Great Books/Great Biographies

This is a curated list of 100 of the greatest biographies of the greatest people who ever lived. They are organized loosely by domain—leaders, scientists, artists, thinkers, humanitarians, and others. This is a mix of classic, modern, and widely acclaimed works that collectively illuminate human greatness across history.

Leaders, Statesmen, and Revolutionaries

1. The Life of Samuel Johnson — James Boswell
2. Alexander Hamilton — Ron Chernow
3. Washington: A Life — Ron Chernow
4. John Adams — David McCullough
5. Truman — David McCullough
6. Mornings on Horseback (Theodore Roosevelt) — David McCullough
7. Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln — Doris Kearns Goodwin
8. Lincoln — David Herbert Donald
9. Grant — Ron Chernow
10. The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt — Edmund Morris
11. Theodore Rex — Edmund Morris
12. Colonel Roosevelt — Edmund Morris
13. Napoleon: A Life — Andrew Roberts
14. Churchill: Walking with Destiny — Andrew Roberts
15. The Last Lion (Winston Churchill trilogy) — William Manchester
16. Gandhi: An Autobiography – The Story of My Experiments with Truth — M.K. Gandhi
17. Gandhi Before India — Ramachandra Guha
18. Gandhi: The Years That Changed the World, 1914–1948 — Ramachandra Guha
19. Nelson Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom — Nelson Mandela
20. Mandela: The Authorized Biography — Anthony Sampson
21. Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Life — Marshall Frady
22. Bearing the Cross (MLK) — David J. Garrow
23. Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention — Manning Marable
24. The Autobiography of Malcolm X — as told to Alex Haley
25. Benito Juárez of Mexico — Ralph Roeder

Scientists and Inventors

1. Einstein: His Life and Universe — Walter Isaacson
2. Einstein: The Life and Times — Ronald Clark
3. Galileo: Watcher of the Skies — David Wootton
4. The Life of Galileo — Stillman Drake
5. The Reluctant Mr. Darwin — David Quammen
6. Darwin: The Life of a Tormented Evolutionist — Adrian Desmond & James Moore
7. Madame Curie: A Biography — Eve Curie
8. Curie: The Life of Marie Curie — Susan Quinn
9. The Man Who Knew Infinity (Srinivasa Ramanujan) — Robert Kanigel
10. A Beautiful Mind (John Nash) — Sylvia Nasar
11. The Double Helix (James Watson on DNA) — James D. Watson
12. Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA — Brenda Maddox
13. Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age — W. Bernard Carlson
14. Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla — Marc J. Seifer
15. Edison: A Biography — Matthew Josephson
16. Steve Jobs — Walter Isaacson
17. Elon Musk — Walter Isaacson
18. Benjamin Franklin: An American Life — Walter Isaacson
19. The Wright Brothers — David McCullough

Artists, Writers, and Musicians

1. Leonardo da Vinci — Walter Isaacson
2. Leonardo and the Last Supper — Ross King
3. Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling — Ross King
4. Michelangelo: A Life in Six Masterpieces — Miles Unger
5. Vincent van Gogh: The Life — Steven Naifeh & Gregory White Smith
6. Lust for Life (Van Gogh) — Irving Stone
7. Jackson Pollock: An American Saga — Steven Naifeh & Gregory White Smith
8. Rembrandt’s Eyes — Simon Schama
9. Picasso: Creator and Destroyer — Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington
10. The Unknown Matisse — Hilary Spurling
11. Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo — Hayden Herrera
12. Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph — Jan Swafford
13. Mozart: A Life — Maynard Solomon
14. Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician — Christoph Wolff
15. Chopin: Prince of the Romantics — Adam Zamoyski
16. Tolstoy: A Russian Life — Rosamund Bartlett
17. Dostoevsky: A Writer in His Time — Joseph Frank
18. Virginia Woolf — Hermione Lee
19. Jane Austen: A Life — Claire Tomalin
20. Charles Dickens: A Life — Claire Tomalin
21. Shakespeare: A Life — Park Honan
22. Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare — Stephen Greenblatt

Philosophers and Thinkers

1. Socrates: A Man for Our Times — Paul Johnson
2. Plato: A Biography — A.E. Taylor
3. Aristotle: The Desire to Understand — Jonathan Lear
4. The Cave and the Light (Plato vs. Aristotle) — Arthur Herman
5. Descartes: A Biography — Desmond Clarke
6. Spinoza: A Life — Steven Nadler
7. Kant: A Biography — Manfred Kuehn
8. Hegel: A Biography — Terry Pinkard
9. Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist — Walter Kaufmann
10. Young Stalin — Simon Sebag Montefiore
11. Karl Marx: A Nineteenth-Century Life — Jonathan Sperber
12. Freud: A Life for Our Time — Peter Gay
13. Simone de Beauvoir: A Biography — Deirdre Bair
14. Hannah Arendt: For Love of the World — Elisabeth Young-Bruehl

Humanitarians, Explorers, and Others

1. Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light — ed. Brian Kolodiejchuk
2. Mother Teresa: A Biography — Meg Greene
3. Florence Nightingale: The Making of an Icon — Mark Bostridge
4. Florence Nightingale: A Biography — Cecil Woodham-Smith
5. Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom — Catherine Clinton
6. Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman — Kate Clifford Larson
7. Sojourner Truth: A Life, A Symbol — Nell Irvin Painter
8. Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom — David W. Blight
9. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave — Frederick Douglass
10. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks — Rebecca Skloot
11. Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu — Laurence Bergreen
12. Magellan — Stefan Zweig
13. Over the Edge of the World: Magellan’s Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe — Laurence Bergreen
14. Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage — Alfred Lansing
15. Shackleton: By Endurance We Conquer — Michael Smith
16. Captain Cook: A Legacy Under Fire — Vanessa Collingridge
17. The Life of Mahomet — William Muir
18. The First Muslim: The Story of Muhammad — Lesley Hazleton
19. The Apostle: A Life of Paul — John Pollock
20. Augustine of Hippo: A Biography — Peter Brown