Whats the best/most intersting autobiography you've ever read?

Question

For me its Mr Nice by Howard Marks but i've only read a few.

Answer 1

Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine De Saint-Exupery.

Answer 2

No doubt about it, two books by Helen Keller.

Helen contracted "brain fever" (probably meningitis) when she was 18 months old. In the late 1800's, when she was born, most babies simply died. However, she miraculously recovered but was deaf and blind for life.

As a little girl, she was protected by her wealthy parents, but was completely undisciplined because she couldn't hear their admonishments nor tell them why she was frustrated. Alexander Graham Bell convinced the parents to send her to a special school for the blind. There, she made no progress because no one could communicate with her.

At this point, a young woman who had been an orphan was hired to care for the girl. The young woman was Anne Sullivan, who worked out a system of tapping on the palm of the hand. A tap in a certain place signified a specific symbol.

Helen learned a few "words," but never really understood them. She was just mimicking what Anne was doing. One day, Anne and Helen walked to a well where water was running. Anne put one of Helen's hands under the dripping water and tapped on the other.

A few years later, Helen wrote her autobiograph up to that point, "The Story of My Life." In that book, she said that the experience at the well was "the first time that I had a thought."

Helen went on to learn a system of communication for people who were blind, deaf, and mute. (Actually, if Helen were alive today, she could be taught how to speak. However, the technology had not yet been developed.) She gave lectures all over the country, with Anne translating for her.

She became so famous that she met presidents, kings and queens, and other powerful people. They helped her to start a foundation for blind/deaf people, which is stilll operating. After Anne died, Helen wrote "The Miracle Worker," about Anne and how she helped Helen discover the world. Helen wrote other books over the years, some mainly political, but these two are outstanding biographies. I don't think that you could possibly find anything so spiritually motivating.

Answer 3

Maybe not the best ever, but one that came to my mind right away: The Author of Himself: The Life of Marcel Reich-Ranicki.

Reich-Ranicki, one of Germany's foremost contemporary literary critics, or "the pope of German letters," declares in the first chapter of this autobiography that he is "half Polish, half German, and wholly Jewish." Born in Poland in 1920, he moved to Berlin as a boy, where he developed his passion for literature before his family was deported by the Nazis and forced into the Warsaw ghetto. Following the war years and the loss of most of his family, he returned to Germany to a highly successful literary career. Reich-Ranicki's account of life in the Polish ghetto are some of the most vivid and compelling ever written. The main thread of this autobiography, however, is the author's complex relationship to Germany in general and the German language in particular. The issue explored throughout is how a civilized nation of high culture carried out war and the Holocaust and, on a more immediate level, how and why a Jew like Reich-Ranicki was able to reconcile himself to a country that perpetrated such horrors. This book headed the German best-sellers list for more than a year when it came out in 2001. Strongly recommended for all academic libraries, large literary collections, and all other libraries with any interest in the history of the Holocaust.

Answer 4

Best: There are almost no good autobiographies, it being the most fraudulent literary form there is with the possible exception of the celebrity magazine. In fact...I can't even think of a good one right now.

Most interesting: Commandant of Auschwitz by Rudolf Hoess. Truly weird memoir by the guy who made Auschwitz into what it was infamous for being. Not to be confused with Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess.

Answer 5

Rolf Harris.
Amazing and talented guy
I'm not normally interested in autobiography's as a lot have been written by 'youngster's'. ie: Jordan, Gerri Halliwell etc. Yes they have had amazing times within their life however they still have at least another 40yrs left to write about.

Answer 6

Steven King's On Writing and The Bell Jar.

Answer 7

Pete Watermans

Answer 8

Jimmy Greaves

Answer 9

Louis L'Amour's Education of a Wandering Man. Great life insights even though it would be nearly impossible to work and travel as he did in today's world.

Answer 10

John Peel - Margrave of the Marshes