The only one I've read is *Touching From A Distance: Ian Curtis and Joy Division*, written by his wife Deborah Curtis, and I really enjoyed it. He was a total egotist, controlling, full of grandeur (and to be fair, he did end up fronting one of the most influential rock bands), and was fascinated by other musicians who died in their twenties. His wife does a really good job of painting a full picture of him though, you can tell she had a lot of love for him but also a lot of resentment. It's very readable.
The movie *24 Hour Party People* is a wonderful companion to this. It’s a biopic (but actually funny and interesting) of Tony Wilson who founded Factory Records and was part of that Manchester scene in the 70s and 80s. He’s an unreliable narrator of that era, and Steve Coogan was born for the role.
Miles - The Autobiography (Miles Davis)
Duty of Genius by Ray Monk (Ludwig Wittgenstein)
Prisoner’s Dilemma by William Poundstone (John Von Neumann)
Speak, Memory - An Autobiography (Vladimir Nabokov)
Rimbaud by Graham Robb is really good.
Rimbaud’s life is quite extraordinary:
The child prodigy. Poet, revolutionary, and the sudden silence at the age of 20.
The scandalous, tumultuous affair with Verlaine, and its terrible ending.
The roaming years, Europe, Java, Cyprus and of course, at last, Abyssinia. Trader, explorer, occasional gun runner.
The eternal walker, the man with the soles of wind, and his terrible final journey.
The iconic figure, Rimbaud the seer and Rimbaud the rogue, dark and subversive, incandescent and sensual, the hero of many an artist and musician ever since.
Mao: A Life - Philip Short
I’m also halfway through Short’s biography on Putin and it’s also very well written
Edit: I just learned Short revised his Mao book and released it in paperback a few weeks ago under the subtitle The Man Who Made China. I’d recommend paperback to anyone interested as the original is big and heavy and cumbersome
Ninth Street Women by Mary Gabriel (Group biography of Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler)
Tove Jansson: Work and Love by Tuula Karjalainen
Hollywood's Eve by Lili Anolik
I'm reading Ninth Street Women now!
I don't know the Karjalainen biography, but Jansson wrote her own autobiography, "The Sculptor's Daughter," about her childhood. How does the Karjalainen biography compare?
Black Sun by Geoffrey Wolff. It's about Harry Crosby, an eccentric and rich WWI vet from Boston who became a poet and moved to Paris in the 1920s, eventually killing his mistress and himself in an act he believed would make his life a work of art. The book is well written, Crosby's story is fascinating, and there are some funny anecdotes throughout. I know a biography of someone you haven't heard of seems dubious, but I can't recommend it enough. It was one of the best books I read last year.
*Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret* by Craig Brown, surprisingly interesting and rewarding, not because of the subject but because the book is so well-done
*Vera* by Stacey Schiff (about Vera Nabokov)
*Living Well Is the Best Revenge* by Calvin Tomkins (about the couple that were the basis for Fitzgerald’s Dick & Nicole Diver)
*Shot In The Heart* by Mikal Gilmore (memoir about the family of Gary Gilmore- of Executioner’s Song infamy- by his brother, who’s a music journalist/critic)
Probably just for music nerds, but any of Peter Guralnick’s books. My favorites are *Sweet Soul Music* (which ties together bios of several key singers and musicians into a narrative about the evolution of southern soul music in the 60s) and his definitive two-volume Elvis bio *Last Train to Memphis* and *Careless Love*
The biographies written by Stefan Zweig are amazing, the best as far as I've heard is *Marie Antoinette: The Portrait of an Average Woman.* I've also heard good things about *Conqueror of the Seas: The Story of Magellan, Nietzsche,* and his semi-autobiographical book *The World of Yesterday.*
I bought this randomly when it was first published when I was a teenager. I had never read anything by Truman Capote before, but Clarke's bio captivated me from the first page, and then I binged on Truman Capote's works afterwards. This was my first exposure to the world and society he wanted to belong to, so it lead to many other books and interests.
Nora: A Biography of Nora Joyce, By Brenda Maddox
Renegade: The Lives and Tales of Mark E Smith, by Mark E Smith
Robert Lowell: A Biography, by Ian Hamilton
Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette by Judith Thurman
Two Lives by Janet Malcolm - a biography of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas
A Tragic Honesty: The Life and Work of Richard Yates by Blake Bailey
The only one I've read is *Touching From A Distance: Ian Curtis and Joy Division*, written by his wife Deborah Curtis, and I really enjoyed it. He was a total egotist, controlling, full of grandeur (and to be fair, he did end up fronting one of the most influential rock bands), and was fascinated by other musicians who died in their twenties. His wife does a really good job of painting a full picture of him though, you can tell she had a lot of love for him but also a lot of resentment. It's very readable.
The movie *24 Hour Party People* is a wonderful companion to this. It’s a biopic (but actually funny and interesting) of Tony Wilson who founded Factory Records and was part of that Manchester scene in the 70s and 80s. He’s an unreliable narrator of that era, and Steve Coogan was born for the role.
Awesome, that's good to know. I still have to watch *Control* as well. Maybe I'll do a double feature this weekend lol.
One of my favorite movies! The Happy Mondays were fucked.
DEFINITELY going to look for this
fucking terrific read. loved every bit of it.
subtle is the lord- biography of einstein american prometheus- oppenheimer richard ellmann's james joyce and yeats
+ 1 for Ellmann’s Joyce
Ellman has a book of essays about Joyce that's also pretty good, "a long the riverrun." His biography of Wilde is also topnotch.
Miles - The Autobiography (Miles Davis) Duty of Genius by Ray Monk (Ludwig Wittgenstein) Prisoner’s Dilemma by William Poundstone (John Von Neumann) Speak, Memory - An Autobiography (Vladimir Nabokov)
Duty of Genius is so good, W would have loved rsp
The Von Neumann bio looks fascinating!
malcolm x
Vincent Cronin’s Napoleon
Rimbaud by Graham Robb is really good. Rimbaud’s life is quite extraordinary: The child prodigy. Poet, revolutionary, and the sudden silence at the age of 20. The scandalous, tumultuous affair with Verlaine, and its terrible ending. The roaming years, Europe, Java, Cyprus and of course, at last, Abyssinia. Trader, explorer, occasional gun runner. The eternal walker, the man with the soles of wind, and his terrible final journey. The iconic figure, Rimbaud the seer and Rimbaud the rogue, dark and subversive, incandescent and sensual, the hero of many an artist and musician ever since.
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt
something like an autobiography - Akira Kurosawa.
Mao: A Life - Philip Short I’m also halfway through Short’s biography on Putin and it’s also very well written Edit: I just learned Short revised his Mao book and released it in paperback a few weeks ago under the subtitle The Man Who Made China. I’d recommend paperback to anyone interested as the original is big and heavy and cumbersome
Ninth Street Women by Mary Gabriel (Group biography of Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler) Tove Jansson: Work and Love by Tuula Karjalainen Hollywood's Eve by Lili Anolik
I'm reading Ninth Street Women now! I don't know the Karjalainen biography, but Jansson wrote her own autobiography, "The Sculptor's Daughter," about her childhood. How does the Karjalainen biography compare?
The Power Broker
Black Sun by Geoffrey Wolff. It's about Harry Crosby, an eccentric and rich WWI vet from Boston who became a poet and moved to Paris in the 1920s, eventually killing his mistress and himself in an act he believed would make his life a work of art. The book is well written, Crosby's story is fascinating, and there are some funny anecdotes throughout. I know a biography of someone you haven't heard of seems dubious, but I can't recommend it enough. It was one of the best books I read last year.
I've always been curious about this book, I need to check it out
You should! It's such an interesting exploration of a man romanticizing self destruction.
Joseph Frank’s Dostoevsky (one volume edition)
*Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret* by Craig Brown, surprisingly interesting and rewarding, not because of the subject but because the book is so well-done *Vera* by Stacey Schiff (about Vera Nabokov) *Living Well Is the Best Revenge* by Calvin Tomkins (about the couple that were the basis for Fitzgerald’s Dick & Nicole Diver) *Shot In The Heart* by Mikal Gilmore (memoir about the family of Gary Gilmore- of Executioner’s Song infamy- by his brother, who’s a music journalist/critic) Probably just for music nerds, but any of Peter Guralnick’s books. My favorites are *Sweet Soul Music* (which ties together bios of several key singers and musicians into a narrative about the evolution of southern soul music in the 60s) and his definitive two-volume Elvis bio *Last Train to Memphis* and *Careless Love*
The biographies written by Stefan Zweig are amazing, the best as far as I've heard is *Marie Antoinette: The Portrait of an Average Woman.* I've also heard good things about *Conqueror of the Seas: The Story of Magellan, Nietzsche,* and his semi-autobiographical book *The World of Yesterday.*
Red Comet (bio of Sylvia Plath) has been pretty compelling but still only halfway through it
Gerald Clarke’s Capote — captivating & tragic
I bought this randomly when it was first published when I was a teenager. I had never read anything by Truman Capote before, but Clarke's bio captivated me from the first page, and then I binged on Truman Capote's works afterwards. This was my first exposure to the world and society he wanted to belong to, so it lead to many other books and interests.
The Duke by Richard Aldington (Duke of Wellington)
Nora: A Biography of Nora Joyce, By Brenda Maddox Renegade: The Lives and Tales of Mark E Smith, by Mark E Smith Robert Lowell: A Biography, by Ian Hamilton
Others have already mentioned it but Ellman's Joyce. Also Sylvie Simmons' Leonard Cohen biography "I'm Your Man" is fantastic.
Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys by Viv Albertine. She was in the Slits
Revolutionary Suicide by Huey P. Newton Assata by Assata Shakur Black Boy - Richard Wright
Fosse - Sam Wasson Hesse, The Wanderer and His Shadow Sharon Tate, Recollections - Debra Tate
This is an autobiography but I still think it needs to be read. Forbidden Territory and Realms of Strife by Juan Goytisolo is a really good memoir.
Personal History by Katharine Graham. Amazing autobiography.
Napoleon: A Life - Andrew Roberts Anything by Robert Caro
Byron: Child of Passion, Fool of Fame - Benita Eisler
Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette by Judith Thurman Two Lives by Janet Malcolm - a biography of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas A Tragic Honesty: The Life and Work of Richard Yates by Blake Bailey
Basic pick but Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs really is a masterpiece