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Biographies — page 51
2,563 public-domain biographies books, summarised. Page 51 of 54.
Phases of Faith
Francis William Newman
This spiritual autobiography chronicles a long, arduous journey from orthodox Christian belief toward a radical, personal faith, tracing how intellectual integrity eventually forces a total departure from traditional dogma.
Scraps of Biography: Tenth Book of the Faith-Promoting Series. Designed for the Instruction and Encouragement of Young Latter-day Saints
Various
Faith acts as a firm anchor against the churning tides of persecution and hardship. Those who hold fast to their convictions find strength to endure even the most harrowing of life’s trials.
Sir Walter Raleigh and His Time
Charles Kingsley
To understand the life of a titan is to see the convergence of human brilliance, fatal ambition, and the relentless machinery of history.
The life and times of George Villiers, duke of Buckingham, Volume 3 (of 3): From original and authentic sources
Thomson, A. T., Mrs.
The meteoric rise and violent end of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, offer a sobering meditation on the fragility of absolute power and the fickle nature of royal favor in seventeenth-century England.
The Life of Saint Columba, Abbot, and Apostle of the Northern Picts
Anonymous
The life of an early medieval saint unfolds here, tracing his journey from an Irish upbringing to the foundation of a remote, influential monastic outpost among the northern Picts.
The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Volume 28: Rome
Giacomo Casanova
A seasoned traveler navigates the treacherous and glittering social strata of 18th-century Rome, balancing precarious romances with the relentless pursuit of pleasure.
A German deserter's war experience
Anonymous
The Great War, as seen through the eyes of a reluctant participant, strips away the veneer of nationalistic glory to reveal the brutal mechanics of survival. This is a visceral, unvarnished account of life and death in the trenches.
From Death Into Life or, Twenty Years of My Ministry
W. (William) Haslam
A man finds his true calling not in the comforts of the church establishment, but in the radical, transformative power of a spiritual awakening. This account captures the fervent pulse of mid-nineteenth-century evangelism.
Kitchener's Mob: Adventures of an American in the British Army
James Norman Hall
This account offers a stark, unvarnished look at the early days of World War I from the perspective of an American volunteer serving among the British rank and file. It captures the transition from idealistic enlistment to the grueling, mechanized reality of trench warfare in 1915.
Ten Years in India, in the 16th Queen's Lancers, and Three Years in South Africa, in the Cape Corps Levies
W. J. D. Gould
A veteran of the 16th Queen's Lancers looks back on his decades of colonial military service, documenting the grit of Victorian campaigns in India and the rugged frontier skirmishes of South Africa.
The Lumberjack Sky Pilot
Thomas D. (Thomas Davis) Whittles
The "Lumberjack Sky Pilot" is a vivid, firsthand account of one man’s mission to bring religion and humanity to the isolated, dangerous logging camps of early 20th-century Minnesota.
A Hilltop on the Marne: Being Letters Written June 3-September 8, 1914
Mildred Aldrich
HOOK A quiet, stubborn woman watches the First Battle of the Marne unfold from her garden, documenting the transformative collision between a tranquil rural life and the opening machinery of the Great War.
Conscript 2989: Experiences of a Drafted Man
Irving Crump
This account offers an unvarnished, firsthand look at the daily life of a draftee in the American Army during the First World War. It captures the transition from civilian to soldier with a blend of humor, homesickness, and evolving pride.
Critical Miscellanies (Vol. 3 of 3), Essay 4: The Life of George Eliot
John Morley
This biographical essay examines the intellectual evolution and private life of a towering nineteenth-century novelist, questioning how a studious, secluded existence shaped the moral gravity of her enduring literary contributions.
Diary Written in the Provincial Lunatic Asylum
Mary Huestis Pengilly
This 1885 memoir serves as a firsthand account of a woman’s involuntary confinement in a Canadian institution, blending a desperate plea for personal vindication with a sharp, prescriptive critique of asylum management.
Personal Recollections of the Civil War: By One Who Took Part in It as a Private Soldier in the 21st Volunteer Regiment of Infantry from Massachusetts
James Madison Stone
The dust of the march and the crack of the minie ball are rendered here not as grand strategy, but as the intimate, gritty reality of the man who carried the musket. This is a vital record of the common soldier’s endurance, capturing the texture of four years spent on the front lines of a fractured nation. It…
Stevenson's Shrine: The Record of a Pilgrimage
Laura Stubbs
A devoted traveler traverses the globe to reach a remote Samoan plateau, seeking a final, sacred connection with the resting place of a beloved author.
The Memoirs of Charles-Lewis, Baron de Pollnitz, Volume III: Being the Observations He Made in His Late Travels from Prussia thro' Germany, Italy, France, Flanders, Holland, England, &C. in Letters to His Friend. Discovering Not Only the Present State of the Chief Cities and Towns
Pöllnitz, Karl Ludwig, Freiherr von
A peripatetic nobleman navigates the shifting allegiances and glittering corridors of eighteenth-century Europe, offering a rare, intimate view of the royal houses shaping the modern world.
Viscount Dundee
Louis A. Barbé
This historical account reconstructs the life of John Graham of Claverhouse, exploring his rise as a military commander and his unwavering defense of the Stuart monarchy during Scotland’s turbulent seventeenth-century religious conflicts.
A Boy I Knew and Four Dogs
Laurence Hutton
A nostalgic portrait of a nineteenth-century childhood in New York City, intertwined with the loyal companionship of four distinct dogs. This intimate memoir captures the passage of time through the lens of a life shaped by family, literature, and the enduring bond between human and animal.
Autobiography of Miss Cornelia Knight, lady companion to the Princess Charlotte of Wales, Volume 2 (of 2): with extracts from her journals and anecdote books
Ellis Cornelia Knight
A keen observer of royal life, a woman of deep intelligence and steady character, records the shifting fortunes of courts and the private heartaches of a princess.
Golden Lads
Arthur Gleason
HOOK This urgent, firsthand account from the front lines of the Great War chronicles the moral crisis of a generation and the indomitable courage of those who defied a systematic campaign of terror.
Lights and shadows in Confederate prisons
Homer B. (Homer Baxter) Sprague
The struggle for survival within Confederate prisons is rendered with the steady, observant eye of a scholar forced into the brutal chaos of war. It is a record of resilience, ingenuity, and the heavy moral toll of human conflict.
Milton
Macaulay, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron
The genius of the English language finds its most fervent champion in a poet who navigated the dark, transformative waters of the seventeenth century with unwavering moral and intellectual courage.
Our House and London out of Our Windows
Elizabeth Robins Pennell
The view from an old London window serves as the stage for a shifting drama of urban life, where the mundane struggles of housekeepers and beggars reveal the heartbeat of a city.
Personal reminiscences of early days in California, with other sketches
Stephen J. (Stephen Johnson) Field
HOOK A pioneering jurist recounts his rise from the lawless frontier of the Gold Rush to the Supreme Court, navigating a lifetime of near-assassinations and courtroom vendettas.
Richard Lovell Edgeworth: A Selection From His Memoirs
Maria Edgeworth
HOOK A polymath and devoted landlord, this restless Irish intellectual navigates the Enlightenment with a practical mind, bridging the divide between scientific curiosity and the heavy responsibilities of managing a troubled estate.
Robert Fulton and the Submarine
William Barclay Parsons
A visionary inventor attempts to revolutionize naval warfare with a submarine, only to find his dreams of global peace thwarted by the cold indifference of empires.
The adventures of a modern occultist
Oliver Bland
The occult is not a playground for the curious, but a dangerous frontier where the boundaries between the living, the dead, and the elemental must be navigated with absolute, clinical precision.
The Great Musicians: Rossini and His School
H. Sutherland (Henry Sutherland) Edwards
This biography traces the meteoric rise of a musical prodigy who redefined the Italian stage through sheer innovation and relentless creative energy. It captures the transformation of operatic form in the early nineteenth century.
The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Volume 10: Vespasian
Suetonius
The Roman Empire, fractured by civil war, finds its unlikely savior in a man of modest origins who trades in mules and taxes before ascending the throne. This account traces the rise of the Flavian dynasty through the practical, witty, and often mercenary lens of its founding emperor.
The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Volume 07: Venice
Giacomo Casanova
A restless traveler navigates the treacherous social tides of 18th-century Europe, where wit, gambling, and dangerous romances serve as the only currencies that truly matter.
The Sword of Deborah: First-hand impressions of the British Women's Army in France
F. Tennyson (Fryniwyd Tennyson) Jesse
This account offers a rare, ground-level perspective on the female mobilization that sustained the British war effort in France, stripping away the romantic myths of the era to reveal the disciplined reality underneath.
William Shakespeare: His Homes and Haunts
S. L. (Samuel Levy) Bensusan
The past remains a living landscape, and even the most famous of lives can be traced through the quiet corners and enduring geography of a long-lost Elizabethan world.
A Jewish Chaplain in France
Lee J. (Lee Joseph) Levinger
The experiences of a soldier-rabbi illuminate the shared humanity forged in the trenches of the Great War. This account chronicles a pivotal era when faith and service intersected under fire.
A Slave Girl's Story: Being an Autobiography of Kate Drumgoold
Kate Drumgoold
HOOK This memoir traces a survivor’s journey from the trauma of Virginia’s slave system to a life of purposeful independence, anchored by faith and a fierce commitment to the power of education.
Americans by adoption
Joseph Husband
By chronicling the lives of nine immigrants who rose to national prominence, this collection highlights how diverse origins have historically woven the strength and character of the American experiment.
Clara A. Swain, M.D
Hoskins, Robert, Mrs.
A life of quiet, medical service began in a small New York village and stretched across the world to become the foundation of women’s hospital care in India. This record traces the transformation of an ambitious, determined girl into a pioneering physician who navigated both the rigors of medical training and the…
Conversion of a High Priest into a Christian Worker
M. (Meletios) Golden
This personal chronicle traces a high-ranking Greek Orthodox clergyman’s departure from the traditional hierarchy of his church and his subsequent embrace of a life as a grassroots Christian worker in America. It serves as both an autobiographical testimony and a firm theological argument.
From Bondage to Liberty in Religion: A Spiritual Autobiography
George T. (George Thomas) Ashley
An earnest search for truth can transform a lifetime of rigid religious confinement into a liberating, rational faith.
"Monsieur Henri": A Foot-Note to French History
Louise Imogen Guiney
A forgotten war of conscience found its purest embodiment in a youth who fought with Homeric joy and died without a single thought of self.
The Greville Memoirs, Part 3 (of 3), Volume 1 (of 2): A Journal of the Reign of Queen Victoria from 1852 to 1860
Charles Greville
Political intrigue and personal rivalry collide behind closed doors as a seasoned insider observes the high-stakes shifting of power in mid-nineteenth-century Britain.
Camp, Court and Siege: A Narrative of Personal Adventure and Observation During Two Wars: 1861-1865
Wickham Hoffman
When a quiet American officer keeps his head through the Union conquest of New Orleans and the bloody paralysis of the Red River campaign, only to find himself years later inside the siege lines of Paris, he leaves behind a memoir of extraordinary poise. Wickham Hoffman observes the madness of two continents with…
Field Hospital and Flying Column: Being the Journal of an English Nursing Sister in Belgium & Russia
Violetta Thurstan
A nurse moves through the initial fires of the Western and Eastern fronts, matching the sudden horror of modern warfare with quiet competence and an unyielding spirit.
History of King Charles the Second of England
Jacob Abbott
A young prince is cast into exile by political violence, only to return years later as a monarch who prefers immediate pleasure to the heavy obligations of the crown.
Life in the sick-room
Harriet Martineau
Long confinement and physical suffering strip away the noise of daily life, forcing a quiet, inescapable reckoning with what truly lasts.
Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte
Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne
A intimate, unvarnished look at a towering historical figure through the eyes of the secretary who stood beside him during his swift ascent to power.
Our campaign around Gettysburg: Being a memorial of what was endured, suffered and accomplished by the Twenty-third regiment (N. Y. S. N. G.) and other regiments associated with them, in their Pennsylvania and Maryland campaign, during the second rebel invasion of the loyal states in June-July, 1863
John Lockwood
A hastily assembled regiment of New York militia marches south into the summer heat of 1863, entering a landscape of rain, rumor, and impending battle.