min read
Cover of My past and thoughts, vol. 4 (of 6)

My past and thoughts, vol. 4 (of 6)

Aleksandr Herzen

In exile, a human soul loses its quiet anchor, and every private grief is amplified by the storms of a collapsing continent.

Biographies6 min read
Cover of Sketches of the Christian life and public labors of William Miller

Sketches of the Christian life and public labors of William Miller

James White

A plain, hardworking farmer finds himself transformed into a polarizing religious figure, convinced by his own rigorous study of the Bible that the world is nearing its final, cataclysmic end.

Biographies6 min read
Cover of Ten Years' Exile: Memoirs of That Interesting Period of the Life of the Baroness De Stael-Holstein, Written by Herself, during the Years 1810, 1811, 1812, and 1813, and Now First Published from the Original Manuscript, by Her Son

Ten Years' Exile: Memoirs of That Interesting Period of the Life of the Baroness De Stael-Holstein, Written by Herself, during the Years 1810, 1811, 1812, and 1813, and Now First Published from the Original Manuscript, by Her Son

Madame de (Anne-Louise-Germaine) Staël

An unrelenting tyrant transforms a world-famous woman of letters into a fugitive across a continent on the brink of total war.

Biographies7 min read
Cover of A Political Diary, 1828-1830, Volume II

A Political Diary, 1828-1830, Volume II

Ellenborough, Edward Law, Earl of

A nation's cabinet room becomes a arena of quiet desperation as an empire struggles to hold its footing against domestic unrest and continental collapse.

Biographies5 min read
Cover of A Soldier's Life: Being the Personal Reminiscences of Edwin G. Rundle

A Soldier's Life: Being the Personal Reminiscences of Edwin G. Rundle

Edwin George Rundle

A plain soldier’s account of life under the British flag offers an unforgettable glimpse into the raw, unglamorized realities of nineteenth-century imperial service.

Biographies5 min read
Cover of Pope Pius the Tenth

Pope Pius the Tenth

F. A. (Frances Alice) Forbes

Born in a humble Italian village, a postman’s gifted son rises through every level of the Catholic priesthood to become Pope Pius X, remaining a plain, uncompromising shepherd even while confronting global political strife and modern theological crisis.

Biographies7 min read
Cover of Ruysbroeck

Ruysbroeck

Evelyn Underhill

An extraordinary inner journey unfolds as a brilliant, wayward child transforms through shared austerity and deep contemplation into one of Christendom’s most vital spiritual voices.

Biographies6 min read
Cover of The Bay State Monthly

The Bay State Monthly

Various

Colonial roots, public service, and local industrial ambition converge in a rich tapestry of New England history.

Biographies5 min read
Cover of The Collected Writings of Dougal Graham, "Skellat" Bellman of Glasgow, Vol. 1 of 2

The Collected Writings of Dougal Graham, "Skellat" Bellman of Glasgow, Vol. 1 of 2

Dougal Graham

A rhyming pedlar marches alongside Prince Charlie’s ragged host, recording the blood, blunder, and desperate flight of the Forty-five through a local crier's unvarnished eye.

Biographies6 min read
Cover of Alexander Crummell: An Apostle of Negro Culture: The American Negro Academy. Occasional Papers No. 20

Alexander Crummell: An Apostle of Negro Culture: The American Negro Academy. Occasional Papers No. 20

William Henry Ferris

A fiery, high-minded defense of the Black intellect, this portrait of a forgotten scholar reveals how the pursuit of pure learning becomes an act of defiance.

Biographies6 min read
Cover of Coleridge

Coleridge

S. L. (Samuel Levy) Bensusan

A brilliant mind yields to fragile willpower, leaving behind exquisite fragments of poetry and an enduring tragedy of wasted potential.

Biographies6 min read
Cover of Further memories

Further memories

Redesdale, Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford, Baron

Reflections from a quiet Cotswold bamboo grove open outward into vivid recollections of Eastern traditions, European high politics, and artistic brilliance.

Biographies6 min read
Cover of Letters of Felix Mendelssohn to Ignaz and Charlotte Moscheles

Letters of Felix Mendelssohn to Ignaz and Charlotte Moscheles

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy

An intimate, lifelong dialogue in ink traces the bright rise and quiet, untimely twilight of a nineteenth-century musical genius. Through candid correspondence, two masters share the triumphs, exhaustion, and domestic quiet that shaped classical music's romantic age.

Biographies5 min read
Cover of Memoirs of Dr. Joseph Priestley

Memoirs of Dr. Joseph Priestley

Joseph Priestley

An indefatigable seeker of truth transforms open inquiry into scientific discovery, enduring political persecution to defend civil liberty and rational faith across two continents.

Biographies6 min read
Cover of Reminiscences of Prince Talleyrand, Volume 2 (of 2)

Reminiscences of Prince Talleyrand, Volume 2 (of 2)

Colmache, M., active 19th century

A single room can hold both the collapse of a kingdom and the quiet arithmetic of its survival. Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord moves through decades of French upheaval with a soft voice, a cold mind, and an eye for the human weak points that undo empires.

Biographies6 min read
Cover of The Angel Adjutant of "Twice Born Men"

The Angel Adjutant of "Twice Born Men"

Minnie Lindsay Rowell Carpenter

A frail London woman transforms into a formidable urban missionary, risking her health to pull the forgotten and destitute from city slums.

Biographies5 min read
Cover of The Eureka Stockade

The Eureka Stockade

Raffaello Carboni

This is a raw, urgent, and fiercely personal eyewitness account of the 1854 Eureka Stockade, one of the defining moments in Australian colonial history. It captures the spirit of a rebellion born of injustice, written by a man who stood in the barricades and lived to tell the tale.

Biographies6 min read
Cover of The Gallery of Portraits: with Memoirs. Volume 7 (of 7)

The Gallery of Portraits: with Memoirs. Volume 7 (of 7)

Arthur Thomas Malkin

An expansive gallery of historical figures comes to life through rigorous biographical sketches, capturing the delicate intersection of individual character, intellect, and public duty.

Biographies7 min read
Cover of The voyage of the "Deutschland"

The voyage of the "Deutschland"

Paul König

Under the shadow of a world war, an unarmed commercial submarine slips through enemy blockades, risking the deep Atlantic to open a secret trade route between nations.

Biographies6 min read
Cover of Biographical Essays

Biographical Essays

Thomas De Quincey

Sharp biographical insight cuts through centuries of literary myth to expose the human lives behind iconic masterworks.

Biographies6 min read
Cover of Egerton Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

Egerton Ryerson and Education in Upper Canada

J. Harold (John Harold) Putman

This examination of Ontario’s formative educational legislation traces how a determined reformer navigated political volatility to construct a standardized, public school system from a fractured and inequitable colonial landscape.

Biographies6 min read
Cover of Historic Court Memoirs of France: An Index

Historic Court Memoirs of France: An Index

Various

This collection offers a sweeping, multi-generational tour of French power, capturing the intimate scandals and grand political shifts that defined the nation’s royal history. It serves as an essential, sprawling record of a vanishing world.

Biographies6 min read
Cover of Isaac T. Hopper: A True Life

Isaac T. Hopper: A True Life

Lydia Maria Child

A quiet Quaker tailor turns his Philadelphia and New York homes into battlegrounds for human freedom, confounding slave catchers and reforming convicts through sheer nerve and quick wit.

Biographies5 min read
Cover of R. L. Stevenson

R. L. Stevenson

Frank Swinnerton

This critical study offers a bracing, unsentimental reassessment of Robert Louis Stevenson’s life and work, stripping away the mythology of the "beloved invalid" to inspect the actual craftsmanship of his varied literary output.

Biographies6 min read
Cover of The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 11, No. 65, March, 1863: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 11, No. 65, March, 1863: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics

Various

Written against the backdrop of the American Civil War, this issue of the nineteenth-century monthly gathers fiction, biography, political commentary, and historical essays to weigh the moral, military, and human forces dividing a nation.

Biographies6 min read
Cover of The Diary of a Girl in France in 1821

The Diary of a Girl in France in 1821

Mary Browne

The world of 1821 unfolds through the eyes of a young traveler whose sharp, unvarnished observations capture the vivid, often jarring, contrasts between the expectations of an English girl and the gritty reality of post-Napoleonic France.

Biographies7 min read
Cover of Thomas Hariot, the Mathematician, the Philosopher and the Scholar

Thomas Hariot, the Mathematician, the Philosopher and the Scholar

Henry Stevens

A meticulous recovery of a forgotten genius, this biography pulls an Elizabethan pioneer out of the shadows of his more famous contemporaries.

Biographies6 min read
Cover of Canadian Notabilities, Volume 1

Canadian Notabilities, Volume 1

John Charles Dent

The lives of those who forged a nation are often obscured by the fog of myth, but these portraits seek to reclaim the human truth behind the legends of early Canadian history. By stripping away romantic exaggeration, the narrative reveals the complex motives and genuine struggles of figures who shaped a wilderness…

Biographies6 min read
Cover of Cesare Lombroso, a modern man of science

Cesare Lombroso, a modern man of science

Hans Kurella

A pioneer of criminal anthropology, this scientist sought the biological origins of human transgression, forever altering our understanding of the link between the body and the law.

Biographies6 min read
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