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Biographies — page 53
2,563 public-domain biographies books, summarised. Page 53 of 54.
Lord Kitchener
G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton
The enigmatic figure of Horatio Herbert Kitchener emerges here not as a rigid machine of war, but as a silent, symbolic force navigating the shifting sands of history. This study examines a career that bridged the colonial era and the dawn of modern global conflict, ultimately framing a life of action as an…
Personal Memoirs of P. H. Sheridan, Volume 1, Part 1
Philip Henry Sheridan
The story of a young man who rises from a clerkship in a grocery store to the command of cavalry regiments during the American Civil War, this account captures the gritty, pragmatic evolution of a professional soldier.
The Bay State Monthly
Various
This collection functions as a Victorian-era time capsule, preserving the local histories, genealogies, and social anxieties of late 19th-century New England. It offers a multifaceted window into the cultural life and regional identity of the Bay State.
War Stories for my Grandchildren
John Watson Foster
HOOK A soldier chronicles his journey through the American Civil War not for history books, but for the descendants who will never hear his voice.
A Journal of the Disasters in Affghanistan, 1841-2
Florentia Wynch Sale
A bracing, unvarnished account of the First Anglo-Afghan War, this journal documents the catastrophic collapse of British forces in Kabul and the harrowing captivity of the officers’ families caught in the crossfire.
Bernardin de St. Pierre
Arvède Barine
This literary portrait captures the life and erratic brilliance of a writer who defined a generation’s sentimentality. It reveals the man behind the famous pastoral myth, grounding his complex legacy in the real, often difficult person who authored it.
Lord Elgin
John George Bourinot
The Earl of Elgin’s tenure as Governor-General of Canada stands as the definitive bridge between colonial subjugation and the birth of a truly self-governing nation. He transformed a volatile, fractured territory into a stable parliamentary democracy.
The Baptist Magazine, Vol. 27, June 1835
Various
This nineteenth-century chronicle gathers the voices, labors, and spiritual aspirations of a community bound by shared faith and a commitment to global missionary expansion. It serves as a vital record of a specific religious tradition in transition.
A lady of the last century
Dr. (John) Doran
A portrait of a brilliant eighteenth-century intellect, this biography captures the life of a woman who navigated the rigid social structures of her era with wit, administrative acumen, and a sharp, discerning pen.
An interesting journal of Abner Stocking of Chatham, Connecticut: detailing the distressing events of the expedition against Quebec, under the command of Col. Arnold in the year 1775
Abner Stocking
A harrowing, firsthand account of the 1775 American expedition to Quebec, this narrative traces a soldier’s transformation from a zealous patriot into a survivor of starvation, imprisonment, and defeat.
Journal of the Life and Religious Labours of Elias Hicks
Elias Hicks
A persistent traveler records a lifetime of quiet, rigorous spiritual inquiry, documenting his relentless pursuit of inward truth across the American landscape.
Mary S. Peake: The Colored Teacher at Fortress Monroe
Lewis C. (Lewis Conger) Lockwood
The life of a devout teacher illuminates the dawn of freedom for the formerly enslaved, revealing a spirit that triumphed over systemic cruelty through faith and the pursuit of knowledge.
Memoirs of Louis XIV and His Court and of the Regency
Saint-Simon, Louis de Rouvroy, duc de
A sharp-eyed witness chronicles the golden cage of Versailles, exposing the petty rivalries, fragile hierarchies, and hidden scandals that defined a monarch’s absolute rule.
Memories of the Civil War
Henry B. James
A young soldier’s unvarnished account of four years spent in the ranks, capturing the exhaustion, the camaraderie, and the heavy toll of the American Civil War.
Sir Robert Hart
Juliet Bredon
An intimate portrait of a legendary figure in Chinese diplomatic history, this account reveals the quiet resolve and complex character of the man who modernized the nation’s customs service.
The Wright Brothers
Anonymous
This account chronicles the lives and mechanical ingenuity of two brothers who transformed the dream of human flight into a tangible reality. It traces the trajectory of their invention from a bicycle shop in Ohio to the international stage.
Under the Stars and Bars
Walter A. (Walter Augustus) Clark
A soldier recalls his four years of service in the Confederate infantry, documenting the camaraderie, humor, and grim realities of camp life alongside his fellow Oglethorpes.
A Day with Samuel Taylor Coleridge
May Byron
A poet’s inner life and outward struggle converge in one day of domestic tension and creative transcendence. This portrait of a legendary mind captures the fragile balance between genius and the mundane.
Abraham Lincoln
James Russell Lowell
A steady, reasoned defense of a leader once doubted, this essay captures the transformation of a wartime president from an unproven politician into a figure of profound moral and national authority. It stands as a vital account of how democracy navigates the crucible of internal conflict.
At Ypres with Best-Dunkley
Thomas Hope Floyd
This intimate account captures the daily rhythms of soldiers awaiting the Third Battle of Ypres. It stands as a modest, essential tribute to the men who fought and the commander who led them to their final objective.
Christopher Columbus
Mildred Stapley Byne
Whatever can be known of earth we know, sneered Europe’s wise men; yet one man in Genoa dared to say "No," and that refusal created a New World.
Hector Berlioz: A Romantic Tragedy
Herbert F. (Herbert Francis) Peyser
A life of relentless creative fire, Hector Berlioz struggled against the indifference of his countrymen and the volatile echoes of his own heart. His story is one of a genius perpetually at war with his circumstances.
John the Baptist
F. B. (Frederick Brotherton) Meyer
The life of the desert prophet serves as a mirror for those seeking spiritual clarity, illustrating how one person’s selfless devotion can light the path for a new era.
Memoirs of a Surrey Labourer: A Record of the Last Years of Frederick Bettesworth
George Sturt
This record captures the final years of an elderly Surrey labourer, preserving the dignity, struggles, and vanishing dialect of a life defined by physical toil and a deep, intuitive connection to the English landscape.
Memoirs of the Courts of Louis XV and XVI
Mme. Du Hausset
These memoirs offer a harrowing, intimate perspective on the twilight of the French monarchy, tracing the final, desperate years of a Queen and her court through the eyes of those closest to her.
Norman Macleod
John Wellwood
This biography captures the life of a charismatic 19th-century Scottish minister who navigated the rigid doctrinal battles of his time with a rare, expansive humanity. It serves as an intimate portrait of a man who bridged the gap between Highland traditions and the industrial realities of modern Glasgow.
Notes of a Twenty-Five Years' Service in the Hudson's Bay Territory. Volume I
John McLean
The vast, frozen wilderness of the Hudson’s Bay Company territory reveals itself not through maps, but through the grueling, day-to-day struggle of a man tasked with securing furs in an unforgiving, colonial frontier.
Ten Englishmen of the Nineteenth Century
James Richard Joy
This collection of biographical portraits traces the transformation of nineteenth-century England through the lives of the men who shaped its politics, military, and industry. It serves as a concise, focused narrative of an era defined by rapid change and imperial expansion.
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 20, No. 556, July 7, 1832
Various
This collection serves as a vibrant, kaleidoscopic window into the intellectual and cultural preoccupations of 1832, blending serious historical reflection with the lighthearted, ephemeral amusements of its day.
Mozart's Youth
Franz Hoffmann
A brilliant child musician travels across Europe, enchanting kings and queens with his extraordinary talent before proving his mastery to the most rigorous musical scholars of his age.
Rodney
David Hannay
The life of an admiral is a study in the slow, grinding machinery of naval promotion, punctuated by moments of violent, career-defining improvisation. This account traces the ascent of a man who rose from the ranks of a gentlemanly but stagnant service to shatter the conventions of naval warfare at the Battle of…
The New York Tombs Inside and Out!: Scenes and Reminiscences Coming Down to the Present. A Story Stranger Than Fiction, with an Historic Account of America's Most Famous Prison
John Josiah Munro
This account pulls back the iron curtain of early twentieth-century New York, exposing a world of systemic corruption, prisoner gambling, and the stark intersection of human failing with municipal greed.
Captivity and Escape
Jean Martin
Captured during the war’s opening months, a wounded French sergeant endures the brutality of German prison camps before executing a daring escape across northern Europe to freedom.
Memoirs of Henry Hunt, Esq
Henry Hunt
A fiery, unapologetic account of a nineteenth-century radical’s struggle against institutional corruption, these memoirs capture a voice that refused to be silenced by magistrates, jailers, or the elite.
Private Peat
Harold Reginald Peat
A Canadian volunteer trades his kit for khaki, braves the mud of Flanders, and brings home a fierce, compassionate eyewitness account of the First World War.
Sketch of the life of Abraham Lincoln
Isaac N. Arnold
A steadfast prairie lawyer rises from backcountry poverty to guide a fractured nation through civil war, leaving a legacy written in total emancipation and tragic martyrdom.
Southey
Edward Dowden
A boy sent to learn Latin under an irascible Welsh master grows up to champion radical ideas, write epics, and quietly anchor a literary era through sheer devotion to his craft and household.
Souvenir of the George Borrow Celebration: Norwich, July 5th, 1913
James Hooper
A wandering child finds a snake in his shirt, learns secrets from roadside gypsies, and grows up to translate forgotten tongues across a changing nineteenth-century England.
The patriarch of one hundred years
Henry Boehm
A centenarian minister looks back on a century of American history, recalling thousands of miles ridden on horseback alongside early circuit riders to plant Methodism across a raw, expanding nation.
A friend of Marie-Antoinette (Lady Atkyns)
Frédéric Barbey
A passionate English actress turned noblewoman risks her fortune and safety in a desperate, decades-long crusade to rescue the doomed royal family of France from the perils of the Revolution.
Behind the scenes in Peking
Mary Hooker
A tense, high-stakes chronicle of survival, this intimate diary captures fifty-five days spent trapped under fire within the diplomatic compound of 1900 Peking.
Boy of My Heart
Marie Connor Leighton
A mother waits late at night for her officer son to arrive on home leave from the Western Front, unaware that a telegram is about to strike down all her desperate hopes.
Diary of Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys
A middle-class bureaucrat moves through the halls of English power, writing down everything he sees, eats, spends, and secretly desires.
Essay on the Character and Influence of Washington in the Revolution of the United States of America
François Guizot
A disciplined leader's steady hand turns a precarious colonial revolt into a self-sustaining republic through unyielding moral authority and practical wisdom.
Henry Ford: Highlights of His Life
Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village
A farm boy turns his mechanical curiosity into an industrial empire that changes how the world travels, works, and lives.
Mary Russell Mitford and her surroundings
Constance Hill
A life lived richly in the quietest corners of Berkshire yields a world of vibrant color, rustic charm, and stubborn literary devotion.
Memoirs of the Court of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, Volume 1: Being the Historic Memoirs of Madam Campan, First Lady in Waiting to the Queen
Mme. (Jeanne-Louise-Henriette) Campan
A devoted servant's intimate memory resurrects the vanished splendor and gathering shadow of Versailles, transforming royal legend into human history.
My Cave Life in Vicksburg, with Letters of Trial and Travel
Mary Ann Webster Loughborough
A young Confederate officer’s wife retreats beneath the earth to survive the relentless Union bombardment of Vicksburg, capturing the terror and bizarre routines of a city forced underground.