What is the best biography that you have ever read?

[Richard Roche]

I am currently writing a book on readers' advisory for the genre of biography. It is along the lines of Sarah Statz Cords and will be part of a nonfiction RA series. I am open to suggestions.

[Connie Crosby]

I read Helen Keller's autobiography The Story of My Life in my teens and found it quite inspiring. It was first published in 1903; there are at least a couple of centennial versions published. It also inspired The Miracle Worker play and movies.

[Richard Roche]

Thanks, Connie. I listened to The Story of My Life earlier this year and was very moved.

[Marcel Carroll]

I must vote for Blood and Thunder, the life story of Kit Carson.

[Richard Roche]

Good. I need more Western biography. Thanks.

[Katrina]

My favorites biography is one I read every year to the 5th grade class in my school. Leon's Story by Leon Walter Tillage is an autobiography of a sharecroppers son. This book is a gripping account of what it was like to be an African American man before, during and after the civil rights movement. Its text is spare, his words painful to read and I am impressed each year with my young listeners response to the unjust treatment of Leon and his family and friends.
It is a must on my book shelf.

[Richard Roche]

Thanks. I'll have to look this book up. It must be good if you still remember it.