Biographies

"Did they tell you stories about the saints of old,
stories about their faith?
Stories like that make a boy grow bold,
stories like that make a man walk straight..."

Rich Mullins, Boy Like Me, Man Like You

Stories about people have a way of affecting us in ways other stories can't. The Bible is primarily stories about people, and it is through these multiple biographies that we understand human nature, the history of redemption, and even to a great extent God Himself. The purpose behind any other biography is largely the same—to help us understand what it means to be human from the examples (sometimes even the bad examples) of those who have preceded us.

The biographies we have chosen for this section represent those of great leaders in history, social and military heroes, and Christian saints past and present who struggled to conform their lives to Christ's perfect example. We have avoided for the most part biographies of history's villains and chronic immoralists, not because they aren't interesting but because they don't represent lives worthy of imitation. We've also decided not to focus on athletes, actors, and celebrities, unless they've made important contributions outside their fields. That's not to say everyone found here was above reproach or even a Christian, but they all demonstrated real human virtues for which they are remembered.

Biographies are also useful for better understanding of a given historical period. While history books can provide good overviews of a period or events, the intimate detail of a good biography can better illustrate a time period and what it was like to be alive then. This also serves to demonstrate the universality of human nature, that people will behave basically the same during any given period and in any given place. Sometimes we get the impression that people of the past, especially people like missionaries and ministers, were somehow more pious than we are—the personal view offered by a good biography dispels this myth and offers encouragement that not even the best men and women are any closer to perfection than we are.

Review by C. Hollis Crossman
C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he's a husband and father who loves church, good food, and weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur. Read more of his reviews here.
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138 Items found Print
Active Filters: Vintage & Collectible, 11th grade (Ages 16-17)
Abe Lincoln
by Hilah Paulmier (compiled and edited by), illustrated by Lee Ames
First Edition from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 3rd-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$11.00 (1 in stock)
Admiral of the Ocean Sea
by Samuel E. Morison
from Atlantic Monthly Press
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Adventures of Davy Crockett
by David Crockett, illustrated by John W. Thomason
from Charles Scribner's Sons
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$18.00 (1 in stock)
Aku-Aku
by Thor Heyerdahl
from Rand McNally
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
All Hands Aloft!
by Lou A. Schmitt
from Howell-North
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Amazing Mr. Doolittle
by Quentin Reynolds
from Appleton-Century-Crofts
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Amelia Earhart
Lives to Remember
by Burke Davis
from G.P. Putnam's Sons
for 7th-12th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$14.00 (1 in stock)
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
by Benjamin Franklin, illustrated by William Sharp, with an introduction by Carl Van Doren
from Easton Press
for 10th-Adult
in Leather Bound Collectible Books (Location: VIN-LEA)
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
by Benjamin Franklin
from Walter J. Black, Inc.
for 10th-Adult
in Walter J. Black Classics Club (Location: VIN-LITWJB)
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
World's Greatest Literature
by Benjamin Franklin
from Spencer Press
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
Benjamin Franklin
by Carl Van Doren
from Library of America
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$14.00 (1 in stock)
Bombs and Blessings
by Retha Hazel Eldridge
from Review and Herald Publishing Association
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$7.00 (1 in stock)
Boswell's London Journal 1762-1763
by Frederick A. Pottle
1st edition from McGraw-Hill
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Buffalo Bill's Life Story
by William F. Cody, Illustrated by N.C. Wyeth
1966 printing from Holt, Rinehart and Winston
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Cheer the Lonesome Traveller
by Leslie Alexander Lacy, illustrated by James Barkley
from Dial Press
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Chord of Steel
by Thomas B. Costain
from Doubleday & Company
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Comes the Comrade!
by Alexandra Orme, translated from the Polish by M.A. Michael and L. Meyer
from William Morrow & Company
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau
by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
from Heritage Press
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Cross Creek
by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
from Charles Scribner's Sons
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$10.00 (1 in stock)
Earth is the Lord's
by Taylor Caldwell
from Literary Guild of America
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$12.00 (1 in stock)
Edith Wharton
by Olivia Coolidge
from Charles Scribner's Sons
Biography for 8th-Adult
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Elizabeth the Great
by Elizabeth Jenkins
from International Collectors Library
for 9th-Adult
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Escape from Corregidor
by Edward D. Whitcomb
from Regnery Publishing, Inc.
for 6th-12th grade
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
Ferdinand and Isabella
by William Hickling Prescott
from Heritage Press
Biography for 9th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Fighting the Flying Circus
by Captain Eddie V. Rickenbacker
1965 Edition from Doubleday & Company
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Frederic Chopin
by Victor Seroff
from Macmillan
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$15.00 (1 in stock)
From Scotland to Silverado
by Robert Louis Stevenson
from Harvard University Press
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
Genghis Khan, Emperor of All Men
for 9th-Adult
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George Bernard Shaw
by Olivia Coolidge
from Houghton Mifflin
Biography for 8th-12th grade
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George Washington
by M. D. Holmes
from John C. Winston
for 6th-Adult
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George Washington Carver: An American Biography
by Rackham Holt
from Doubleday, Doran & Company Inc.
for 9th-12th grade
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George Washington: Man and Monument
by Frank Freidel and Lonnelle Aikman
from Washington National Monument Assoc.
for 6th-Adult
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
George Whitefield: Wayfaring Witness
by Stuart C. Henry
from Abingdon Press
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$7.50 (1 in stock)
Golden Calm
by Lady Emily Bayley, edited by M. M. Kaye
First Edition from Viking Press
for 8th-Adult
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Great Captain
by Honore Morrow
from William Morrow & Company
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Great Lion of God
by Taylor Caldwell
Book Club from Doubleday & Company
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Great Men of Science
by Grove Wilson
1942 Printing from New Home Library
for 9th-Adult
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Hall of Fame Series for Boys and Girls Louis Pasteur / Florence Nightingale
by Laura N. Wood and Jeanette Covert Nolan
from Julian Messner
for 9th-Adult
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Here Is Your War
by Ernie Pyle; illustrated by Carol Johnson
1943 Printing from World Publishing Company
for 9th-Adult
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Indian Boyhood
by Charles A. Eastman, illustrated by E.L. Blumenschein
from E.M. Hale and Company
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$3.00 (1 in stock)
Ishi: Last of His Tribe
by Theodora Kroeber
from California State Department of Education
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
John Charles Ryle
by Peter Toon, Michael Smout
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$7.50 (1 in stock)
Johnny Appleseed
by Robert Price
from Indiana University Press
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
Kate Greenaway Book
by Bryan Holme, with illustrations by Kate Greenaway
from Gallery Press
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
Kon-Tiki
by Thor Heyerdahl, Translated by F. H. Lyon
from Rand McNally
Non-fiction/Adventure for 8th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Lady of Arlington
by Harnett T. Kane
from Doubleday & Company
for 6th-12th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Lewis and Clark Expedition - 3-volume Set
by Meriwether Lewis
from J.B. Lippincott Co.
Primary Source Documents for 9th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$32.00 (1 in stock)
Life & Times of Chopin
by Adelaide Murgia
from Curtis Publishing Co.
for 8th-12th grade
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Life & Times of Dante
by Maria Luisa Rizzatti
from Curtis Publishing Co.
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Life & Times of Elizabeth I
by Massimo Rossaro
from Curtis Publishing Co.
for 8th-12th grade
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Life & Times of Leonardo
by Liana Bortolon
from Curtis Publishing Co.
for 8th-12th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Life & Times of Louis XIV
by Alfredo Panicucci
from Curtis Publishing Co.
for 8th-12th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Life & Times of Michelangelo
by Maria Luisa Rizzatti
from Curtis Publishing Co.
for 8th-12th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Life & Times of Napoleon
by Mario Rivoire
from Curtis Publishing Co.
for 8th-12th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$4.00 (2 in stock)
Life & Times of Peter the Great
by Giancarlo Buzzi
from Curtis Publishing Co.
for 8th-12th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Life & Times of St. Francis
by Agostino Ghilardi
from Curtis Publishing Co.
for 8th-12th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$4.00 (2 in stock)
Life & Times of Washington
by Mario Rivoire
from Curtis Publishing Co.
Biography for 8th-12th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Life & Times of Washington
by Mario Rivoire, translated by C.J. Richards
from Arnoldo Mondadori Editore
Biography for 8th-12th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Life and Diary of David Brainerd
by David Brainerd
from Moody Press
Biography for 10th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$24.00 (1 in stock)
Life with Father and Mother
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Lone Cowboy
for 8th-Adult
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Louis Pasteur
by Laura N. Wood
7th 1959 printing from Julian Messner
for 7th-Adult
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Makers of the Red Revolution
by Olivia Coolidge
from Houghton Mifflin
Non-fiction for 8th-Adult
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Man Called Cervantes
by Bruno Frank
from Viking Press
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$10.00 (1 in stock)
Man Who Saved Robinson Crusoe
by James Poling
from W. W. Norton and Co.
for 7th-Adult
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Marconi: Father of Radio
World in the Making
by David Gunston
from Crowell-Collier
for 6th-12th grade
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Marcus Aurelius and His Times
by Marcus Aurelius
from Walter J. Black, Inc.
Classic Literature for 9th-Adult
in Walter J. Black Classics Club (Location: VIN-LITWJB)
Mathew Brady
by James D. Horan
from Bonanza Books
for 8th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Minute Sketches of Great Composers
by Eva v B. Hansl, Helen L. Kaufmann, illustrated by Samuel Nisenson
from Grosset & Dunlap
Biographical sketches for 3rd-Adult
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Moon and Sixpence
Modern Library
by W. Somerset Maugham
from Heritage Press
for 10th-Adult
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$25.00 (1 in stock)
More Minute Biographies
by Samuel Nisenson and Alfred Parker
from Grosset & Dunlap
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$12.00 (1 in stock)
Mr. Lincoln's Washington
by Stanley Kimmel
from Bramhall House
for 9th-12th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Natural Way to Draw
by Kimon Nicolaides
from Houghton Mifflin
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Nonfiction (Location: VIN-NFIC)
$14.00 (1 in stock)
Never Dies the Dream
by Margaret Landon
from Doubleday & Company
for 7th-12th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Nickel's Worth of Skim Milk
by Robert J. Hastings, illustrated by Steve Kerr
from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale
for 6th-12th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Nun's Story
by Kathryn Hulme
from Little, Brown & Company
for 9th-Adult
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$10.00 (1 in stock)
Onions in the Stew
by Betty MacDonald
from J.B. Lippincott Co.
for 8th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
People, Places, Things, Ideas - 4 Volume Set
from Hawthorn Books, Inc.
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Nonfiction (Location: VIN-NFIC)
$32.00 (1 in stock)
Personal Life of David Livingstone
Heroes of the Faith
by W Garden Blaikie
from Fleming H Revell Co.
for 10th-Adult
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Ranch under the Rimrock
by Dorothy Lawson McCall
from Binford & Mort Publishing
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
Raphael: Painter of the Renaissance
Immortals of Art
by Henry S. Gillette
from Franklin Watts
for 7th-Adult
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Revolt in the Desert
by T. E. Lawrence
from George H. Doran Company
for 10th-12th grade
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Rudyard Kipling
by Lord Birkenhead
from Random House
for 11th-Adult
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
Sam Houston
by Noel Gerson
from Doubleday & Company
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Sea Around Us
by Rachel Carlson
from Oxford University
for 9th-Adult
1952 National Book Award (Non-fiction)
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Second World War: Hinge of Fate
Second World War Volume 4
by Winston S. Churchill
from Houghton Mifflin
for 10th grade-adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Self-Portrait: Trina Schart Hyman
from Harper & Row
for 4th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
Shakespeare of London
by Marchette Chute
1st edition from E.P. Dutton & Co.
for 6th-12th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
Shorter Life of D. L. Moody
Moody Colportage Library #83
by A. P. Fitt
from Moody Press
for 8th-Adult
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
Skipper of the Sentinel
by May Cole Kuhn
from Review and Herald Publishing Association
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Smiling Rebel
by Harnett T. Kane
from Doubleday & Company
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
South Sea Shilling
by Eric Swenson
First Edition from Viking Press
for 7th-Adult
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Spirit of 1776
by Peter Seymour
from Hallmark Publications
for 6th-Adult
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Splendor of God
by Honore Morrow
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 8th-12th grade
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Stories of Famous Detectives
by Leonard Gribble, illustrated by Edward Pagram
from Hill and Wang
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Story of the Wild West and Camp-Fire Chats
by William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody
Unknown from Historical Publishing Company
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Story-Lives of Great Composers
by Katherine Little Bakeless
3rd edition from J.B. Lippincott Co.
for 7th-Adult
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Strawberry Point
by Florence Roe Wiggins
from T.S. Denison & Company
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$5.00 (1 in stock)
These Wonderful People
by Noel Ames
from People's Book Club
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Three Against the Wilderness
by Eric Collier
6th Printing, 1960 from E.P. Dutton & Co.
for 8th-12th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$25.00 (1 in stock)
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