Well-written memoirs and autobiographies

September 30, 2007 3:19 PM

What are your favorite autobiographies? For the purposes of this discussion, I'm including "autobiographies" that were written collaboratively (like Alex Haley's The Autobiography of Malcolm X) or that were straight up written by someone else (like Gertrude Stein's The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas). The point is, the book is written from the point of view of the subject and it's (ostensibly at least) non-fiction.

If possible, I'd love to hear what you liked about the book too. (I'm asking because I'm researching a related writing project.)

posted by serazin to Media & Arts (57 answers total)

Black Boy, Richard Wright. A description of life as an outsider among outsiders. Told of the daily havoc of Jim Crow on the lives of black Southern families, even if the, or at least the children, went weeks or months at a time without seeing a single white person.
posted by ibmcginty at 3:26 PM on September 30, 2007

What is the What by Dave Eggers was one of the most powerful "autobiographies" I've read.

The Amazon reader reviews should give you an idea of how good it is.
posted by i love cheese at 3:27 PM on September 30, 2007

Richard Wright's "Black Boy"
posted by caddis at 3:31 PM on September 30, 2007

The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer (it's a memoir, though--subclass of autobiographies?), amazing lines, dialogue, voice. Both my SO and I use Fuck'em Babe's line all the time.
posted by eralclare at 3:33 PM on September 30, 2007

Daniel Paul Schreber--Memoirs of My Nervous Illness

Bill Clinton--My Life (only up until the part in the book where he becomes President, though)

Jenna Jameson with Neil Strauss--How to Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale (more for the eccentric book design than any other reason)
posted by Prospero at 3:35 PM on September 30, 2007

Colin Powell, My American Journey.

It was the little details. Growing up in the South Bronx. How he liked to rebuild Volvos in his spare time. How, despite being an Army officer, restaurants in the South wouldn't serve him in the 1960s. How in West Germany, he kept a picture of a Soviet general on his desk -- the Soviet general whose forces would directly oppose him should WWIII break out. How he later met that general after the Berlin Wall fell.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 3:42 PM on September 30, 2007

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind: an Unathorized Autobiography by Chuck Barris, baby!
posted by barrakuda at 3:44 PM on September 30, 2007

I like a book called "First There is a Mountain" a lot. It's by Elizabeth Kadetsky, it's somewhere between journalism and a memoir of her experiences studying yoga in India. It's first person non-fiction and very personal and very good.

Paul
posted by sully75 at 3:48 PM on September 30, 2007

North Toward Home by Willie Morris, A Drinking Life by Pete Hamill
posted by david1230 at 3:49 PM on September 30, 2007

David Sedaris' books all add up to a pretty great autobiography.
posted by Reggie Digest at 3:53 PM on September 30, 2007 [1 favorite]

Growing Up, by Russell Baker. A few books by Philip Caputo, most notably A Rumor of War and Means of Escape.
posted by procrastination at 4:02 PM on September 30, 2007

V. Nabokov, 'Speak, Memory.' Classic. C. Mingus, 'Beneath the Underdog,' especially on his childhood.
posted by rudster at 4:14 PM on September 30, 2007

Beneath the Underdog by Charles Mingus.
Maybe I'll Pitch Forever by Satchel Paige.
posted by NoMich at 4:15 PM on September 30, 2007

Agatha Christie's Autobiography. Not only does she give a lot of insight on her writing and the way she crafted her mysteries, but there is some really fascinating portraits of her childhood raised in the last remnants of the Victorian era. She also talks about her life traveling with her second husband who was an archaeologist, and a lot of small vignettes of people she knew and places she went to.
posted by SassHat at 4:22 PM on September 30, 2007 [1 favorite]

Winston Churchill's My Early Life. The man had already amassed enough adventures for a ripping autobiography by the time he was 30. Part of the fun of reading it, besides the prose and the content, is knowing what the author didn't: his dramatic future.
posted by CunningLinguist at 4:26 PM on September 30, 2007

Recently I read and enjoyed No Way Renee, the tennis star that caused a major uproar in the 80's when she admitted to being a transsexual.

Renee isn't an amazing writer, but is has a very frank and distinct voice that I found to be really compelling. Hers is one of the only first-person accounts we have of transsexualism from that time period, and her rise to international fame is almost merely an afterthought.

In the book, Renee finds it funny that she has become an icon for transsexualism, because she considers herself first and foremost to be a Yale graduate, secondarily to be a doctor (a practicing eye surgeon, in fact), and her gender identity comes in third at best.
posted by hermitosis at 4:27 PM on September 30, 2007

Sorry, that should have said "...by Renee Richards, the tennis star..."
posted by hermitosis at 4:28 PM on September 30, 2007

I'm a big fan of Annie Dillard's An American Childhood.
posted by buriedpaul at 4:45 PM on September 30, 2007

The Motion of Light in Water by Samuel Delany is simply a fabulous book. The writing is very good, the subject matter (the 60s in the village, writing science fiction, coming out as a gay man) is fascinating. I can't recommend it enough. For a long time it was out of print, and my copy was very dear to me.

I also think the two volumes of Langston Hughes's autobiography, especially the first one, I Wonder As I Wander, are great.

Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell is one of the most important books of the 20th century, in my opinion, and fabulous, as is Down and Out in Paris and London.

Memoirs of an English Opium Eater by Thomas De Quincy is a fun read.

I think the best autobiography, which also happens to be a novel, is Proust's In Search of Lost Time. The first volume of seven stands effectively on its own. Reading Proust will change your life, and certainly your vision of what autobiography can be. The exploration of the interior landscape that Proust presents is riveting.
posted by OmieWise at 4:47 PM on September 30, 2007

Seconding What is the What by Dave Eggers. It's the novelized autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan.
posted by vytae at 4:47 PM on September 30, 2007

I've also heard a lot of very persuasive praise for Loren Eiseley's All the Strange Hours. I haven't read it myself, but I'm looking for it.
posted by OmieWise at 4:57 PM on September 30, 2007

I just popped in to see if anyone's mentioned Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman, which is a pretty obvious one for this crowd but I might as well throw it in there. I enjoy the fact taht for some reason a series of anecdotes strung together somehow forms a narrative 'by accident'.
posted by Space Coyote at 5:09 PM on September 30, 2007

Peter O'Toole's autobiographical books, Dirk Bogarde's and Alec Guiness's are all excellent because they are written just as the subjects speak. O'toole's especially is fantastically lyrical.
posted by merocet at 5:11 PM on September 30, 2007

I'm a huge fan of Stephen Fry's writing, acting, and various television appearances. I definitely recommend his memoir Moab is my Washpot. Though it does follow the standard schoolboy memoir form it's absolutely hilarious and worth reading. You can usually pick it up cheaply in used shops.
posted by rhinny at 5:11 PM on September 30, 2007

The Little House on the Praire series. I was just explaining this to someone the other day who said they hadn't read the "last few" books. To me, the whole series and especially the 2 books, are both such an interesting peek at history and also a deeply personal look at one woman's goals for herself- to be smart, to work hard, to sacrifice herself for the sake of others. I find them inspirational.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 5:31 PM on September 30, 2007 [1 favorite]

Seconding Speak, Memory, which is simply gorgeous writing. Also recommend William Styron's fictional Confessions of Nat Turner, a meditation on the original memoir of the same name, itself dictated to (and adapted by) Turner's lawyer Thomas Gray.
posted by rob511 at 5:42 PM on September 30, 2007

In a similar vein to Stephen Fry, Roald Dahl's Boy is a great read. Clive James' Unreliable Memoirs would also fit into the 'hilarious schoolboy memoir' category.

Sally Morgan's My Place was the first Australian bestseller by an indigenous author, and taught a lot of Australians about some awful parts of our history.

I also really liked A Fortunate Life by AB Facey, about growing up dog poor in rural, early-twentieth-century Australia, and his experiences as a soldier at Gallipoli.

Cecile Dorward had a fascinating life which she recounts brilliantly in Anything but Ordinary, in a similar vein to Alice B Toklas and Simone de Beauvoir's autobiogs: Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter, The Prime of Life, Force of Circumstance and All Said and Done.

Danny La Rue's autobiography From Drags to Riches is fascinating for what it doesn't share - he doesn't come out in it!!
posted by goo at 5:54 PM on September 30, 2007

Very strong, articulate and autobiographical presentation of chronic illness by a poet, What Her Body Thought.

Also, Thomas Jefferson's farm books.
posted by vers at 6:16 PM on September 30, 2007

The Accidental President of Brazil by Fernando Henrique Cardoso was a great read. Cardoso's family was so connected in Brazilian political life that he grew up knowing many of his predecessors. This means that his story is really a history of Brazil in the second half of the 20th century. Granted, I'm more interested in Brazilian history than most people around here but it was one of the better autobiographies I have read.
posted by wallaby at 6:20 PM on September 30, 2007

I really enjoyed Vera Brittain's Testament of Youth, in which she describes her journey from upper middle class English young ladyhood to front line nurse in WWI to largely ignored pacifist activist in the 1920s. I found it quite sad, though.
posted by Quietgal at 6:20 PM on September 30, 2007

journey into the whirlwind by evgenia ginzburg is probably the most compelling autobiography i've ever read (and, because of my work, i have read A LOT). she was one of the intelligentsia deported to siberia during the stalinist purges, and it is incredibly detailed, well-paced, descriptive, evocative, and unsentimental. really amazing and well done.
posted by thinkingwoman at 6:22 PM on September 30, 2007

The TV movie "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman" is based on a book by Ernest J. Gaines.

It would best be described as "historical fiction". There was no real person named "Jane Pittman", and the events in the story are synthetic, but it's an attempt to tell a story of what things really were like for a freed black slave woman in the South during Reconstruction. The movie voiceover is in first person, and I would assume the book is, too.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 6:26 PM on September 30, 2007

I strongly recommend the book Chuck Amuck. It's not really an autobiography so much as a book of memoirs, but it's definitely written in first person (by Chuck Jones) and it's fascinating. Especially the chapter where he remembers his uncle Lyn, who seems to have been an amazing guy.

But, of course, all the chapters about Termite Terrace are wonderful too.

His second book of memoirs, Chuck Redux is not as good. Don't be confused.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 6:36 PM on September 30, 2007

Nadezhda Mandelstam's memoirs--Hope Against Hope--are well worth the read.
posted by whimwit at 6:52 PM on September 30, 2007

Angela's Ashes: A Memoir by Frank McCourt... Don't let the movie version ruin it for you. The book is wonderful.
posted by amyms at 7:15 PM on September 30, 2007

Thirding Speak, Memory. Everybody should read this book at least once.
posted by trip and a half at 7:16 PM on September 30, 2007

If Chins Could Kill by Bruce Campbell is a really quick, light read about his Hollywood career. He is not the world's best writer, but he is very funny and has a great outlook about "the movies."

I know you didn't ask about biography, but the recent bio of Alice Sheldon (James Tiptree, Jr.) was so excellent, I cannot pass up even most tangential way of bringing it up for folks who may have missed it. One of the best books I've read this year.

Sorry no links, Firefox has killed my cut & paste in Mefi forms.
posted by thebrokedown at 7:37 PM on September 30, 2007

Response by poster: Thanks for all these so far. I appreciate what a diverse array you all have suggested and I'm looking forward to more, and to going to the library this week to pick up a bunch of these!
posted by serazin at 7:40 PM on September 30, 2007

Anything by Christopher Isherwood. Berlin Stories, Down there on a Visit, etc…

Seconding Samuel Delaney's Motion of Light in Water
posted by mr. remy at 7:47 PM on September 30, 2007

Here are a few that I've read or had recommended many times over:
Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg
West with the Night, Beryl Markham - woman pilot in Africa in early 20th century (self-aggrandizing, but interesting).
Road from Coorain - first in series of autobios of Jill Ker Conway, who grew up on isolated farm in Australia and rose to a major academic figure in the US.
Uncle Tungsten by Oliver Sacks
Ulysses S Grant
Frederick Douglass (and there are other narratives by former slaves from the same time period which are interesting - Sojourner Truth's is another great one)
Up From Slavery by Booker T Washington (an autobio and a program for what freed slaves should do to best improve their chances in the new, post-emancipation US)
posted by LobsterMitten at 7:53 PM on September 30, 2007

3rding the gripping and beautifully written Black Boy. It's a detailed look at the experience of Jim Crow on a growing - and increasingly smart - black psyche. Wright is great at exploring what racism does to people, and he combines that with an insightful story about his own intellectual coming of age. Wright's self-education really takes off when he finds a white person who lets him use a library card to check out books the librarian would never give to a black man for his own use.

Be sure you get one of the more recent copies that include the last third of the original story, which covers his experiences after his move to the North (it was cut from the manuscript at the request of the Book-of-the-Month club in the 1940s, IIRC). There's a scene where he accidentally brushes against one of the white waitresses in the restaurant where he works, and just stands there, savoring his shock that no one's attacking him. Fantastic stuff. The northern segment was finally published as American Hunger in 1977 but wasn't included in copies of "Black Boy" until the Library of America started doing it some years later. Get one of those. Together, they form a truly classic American autobiography.
posted by mediareport at 8:07 PM on September 30, 2007

I'll second A Fortunate Life by AB Facey. It really is a great tale.
posted by bigmusic at 8:13 PM on September 30, 2007

Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, by Edwin Lefevre (aka Jesse Livermore)

My Own Story, Bernard Baruch
posted by JohnnyGunn at 8:26 PM on September 30, 2007

Miles Davis
H. Norman Schwartzkopf (very good)
Kurt Warner
posted by Autarky at 8:38 PM on September 30, 2007

I'm reading The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls right now. Even though it got terrific reviews, I wondered how good a melodrama written by a gossip columnist could be. She showed me ... I can hardly put it down.
posted by lukemeister at 9:00 PM on September 30, 2007

The Kid Stays in the Picture by movie producer Robert Evans - - sex in old Hollywood, sex in new Hollywood, info on the making of movies including The Godfather and Chinatown, and more sex with starlets. There's also a movie
posted by jstruan at 9:14 PM on September 30, 2007

Beryl Markham's West With the Night comes as close to being perfect as a memoir can, I think. It's the story of an white English woman raised in Africa, with Maruni friends, who became a bush pilot, walked away from plane crashes, maintained relationships with notorious misogynists like Hemingway and (IIRC) Lawrence, and soloed the Atlantic in the mid 1930s.

See also: Henry Beston's Outermost House, Northern Farm for brilliantly poetic examinations of a writer's life during years spent in self-imposed and voluntary exile.
posted by mr. remy at 9:17 PM on September 30, 2007

"Out of My Life and Thought" by Albert Schweitzer changed my life, or set my values, as a young person.

Also n-thing "Black Boy" and "Speak, Memory."
posted by Rain Man at 9:19 PM on September 30, 2007

Mine Enemy Grows Older by Alexander King. Believing he is going to die soon, King sets down to write about his unusual life for his grandchildren, including a stint as editor at Life, where he conceived of printing an image of the world's smallest man, life size, as a double truck in the magazine. He also spent years as a dope addict, wore only pink ties (a story with an astounding denouement), married and divorced often, and was an exceptionally gifted storyteller.

My Family, Right or Wrong, by John Phillip Souza III, and, yes, he is the grandson of the March King. But the most famous Souza is never mentioned in the book. Instead, it's a hilarious look at growing up in a family whose wealth has made them incredibly eccentric, set in souther California in the 1920s.

My Face For the World To See, by Liz Renay. The story of an extremely small-time Hollywood success, a girl whose career was almost entirely based on a very slight resemblance to Marilyn Monroe and whose fame was mostly based on having married a mobster, and unknowingly assisted him in his crimes, leading to a prison sentence of her own. She was later known for a mother/daughter stripping act and for appearing in John Waters movies.

Step Right Up!, by Dan Mannix. The life of a sideshow performer, who started as a fire eater when his predecessor caught fire onstage, and who moves on to sword swallowing. An intimate look at carnival life in the mid-20th century, including an unbelievable scene of a "Hey Rube," a riot in which carnies are attacked by carnival goers.
posted by Astro Zombie at 9:47 PM on September 30, 2007

Personal Memoirs: Ulysses S. Grant
posted by the christopher hundreds at 10:14 PM on September 30, 2007

In My Own Way - Alan Watts

A Drink with Shane MacGowen - Shane MacGowen
posted by ThePants at 5:34 AM on October 1, 2007

Ben Franklin's, after you read it try and go see the Ben Franklin Exhibit...

http://www.benfranklin300.org/

you might need a plane ticket.
posted by bkeene12 at 6:46 AM on October 1, 2007

I need to add Doris Lessing's "Under my Skin" and "Walking in the Shade". Lessing grew up in Rhodesia in the 20's, married and had children, became a left wing political activist and moved to London becoming a writer to support herself. I read these books ten years ago and they still stick with me.

And Lucy Grealy's "Autobiography of a Face", living with a facially deforming cancer. Following up with "Truth and Beauty" Ann Patchett's memoir of her and Lucy's friendship.

Looking forward to reading many others recommended here.
posted by readery at 6:53 AM on October 1, 2007

Seconding Nadezhda Mandelstam's memoirs, and her husband's The Noise of Time is superb as well; I guess Nabokov doesn't need further praise, but what the hell, he's going to get it: Speak, Memory is one of the best books of the last century.

As much as I love Proust, it's a mistake to take In Search of Lost Time as autobiography. It's got obvious autobiographical elements, but so do many (most?) novels. But the narrator of the book, unlike Proust, is neither gay nor Jewish, so that's a pretty big difference right there.
posted by languagehat at 8:42 AM on October 1, 2007

"harpo speaks" is simply wonderful.
posted by rmd1023 at 9:06 AM on October 1, 2007

As much as I love Proust, it's a mistake to take In Search of Lost Time as autobiography. It's got obvious autobiographical elements, but so do many (most?) novels. But the narrator of the book, unlike Proust, is neither gay nor Jewish, so that's a pretty big difference right there.

I disagree, but with a complex caveat. I think one cannot evaluate any instance in the novel by the corresponding (or lack thereof) instances in Proust's life; in other words, reading it as autobiography fails to do the book justice as an evaluation of the book. (Albertine, for instance, is clearly not Alfred Agostinelli, and any attempt to read her as such is inane.) On the other hand, I see the novel as a whole as a novel (sorry) autobiography, in sum the telling of Proust's life. The changes and elisions are what make that such a fascinating tension, but those changes and elisions are always present, as Chip Delany does a great job of explaining in the preface to his autobiography.

I understand that this distinction may not work for everyone, but I do think it's valid.
posted by OmieWise at 10:24 AM on October 1, 2007

Broken Music by Sting. Great read, good look at underclass Northern Britain, and not very self-absorbed. One of the better Rock autobiographies.

Not a true autobiography, but as a memoir of a particular moment in his life, Patient: The True Story of a Rare Illness by Ben Watt (The boy half of Everything but the Girl) is poignant, tough and interesting.

The Summing Up, by W. Somerset Maugham.
posted by xetere at 3:15 PM on October 1, 2007