Favorite Books of Biography
Donald Bartlett '24, of the department of biography, contributes the following recommendations for general reading in his field: PLUTARCH: The Lives of the NobleGrecians and Romans. Translated by John Dryden and revised by Arthur Hugh Clough (1864), Modern Library Giant. Because these Lives have inspired Melanchthon, Napoleon, Beethoven, and because Boswell regarded Plutarch as the final authority1 in Biography.
JAMES BOSWELL, Life of Johnson, Oxford University Press. Because this is the great biography, and whatever Boswell's faults and gifts, the genius of a great spirit is in the resulting picture.
SAMUEL PEPYS, Diary, London, MacMillan Cos., 1929, or Everyman's edition. Because it transforms the great Plague and the Fire of London from an institution to lively news.
J. J. ROUSSEAU, Confessions, London, W. Glaisher, 1925. Because it is the self expression of the great perpetrator of Self Expression.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Autobiography, Everyman (or any copy of Bigelow's edition). Because a personal account is seldom so characteristic of nationality as this.
THOMAS CARLYLE, Essay on Burns. A good edition is in The Century Edition of Thomas Carlyle's Works, London, Chapman and Hall. Because Carlyle is a champion of biography, and he is here describing the battle of the human elements.
G. LYTTON STRACHY, Eminent Victorians, London, Chatto and Windus, 1918. Because they were eminent Victorians and because a modern Enfant Terrible here shows his ways and wares.
