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Biographies — page 48
2,563 public-domain biographies books, summarised. Page 48 of 54.
Confessions of a Neurasthenic
William Taylor Marrs
The life of a man perpetually convinced of his own impending demise, this memoir documents a journey through the absurdities of health-seeking, chronic indecision, and the ever-shifting landscape of early 20th-century medical fads.
Introduction to the Compleat Angler
Andrew Lang
A portrait of a man who found in the simple act of fishing a quiet, enduring philosophy of life, transcending the turbulent politics of his seventeenth-century world.
John Black, the Apostle of the Red River
George Bryce
This biography chronicles the life of John Black, a devoted Presbyterian missionary who became the foundational spiritual leader for the remote Scottish settlers on the Canadian prairies. It is a portrait of quiet, persistent duty in a harsh, emerging frontier.
Memorial Addresses on the Life and Character of William H. F. Lee (A Representative from Virginia): Delivered in the House of Representatives and in the Senate
Various
This formal collection of congressional tributes serves as a solemn, public record of a life defined by the transition from military command in the American Civil War to quiet, diligent service in the halls of the United States government. It documents the collective esteem held by colleagues for a man who…
Samuel Reynolds House of Siam, pioneer medical missionary, 1847-1876
George Haws Feltus
A portrait of endurance and quiet devotion, this chronicle follows a pioneer medical missionary’s decades of labor in mid-nineteenth-century Siam, capturing both the rigors of the field and the evolution of a cross-cultural life.
Synge and the Ireland of His Time
W. B. (William Butler) Yeats
This is a portrait of a singular artistic mind finding its voice within the untamed landscapes of Ireland, written by a peer who witnessed the struggles of genius against the constraints of its time.
The Flower-Patch Among the Hills
Flora Klickmann
The restorative power of a humble country cottage offers a refuge for three friends seeking sanctuary from the stresses of early twentieth-century life. Amidst the shifting seasons, they find that true peace is often hidden in the smallest, most familiar details of home.
The Story of Mattie J. Jackson: Her Parentage—Experience of Eighteen years in Slavery—Incidents during the War—Her Escape from Slavery
L. S. (Lucy S.) Thompson
A young woman escapes the brutality of Missouri slavery to find freedom and a future, documenting her journey to secure the education she was long denied. This narrative serves as both a testament to survival and a plea for the intellectual empowerment of those recently liberated.
William Black: The Apostle of Methodism in the Maritime Provinces of Canada
John MacLean
A young pioneer navigates the rugged wilderness of late 18th-century Canada, driven by an unyielding conviction that transforms the spiritual landscape of the Maritime Provinces into a burgeoning missionary frontier.
Four American poets
Sherwin Cody
These biographical portraits capture the formative experiences and steady character of four pillars of American letters, presenting their lives as inspiring models of citizenship and enduring literary craft.
Marital Power Exemplified in Mrs. Packard's Trial, and Self-Defence from the Charge of Insanity
E. P. W. (Elizabeth Parsons Ware) Packard
A woman’s intellectual independence is branded as madness in this harrowing account of wrongful imprisonment. The narrative serves as both a personal memoir and a potent legal call for the rights of married women.
Memorial Address on the Life and Character of Abraham Lincoln: Delivered at the request of both Houses of Congress of America
George Bancroft
A solemn, expansive tribute, this oration frames the life of a fallen leader as the inevitable, providential climax of the American struggle for freedom.
Observations of an Orderly: Some Glimpses of Life and Work in an English War Hospital
Ward Muir
The mundane machinery of a wartime hospital reveals the quiet resilience of ordinary men thrust into extraordinary circumstances. These sketches capture the daily labor behind the front lines with unsentimental honesty.
The 125th Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry: Attention Batallion!
Robert M. Rogers
This chronicle captures the transformation of a green regiment into a hardened fighting force, documenting their long, grueling path from Illinois to the final marches of the American Civil War.
The Life of Col. James Gardiner: Who Was Slain at the Battle of Prestonpans, September 21, 1745
Philip Doddridge
A soldier’s transformation from a life of reckless dissipation to one of profound, unwavering spiritual devotion marks the course of this historical account. It chronicles the journey of a man who found his faith on the battlefield.
The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Volume 02: a Cleric in Naples
Giacomo Casanova
A restless young man wanders through 18th-century Italy, chasing fortune and romance with equal parts audacity and reckless charm.
The story of the Toys
Mary Harris Toy Dodge
A quiet, earnest chronicle of a Cornish family’s migration to America, this work serves as both a genealogy and a testament to the enduring bonds of faith and kinship. It offers an intimate look at the nineteenth-century immigrant experience, preserved through the lens of one woman’s deep devotion to her ancestors.
A day with the poet Burns
Unknown
A portrait of the legendary Scottish poet, this narrative follows a single day in his life as he balances the toil of an exciseman with the spontaneous, soaring inspirations of his genius.
Diary of Ezra Green, M.D. from November 1, 1777, to September 27, 1778
Ezra Green
A century-long life begins with a front-row seat to the American Revolution, captured in the terse, observant jottings of a ship’s surgeon navigating the high-stakes naval warfare of the Atlantic.
Jacob Hamblin: A Narrative of His Personal Experience as a Frontiersman, Missionary to the Indians and Explorer, Disclosing Interpositions of Providence, Severe Privations, Perilous Situations and Remarkable Escapes: Fifth Book of the Faith-Promoting Series, Designed for the Instruction and Encouragement of Young Latter-day Saints
Jacob Hamblin
A frontier missionary chronicles his life among the tribes of the American Southwest, documenting his efforts to broker peace and his belief in divine intervention amid the harsh realities of pioneer life.
Mere mortals
C. (Charles) MacLaurin
Great figures of history are often viewed through a lens of myth, but their lives were ultimately dictated by the frailty, disease, and biological imperatives of the human body.
Reveries over Childhood and Youth
W. B. (William Butler) Yeats
The formative years of a visionary poet are etched here in delicate, fragmented memories, tracing the long, slow passage from a fearful, lonely childhood to the birth of a national literary mission.
The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Volume 03: Tiberius
Suetonius
A master of the Roman world, this emperor finds his power a heavy burden, eventually retreating into seclusion where his paranoia and cruelty bloom in terrifying isolation.
A political pilgrim in Europe
Ethel Snowden
Witness the crumbling landscape of post-war Europe through the eyes of a persistent diplomat navigating the wreckage of empires and the birth of a fragile new order.
My Southern Home
William Wells Brown
This collection of sketches blends memoir, observation, and social commentary, offering an intimate look at the realities of life in the American South before and after the Civil War. It captures the resilient spirit of a people navigating systemic oppression with wit, faith, and endurance.
Random Shots from a Rifleman
J. (John) Kincaid
A veteran’s firsthand account of the Napoleonic Wars captures the gritty, often darkly humorous realities of life in the ranks with remarkable candor and wit.
The Case of Mrs. Clive
Mrs. (Catherine) Clive
A celebrated actress takes to the press to challenge the theatrical managers who hold her livelihood hostage, exposing a monopoly that stifles both art and the basic rights of performers.
The prisoners' memoirs, or, Dartmoor prison
C. (Charles) Andrews
This firsthand account chronicles the harrowing survival of American sailors held within the damp, cold walls of Britain's most notorious prison during the War of 1812.
Theodore Roosevelt: An Address Delivered by Henry Cabot Lodge Before the Congress of the United States
Henry Cabot Lodge
This eulogistic address serves as a formal, intimate appraisal of the life and character of Theodore Roosevelt. It captures the trajectory of a man who transformed himself from a physically fragile youth into a national icon, exploring the moral and political principles that defined his public service and his…
Across the Plains to California in 1852: Journal of Mrs. Lodisa Frizzell
Lodisa Frizell
A pioneer woman records her arduous journey from Illinois to the Pacific in 1852. Her observant, clear-eyed journal captures both the terrifying fragility of life and the immense, beautiful scale of the American frontier.
Chronicles of Chicora Wood
Elizabeth W. Allston (Elizabeth Waties Allston) Pringle
The beauty of a vanished landscape and the wreckage of a social order are distilled into a memoir of a South Carolina childhood, capturing both the refinement of a wealthy rice-planting family and the encroaching ruin of the Civil War.
Letters from Mesopotamia in 1915 and January, 1916: From Robert Palmer, who was killed in the Battle of Um El Hannah, June 21, 1916, aged 27 years
Robert Stafford Arthur Palmer
These letters offer a candid, unvarnished look at a young officer’s life in the Mesopotamian campaign, capturing the mundane struggles of military bureaucracy alongside the profound, quiet realization of a soldier’s duty.
Narrative of a Private Soldier in His Majesty's 92d Regiment of Foot
George Billany
A soldier’s plain account of the Napoleonic Wars reveals the quiet, persistent struggle to maintain a moral life amidst the brutality and physical degradation of military service.
Out of the briars
A. H. (Alexander Herritage) Newton
From a life bound by indentured servitude in North Carolina to the pulpit of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, a veteran’s journey chronicles the struggle for dignity and spiritual freedom in post-Civil War America.
The American Prejudice Against Color: An Authentic Narrative, Showing How Easily the Nation Got into an Uproar
Allen, William G., active 1849-1853
This account chronicles a man’s harrowing escape from an American mob, a journey fueled by the courage to defy a nation’s obsession with racial purity and the rigid, often violent, boundaries of color.
The Confessions of Nat Turner: The Leader of the Late Insurrections in Southampton, Va. As Fully and Voluntarily Made to Thomas R. Gray, in the Prison Where He Was Confined, and Acknowledged by Him to be Such when Read Before the Court of Southampton
Nat Turner
This account presents the stark, final testimony of a man who led a violent uprising in 1831, offering a grim window into the mind of a condemned leader and the panic of a slave-holding society. It stands as a foundational document of American history, capturing the voices of both the incarcerated rebel and the…
A Dominie's Log
Alexander Sutherland Neill
A young teacher finds his voice by turning his private journal into a daring critique of the rigid, joyless schooling system that stifles the children in his care.
An island garden
Celia Thaxter
A secluded island garden becomes a sanctuary of beauty and memory, where the quiet labor of cultivation transforms rugged coastal soil into a living testament of joy.
"Back from hell"
Samuel Cranston Benson
A former pacifist crosses the Atlantic to witness the ravages of the Great War, eventually finding himself caught behind enemy lines and accused of espionage.
Dealings with the Inquisition
Giacinto Achilli
A former high-ranking Dominican friar recounts his harrowing imprisonment by the Roman Inquisition and his subsequent break from the Church. This narrative serves as both a personal testament and a scathing critique of mid-nineteenth-century papal authority.
George Borrow in East Anglia
William A. (William Alfred) Dutt
This study explores the life and stubborn spirit of a wanderer who found his soul in the wild heaths of East Anglia. It captures the essence of a man who belonged to the road, not the office.
Missing Friends: Being the Adventures of a Danish Emigrant in Queensland (1871-1880)
Thorvald Peter Ludwig Weitemeyer
The immigrant experience is rarely as orderly as official pamphlets suggest; for those arriving in colonial Queensland, it was often a chaotic scramble for survival defined by hunger, resilience, and the thin line between success and ruin.
Queen Victoria, her girlhood and womanhood
Grace Greenwood
This biographical sketch invites readers into the private and public world of a monarch who defined an era, capturing the transition from a sheltered girlhood to the heavy responsibilities of sovereignty. It offers an intimate, fireside perspective on one of history’s most recognizable figures, framed by the…
Recollections of a Confederate Staff Officer
G. Moxley (Gilbert Moxley) Sorrel
This memoir offers an intimate, firsthand account of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, written by a key staff officer who served directly under James Longstreet.
Richard Strauss
Herbert F. (Herbert Francis) Peyser
This concise biography offers an intimate look at the life and creative evolution of one of music’s most technically brilliant and often polarizing figures. It traces the trajectory of a composer who navigated fame, scandal, and shifting artistic tides with remarkable composure.
The Lone Star Defenders
S. B. (Samuel Benton) Barron
A soldier’s unvarnished account of life in the Third Texas Cavalry, this narrative traces the grueling path of a Confederate regiment from its idealistic formation to the final collapse of the Southern cause.
The private life of Henry Maitland: A record dictated by J. H
Morley Roberts
This unconventional biography offers a raw, unvarnished portrait of a struggling novelist, capturing the tragic friction between a writer’s high ideals and the crushing, mundane realities of poverty.
Fifteen Years with the Outcast
Fflorens Roberts
Faith and tenacity drive a woman to confront the shadows of early twentieth-century California, seeking out society’s castaways in the brutal corners of the Barbary Coast. These accounts detail the difficult, often heartbreaking work of rescue mission life.