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Biographies — page 53
3,222 public-domain biographies books, summarised. Page 53 of 68.
Adventures of Working Men. From the Notebook of a Working Surgeon
George Manville Fenn
Courage, resilience, and quiet faith sustain Britain’s industrial class through catastrophic accidents, dangerous labor, and the daily hazard of earning a living.
Memoirs of Doctor Burney (Vol. 2 of 3): Arranged from his own manuscripts, from family papers, and from personal recollections by his daughter, Madame d'Arblay
Fanny Burney
In the crowded drawing rooms of late eighteenth-century London, a distinguished musicologist and his sharp-eyed daughter capture the famous, the brilliant, and the eccentric at their most vulnerable.
The Uncensored Letters of a Canteen Girl
Katharine Duncan Morse
A young American woman leaves for France in 1917 to serve hot chocolate and morale to doughboys, keeping an uncensored journal to bypass military mail review.
The Wonderful Story of Lincoln: And the Meaning of His Life for the Youth and Patriotism of America
C. M. (Charles McClellan) Stevens
Driven by an unyielding desire to cultivate his mind, a boy from the wilderness rises through hardship to preserve a fractured nation and redefine the moral meaning of American freedom.
Two Suffolk Friends
Francis Hindes Groome
A quiet, luminous portrait of nineteenth-century East Anglia emerges through local memory, regional speech, and affectionate personal recollection.
A Middy's Recollections, 1853-1860
Victor Alexander Montagu
A high-born Victorian lad enters the Royal Navy at twelve, sailing directly into mid-century global conflicts with a pocketknife mark on his nose and a boyish hunger for action.
An Englishwoman's twenty-five years in tropical Africa
George Hawker
This biography traces a quarter-century of missionary service in the Congo, documenting the daily trials, humor, and unwavering resolve of an Englishwoman working in the heart of Africa.
Auld lang syne
F. Max (Friedrich Max) Müller
A life rich in learning and chance encounters yields a quiet, reflective look at nineteenth-century European intellect and art through the eyes of an eminent scholar.
Hugh Miller
W. Keith (William Keith) Leask
A Scottish stonemason crafts a life of science and fierce principle, leaving his mark on the rocks of Cromarty and the religious battles of Edinburgh.
Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois, Queen of Navarre
Marguerite, Queen, consort of Henry IV, King of France
Power play, personal survival, and royal scandal collide in this vivid personal record from the heart of the sixteenth-century French court. Writing with sharp intelligence and aristocratic poise, a princess of France charts the perilous political waters of her youth.
Samuell Gorton: A Forgotten Founder of our Liberties
Lewis G. (Lewis George) Janes
A fiercely independent thinker steps into the wilderness of colonial New England, challenging both civil magistrates and religious authorities to demand absolute freedom of conscience and strict rule of law.
Social life in old New Orleans
Eliza Ripley
A vanished world of grand parlors, hoopskirts, and riverboats comes back to life through the sharp, affectionate eyes of a woman who lived it.
The Cause of the Charge of Balaclava
Thomas Morley
A former cavalry sergeant sets out to dismantle the romantic myths surrounding a legendary military disaster, offering a blunt, eyewitness correction to official history.
The First Man-Carrying Aeroplane Capable of Sustained Free Flight: Langley's Success as a Pioneer in Aviation: From the Smithsonian Report for 1914, pages 217-222, Publication 2329, 1915
Albert Francis Zahm
A luckless accident in 1903 sidelined a pioneering craft, but its design harbored the mechanics of true sustained flight.
Women as army surgeons
Flora Murray
When the British War Office refused to officialize women surgeons at the outbreak of the First World War, a band of pioneer medical women simply bypassed the military hierarchy, set up their own voluntary units in France, and proved their surgical brilliance on the battlefield.
A Day with Browning
Unknown
An intimate portrait of Robert Browning’s Venetian routine reveals a life where daily habit, intense observation, and moral optimism merge into enduring art.
In the Royal Naval Air Service: Being the war letters of the late Harold Rosher to his family
Harold Rosher
Letters written in haste from cold tents, coastal aerodromes, and drafty hotel rooms capture the daily hazards of early military aviation. A young pilot logs the routine terror of engine failure, foggy crossings, and sudden combat, transforming the dawn of aerial warfare into an intensely personal record.
My Experiences at Nan Shan and Port Arthur with the Fifth East Siberian Rifles
Nikolaĭ Aleksandrovich Tret'iakov
A commander’s direct, unvarnished record of his regiment's defense of Nan Shan and Port Arthur during the Russo-Japanese War.
Rambles of a Naturalist
John D. (John Davidson) Godman
Beneath the quiet surfaces of everyday American landscapes lies a world of vibrant, intricate design waiting for an attentive eye.
The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Volume 12: Domitian
Suetonius
A dark portrait of imperial madness, this biography tracks how an isolated youth of unchecked vanity slowly transformed absolute power into a bloody, paranoia-fueled reign of terror.
The Rocket: The Story of the Stephensons, Father and Son
Helen C. (Helen Cross) Knight
An unlettered pit-boy teaches himself to read by engine-fire, masters mechanical engineering through sheer persistence, and builds the steam locomotive that transforms global travel forever.
Virgil
W. Lucas (William Lucas) Collins
In the grand tapestry of classical literature, one poet’s vision of destiny, duty, and human sorrow shaped the Roman mind and echoed through two thousand years of Western thought.
A Narrative of the Life of Rev. Noah Davis, A Colored Man: Written by Himself, At The Age of Fifty-Four
Noah Davis
Driven by a father's radical resolve to liberate his children, a formerly enslaved preacher turns his life story into a tool of redemption, transforming personal testimony into the hard cash required to secure human freedom.
Civil War Experiences: under Bayard, Gregg, Kilpatrick, Custer, Raulston, and Newberry, 1862, 1863, 1864
Henry C. (Henry Coddington) Meyer
A young volunteer leaps into the turmoil of the American Civil War as a teenage enlistee, surviving cavalry charges, crucial dispatches, and desperate battles across Virginia before a severe sniper wound forces him out of the ranks forever.
Journal of a Tour in the Years 1828-1829, through Styria, Carniola, and Italy, whilst Accompanying the Late Sir Humphry Davy
J. J. Tobin
The quiet, reflective account of a journey taken by an aging scientific giant and his young companion serves as a poignant meditation on mortality, the rigors of travel, and the enduring beauty of the natural world.
Personal Memoirs of P. H. Sheridan, Volume 2, Part 4
Philip Henry Sheridan
Late in the summer of 1864, a Federal commander reorganizes his intelligence corps and takes charge of a swift, punishing campaign across Virginia. Through muddy roads, surprise attacks, and relentless pursuits, he works to break the Confederate hold on the Shenandoah Valley.
Boys' Book of Famous Soldiers
J. Walker (Joseph Walker) McSpadden
The Great War has passed, but the shadows of the men who fought it—and the titans who preceded them—remain fixed in history. This collection explores the formative years that transformed boys into the generals of the modern era.
Colonel Washington
Archer Butler Hulbert
A young colonial officer ventures into the unforgiving wilderness, sparking a global conflict while learning the brutal, formative lessons of command. This account strips away the marble statue of a national icon to reveal the flesh-and-blood man who first learned the cost of war in the Allegheny mountains.
John Brown the Hero: Personal Reminiscences
J. W. (Jonathan Wingate) Winkley
This memoir chronicles the raw, foundational days of the Kansas struggle through the eyes of a young participant who stood alongside the militant abolitionist. It offers a rare, firsthand witness to the man behind the myth.
My First Mission
George Q. (George Quayle) Cannon
The path of a young, bashful missionary is rarely smooth, but for the author of this memoir, an early calling to the Hawaiian Islands becomes the defining crucible of his life.
The sexagenarian
William Beloe
This memoir serves as a sprawling, opinionated ledger of late 18th-century literary and political life, documenting the shifting fortunes of figures who rose from obscurity to the height of public notice.
The White Chief of the Ottawa
Bertha Carr-Harris
An account of the first settlers in the Ottawa Valley, this narrative blends historical record with a fictionalized family saga to capture the rugged, spiritual, and often harsh realities of early nineteenth-century pioneer life.
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…
Charles Philip Yorke, Fourth Earl of Hardwicke, Vice-Admiral R.N
Biddulph, Elizabeth Philippa, Baroness
This memoir chronicles the life of a Victorian naval officer and aristocrat, capturing the vanishing era of global British maritime influence and the intricate intersection of courtly duty and professional ambition. It is a portrait of a man balanced between his inherited responsibilities as a peer and a profound,…
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.
Personal Memoir of Daniel Drayton, for Four Years and Four Months a Prisoner (for Charity's Sake) in Washington Jail: Including a Narrative of the Voyage and Capture of the Schooner Pearl
Daniel Drayton
A common man’s conscience becomes a legal firestorm when he helps enslaved people pursue their freedom, leading to years of incarceration in the nation’s capital.
The Story of Grenfell of the Labrador: A Boy's Life of Wilfred T. Grenfell
Dillon Wallace
An athletic young English doctor trades a comfortable London medical practice for the icy, stormy waters of Newfoundland and Labrador, dedicating his life to serving forgotten deep-sea fishermen.
Twice-born Men in America
Harriet Earhart Monroe
A dedicated missionary chronicles her life’s work in the early twentieth century, offering a firsthand account of the methods, challenges, and spiritual transformations she witnessed within the walls of a Washington, D.C. rescue mission.
Adventures in Holland and at Waterloo
Thomas Knight
A former cabin boy turned rifleman recounts his experiences in the British Army during the Napoleonic Wars and his later, lesser-known service in Portugal. His blunt, unvarnished recollections provide a rare glimpse into the life of a nineteenth-century common soldier.
Anna Seward, and Classic Lichfield
Stapleton Martin
Lichfield’s eighteenth-century literary scene found its center in the Episcopal Palace, where a poetess once reigned as the acknowledged queen of her circle. This work reconstructs the life and social world of that formidable figure.
Deeds Barn and the Self Starter
Anonymous
Two visionary engineers transform the early automobile from a temperamental, hand-cranked machine into a reliable, mass-produced marvel, beginning their work in the humble confines of a backyard barn.
Four Months in Libby and the Campaign Against Atlanta
I. N. (Isaac N.) Johnston
This account offers a direct, unvarnished look at the harrowing realities of Civil War imprisonment and the relentless, grinding progression of Sherman’s campaign toward Atlanta.
Narrative of Henry Watson, a fugitive slave
Henry Watson
This account reveals the brutal reality of the American plantation system through the eyes of a man who survived its most unforgiving corners. It is a testament to the persistent, unyielding desire for human freedom.
Robert Burns: A play
John Drinkwater
This dramatic portrait captures the life of Scotland’s most beloved poet, depicting a man caught between the soaring heights of his genius and the crushing weight of his earthly appetites. It is a work that finds beauty in the struggle to remain authentic in an unforgiving world.
Sir Walter Scott
Richard Holt Hutton
The legacy of a literary giant remains as sturdy as the stone walls of his own creation, yet it is human frailty and indomitable courage that truly define his storied life.
The Life of Venerable Sister Margaret Bourgeois
Anonymous
This biography chronicles the life of a seventeenth-century French woman who left her homeland to establish a religious order and a system of education in the rugged, nascent colony of Montreal. It serves as a testament to the endurance of early Canadian missionary history.
Life of Edward Earl of Clarendon
Craik, Henry, Sir
A statesman navigates the treacherous tides of the Restoration, holding fast to constitutional principle while the volatile whims of a king and the jealousies of a court conspire to undo him.
Ludwig Van Beethoven
Franz Hoffmann
This narrative portrait captures the early trials and eventual triumphs of a musical genius, framing his life as an inspiring journey from impoverished, misunderstood childhood to the heights of immortal fame.