James Boswell, famous for his biography of Samuel Johnson, was born on this day in 1740.

“The life of Johnson is assuredly a great, a very great work. Homer is not more decidedly the first of heroic poets, Shakespeare is not more decidedly the first of dramatists, Demosthenes is not more decidedly the first of orators, than Boswell is the first of biographers.” –Thomas Babington Macaulay

Have you read Boswell’s Life of Johnson? Do you read very many biographies? What are your favorites? I realized in thinking about this topic that I have read and enjoyed quite a few autobiographies, but not so many biographies. Mostly I’ve read biographies with my children.

A few favorite biographies:

Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert K. Massie
Leonardo da Vinci, Good Queen Bess and others by Diane Stanley
Paul Revere and the World He Lived In by Esther Forbes
Stonewall by Jean Fritz
Hard Times by Studs Terkel
Profiles in Courage by John F. Kennedy
Invincible Louisa by Cornelia Meigs

Wow! That was hard. I think I prefer people’s stories in their own words. I can think of dozens of good autobiographies and memoirs. What’s your favorite biography?