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Biographies of people worth knowing, warts and all.

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    Leonardo da Vinci

    Walter Isaacson, 2017

    Built from Leonardo's notebooks: curiosity as a way of life.

    A number-one New York Times best seller in 2017. Source: Wikipedia

    Long read, about 624 pages

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  2. Grant

    Ron Chernow, 2017

    A failed businessman becomes a general and president. A study in quiet resolve.

    Long read, about 1104 pages

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  3. Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom

    David W. Blight, 2018

    The definitive life of the man who escaped slavery and changed a nation with words.

    Long read, about 912 pagesPulitzer Prize, 2019.

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  4. The Power Broker

    Robert A. Caro, 1974

    How one unelected man reshaped New York. The great book on power.

    Long read, about 1336 pagesPulitzer Prize, 1975.

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  5. Dying Every Day

    James Romm, 2014

    Seneca at Nero's court: the Stoic who preached virtue and served a tyrant.

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  6. King: A Life

    Jonathan Eig, 2023

    Martin Luther King Jr. as a full human being, drawing on new sources.

    Long read, about 688 pagesPulitzer Prize, 2024.

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  7. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

    Benjamin Franklin, 1791

    Franklin's own account, including his famous plan to practise thirteen virtues.

    Free to read online

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