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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142 Items found Print
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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
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Aku-Aku
by Thor Heyerdahl
from Rand McNally
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All Hands Aloft!
by Lou A. Schmitt
from Howell-North
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Amazing Mr. Doolittle
by Quentin Reynolds
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America the Beautiful/ A Man of Destiny
by the editors of Country Beautiful Magazine
from Country Beautiful
for Adult
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
by Benjamin Franklin, illustrated by William Sharp, with an introduction by Carl Van Doren
from Easton Press
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Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
by Benjamin Franklin
from Walter J. Black, Inc.
for 10th-Adult
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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)
Black Panther of Sivanipalli
by Kenneth Anderson
1960 printing from Rand McNally
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$9.00 (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
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$10.00 (1 in stock)
Buffalo Bill and the Wild West
by Henry Blackman Sell and Victor Weybright
Reprint from International Cody Family Assoc.
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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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Captain Marryat
by Tom Pocock
from Stackpole Books
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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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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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Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau
by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
from Heritage Press
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Count Luckner, the Sea Devil
by Lowell Thomas
from Garden City Books
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Cross Creek
by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
from Charles Scribner's Sons
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Death Valley Scotty
from Trans-Anglo Press
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$16.00 (1 in stock)
Dynamite Johnny O'Brien
by Milton A. Dalby
from Lowman & Hanford Co.
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$25.00 (1 in stock)
Earth is the Lord's
by Taylor Caldwell
from Literary Guild of America
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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
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Ferdinand and Isabella
by William Hickling Prescott
from Heritage Press
Biography for 9th-Adult
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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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From Scotland to Silverado
by Robert Louis Stevenson
from Harvard University Press
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
Geoffrey Chaucer of England
by Marchette Chute
from Dutton Adult
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$4.00 (1 in stock)
George Washington
by M. D. Holmes
from John C. Winston
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George Washington Carver: The Man Who Overcame
by Lawrence Elliott
from Prentice Hall
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George Washington: Man and Monument
by Frank Freidel and Lonnelle Aikman
from Washington National Monument Assoc.
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George Whitefield: Wayfaring Witness
by Stuart C. Henry
from Abingdon Press
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Golden Calm
by Lady Emily Bayley, edited by M. M. Kaye
First Edition from Viking Press
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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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Great Men of Science
by Grove Wilson
1942 Printing from New Home Library
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Great Waters
by Creston Donald Ketchum
from Hutchinson & Co.
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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
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Here Is Your War
by Ernie Pyle; illustrated by Carol Johnson
1943 Printing from World Publishing Company
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In the Days of McKinley
by Margaret Leech
from Harper & Brothers
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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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Ishi: Last of His Tribe
by Theodora Kroeber
from California State Department of Education
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John Charles Ryle
by Peter Toon, Michael Smout
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Johnny Appleseed
by Robert Price
from Indiana University Press
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Joshua Barney
by Ralph D. Paine
from Century Co.
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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
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Last Grain Race
by Eric Newby
1st Printing from Houghton Mifflin
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$32.00 (1 in stock)
Lewis and Clark Expedition - 3-volume Set
by Meriwether Lewis
from J.B. Lippincott Co.
Primary Source Documents for 9th-Adult
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$32.00 (1 in stock)
Life and Diary of David Brainerd
by David Brainerd
from Moody Press
Biography for 10th-Adult
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$24.00 (1 in stock)
Life and Times of Martin Luther
by J. H. Merle D'Aubigne, translated by H. White
from Moody Press
for Adult
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$10.00 (1 in stock)
Life of Emerson
by Van Wyck Brooks
First Edition from E.P. Dutton & Co.
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Life with Father and Mother
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
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Log of "Bob" Bartlett
by Captain Robert A. Bartlett
from G.P. Putnam's Sons
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Lone Cowboy
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Lonely Sea and the Sky
by Francis Chichester
First American Edition from Coward McCann
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$10.00 (1 in stock)
Louis Pasteur
by Laura N. Wood
7th 1959 printing from Julian Messner
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Makers of the Red Revolution
by Olivia Coolidge
from Houghton Mifflin
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Man Called Cervantes
by Bruno Frank
from Viking Press
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Man Who Saved Robinson Crusoe
by James Poling
from W. W. Norton and Co.
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Marcus Aurelius and His Times
by Marcus Aurelius
from Walter J. Black, Inc.
Classic Literature for 9th-Adult
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Mariner of the North
by George Palmer Putnam
from Duell, Sloan and Pearce
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$25.00 (1 in stock)
Mary Lincoln
by Ruth Painter Randall
from Little, Brown & Company
for Adult
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Mathew Brady
by James D. Horan
from Bonanza Books
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$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
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Natural Way to Draw
by Kimon Nicolaides
from Houghton Mifflin
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Nun's Story
by Kathryn Hulme
from Little, Brown & Company
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Of Yachts and Men
by William Atkin, illustrations by Charles G. Davis, introduction by Charles F. Chapman
from Sheridan House
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$15.00 (1 in stock)
Old Master
by Rene Kraus
1st edition from E.P. Dutton & Co.
for Adult
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$10.00 (1 in stock)
Onions in the Stew
by Betty MacDonald
from J.B. Lippincott Co.
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People, Places, Things, Ideas - 4 Volume Set
from Hawthorn Books, Inc.
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$32.00 (1 in stock)
Personal Life of David Livingstone
Heroes of the Faith
by W Garden Blaikie
from Fleming H Revell Co.
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Present Indicative
by Noel Coward
from Doubleday, Doran & Company Inc.
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$6.00 (1 in stock)
Ranch under the Rimrock
by Dorothy Lawson McCall
from Binford & Mort Publishing
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Raphael: Painter of the Renaissance
Immortals of Art
by Henry S. Gillette
from Franklin Watts
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Romance of Leonardo da Vinci
by Dmitri Merejkowski, translated by Bernard Guilbert Guerney
from Modern Library
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Rudyard Kipling
by Lord Birkenhead
from Random House
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Sam Houston
by Noel Gerson
from Doubleday & Company
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Sea Around Us
by Rachel Carlson
from Oxford University
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1952 National Book Award (Non-fiction)
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Sea Rogues' Gallery
by Gordon Newell
from Superior Publishing Company
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Sea Trip in Clipper Ship Days
by Mary Matthews Bray
from Gorham Press
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
Second World War: Hinge of Fate
Second World War Volume 4
by Winston S. Churchill
from Houghton Mifflin
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Self-Portrait: Trina Schart Hyman
from Harper & Row
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Shorter Life of D. L. Moody
Moody Colportage Library #83
by A. P. Fitt
from Moody Press
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Skipper of the Sentinel
by May Cole Kuhn
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Smiling Rebel
by Harnett T. Kane
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Snakes: The Keeper and the Kept
by Carl Kauffeld
First Edition from Doubleday & Company
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Sons of Sinbad
by Alan Villiers
from Charles Scribner's Sons
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$35.00 (1 in stock)
South Sea Shilling
by Eric Swenson
First Edition from Viking Press
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Spirit of 1776
by Peter Seymour
from Hallmark Publications
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Stories of Famous Detectives
by Leonard Gribble, illustrated by Edward Pagram
from Hill and Wang
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Story of the Wild West and Camp-Fire Chats
by William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody
Unknown from Historical Publishing Company
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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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