pector@ihuxw.UUCP (Scott W. Pector) (11/15/83)
Here's a list (almost all biographies) of suggested books: Confessions, by St. Augustine (Penguin Classics): Autobiographical account of his life and faith. Interesting plus healthy dose of early Christian philosophy. The Seven Storey Mountain, by Thomas Merton (Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich): Autobiographical account of his life and faith. Might be good to read after St. Augustine's "Confessions." My wife liked it. Modern Christianity. Alexiad of Anna Comnena (Penguin Classics): Account of the life of Alexius, Byzantine emperor at the time of the First Crusade, written by his daughter, Anna Comnena. Biased in favor of her father, still informative about times and prejudices. Search for Alexander, by Robin Lane Fox (Little-Brown): good account of the life and times of Alexander the Great. Written for the tour of the "Search for Alexander" exhibit across the US a couple of years ago, there is a companion book that discusses and has photos the exhibit. Alexander the Great, by Arrian (Penguin Classics): account of Alexander the Great written about 170 A.D. Entertaining. A Life In Our Times, by John Kenneth Galbraith (Ballantine): highly entertaining autobiography of the career of John Kenneth Galbraith, the economist. Hard to put down, and educational. He knows how to write well. The Immoralist, by Andre Gide (Bantam): fictional story which contains many parts of the life of Andre Gide. Story is about a man searching for his true identity around the early 1900s. The guy is quite different. Discovers he has homosexual tendencies. Nicholas Biddle, by Thomas Payne Govan (University of Chicago): account of the career and actions of Nicholas Biddle, President of the Second Bank of the United States. He lived from the 1780s to the 1840s. Interesting account of the workings of the banking and political worlds of that time. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant (AMS Press): autobiography of Ulysses Grant, from birth till the end of the Civil War. Very interesting. He dictated this without correction on his deathbed in order to help save his family from poverty. Well-written. The Histories, by Herodotus (Penguin Classics): Herodotus's history of the world up to 450 B.C. Very funny and quite different. History at that time was whatever the locals told you. Creation, by Gore Vidal (Ballantine): fictional biography of a Persian noble who was an ambassador for the Persian empire in the 550-450 B.C. time period. He traveled in Greece, Babylonia, Persia, India, and China. He had an interest in creation beliefs and talked to Socrates, Buddha, Confucius, etc. Fictional grandson of Zoroaster. Good book. Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Four Kings, by Amy Kelly (Harvard University Press): Biography of Eleanor and her four sons, Geoffrey, Henry, Richard the Lion-Hearted, and John. Intriguing. A Portrait of Isaac Newton, by Frank Manuel (New Republic Books): good biography of Sir Isaac Newton. Interesting account of his life, and interactions with other scientists (Sir Edmund Halley (Halley's Comet), Leibnitz, Boyle, etc.). He was in the second generation of scientists, and also worked in English government. First generation and second generation often settled scientific disagreements with the sword, as well as the pen. Science ignored class differences between its practitioners. Napoleon, by Felix Markham (Mentor): good biography of the career of Napoleon, not too heavy on the military details. Nathaniel Hawthorne In His Times, by James Mellow (Houghton Mifflin): good biography of the writer and his relationships with other notables of his time (1804-1864). These others included Margaret Fuller, Thoreau, Emerson, the Alcotts, Herman Melville, etc. Also discusses his writings. Thomas Jefferson and the New Nation, by Merrill Peterson (Oxford): good biography of the life of Jefferson. Long (nearly 1000 pages). The Travels, by Marco Polo (Penguin Classics): the story of a trip to the Far East, told by Marco himself. Mentions an interesting version of the Three Wisemen at the Nativity story from the Bible (this version is quite amusing). Good look at the Mongols. The Secret History, by Procopius (Penguin Classics): inside story of the reign of Justinian, emperor of the Byzantine Empire in the 500s A.D. Get all the dirt on him and his wife here (they were really quite nasty). Procopius wrote their nice court biography also. This "secret history" (the true story) was published after his and their deaths. Citizen Hearst, by W. A. Swanberg (Bantam): interesting biography of William Randolph Hearst. His newspapers, his political career, his influence on domestic and international events, his interest in movie stars, his personal life. The richest man ever. Very good. A Distant Mirror, by Barbara Tuchman (Ballantine): a detailed look at the Fourteenth Century by following the life and interactions of Sir Edmund de Coucy, a major participant in its affairs. Very interesting. The Autobiography of Mark Twain, edited by Charles Neider (Harper & Row): Hilarious autobiography of Twain. Fire and brimstone spewed everywhere, and many funny happenings in his life. Mark speaks to us, in his own words, "from the grave," and can therefore be quite honest. Mark Twain Himself; a Pictorial Biography, by Milton Meltzer (Thatcher): good biography of the career of Mark Twain. The following books I plan to read in the next year and may be of interest to you: Plain Speaking, An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman, by Merle Miller (Berkley): biography of Truman that revolves around what he said. Looked interesting. Washington the Indispensable Man, by James Flexner (Mentor): biography of Washington. Recommended to me by others. Grant, by William McFeeley (Norton): life of Ulysses S. Grant. Book got mixed reviews, but I like Grant. Super Chief, by Schwartz (New York University Press): Judicial career of Earl Warren, discusses in detail many of his legal opinions and cases. The Complete Plays of Aristophanes, edited by Moses Hadas (Bantam): one play that might be of interest to you as far as women in literature is concerned is Lysistrata, written in 413 B.C. Here, the women end the Peloponnesian War by going on strike. Good look at the view of women held by the ancient Greeks. Hope I didn't bore you! Scott Pector