Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Stacy Schiff has written about a fascinating and diverse group of subjects, from Véra (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov), to Benjamin Franklin, to—most recently—Cleopatra. We wondered what a writer with such wide-ranging tastes likes to read herself, and asked her for a list of favorite biographies. Without further ado, Stacy Schiff’s biography recommendations for NOOK readers:
Impossible to put down, despite all demands of time and space:
Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
Most artful biography of an elusive subject:
American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson by Joseph Ellis
Most inventive, influential group biography:
Parallel Lives by Phyllis Rose
Gorgeously written, just plain brilliant reads:
Mark Twain by Ron Powers
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris
When Trumpets Call: Theodore Roosevelt After the White House by Patti O'Toole (must be something about those Roosevelts)
Best life in letters, from a subject who will always best her biographer:
Selected Letters of Martha Gelhorn edited by Caroline Moorehead
Best biographer-on-the-page, mixed biography/autobiography genre titles, and in the last case, best how-to-get-a-book-out-of-not-doing-your-homework:
Footsteps: Adventures of a Romantic Biographer by Richard Holmes
U and I: A True Story by Nicholson Baker
Out of Sheer Rage: Wrestling with D. H. Lawrence by Geoff Dyer
Free sample excerpts from these books are available for download on the product pages now!
NOOK owners: go to shop and search by author name to download these influential biographies.
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