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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40 Items found Print
Active Filters: Vintage & Collectible, Library Binding
Abe Lincoln's Other Mother
by Bernadine Bailey, illustrated by Howard Simon
from Responsive Environments Corp.
for 5th-8th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Abraham Lincoln
Weekly Reader Heroes of the Civil War
by Susan Dye Lee, illustrated by Ralph Canaday
from Children's Press
for 3rd-4th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
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)
And Long Remember
by Dorothy Canfield Fisher, illustrated by Ezra Jack Keats
from E.M. Hale and Company
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Andrew Jackson: Pioneer and President
by John Parlin, illustrated by William Hutchinson
from Garrard Publishing Company
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Ben Franklin
See and Read: Beginning to Read Biography
by Estelle Friedman, illustrated by James Caraway
from G.P. Putnam's Sons
for 1st-3rd grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Benjamin Bonneville, Soldier-Explorer
from Julian Messner
for 4th-8th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Benjamin Franklin
Makers of America
by Ruth Cromer Weir, illustrated by Rus Anderson
from Abingdon Press
for 2nd-4th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Black Courage
by A. E. Schraff
from Macrae-Smith Company
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Booker T. Washington
by Shirley Graham
from Julian Messner
for 5th-10th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Camels West
by James Ralph Johnson
from David McKay Company
for 4th-8th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Captain John Paul Jones
by Ronald Syme
from William Morrow & Company
for 1st-3rd grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Davy Crockett
by Sanford Tousey
3rd Printing 1955 from Albert Whitman & Company
for 2nd-5th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Elizabeth Blackwell: First Woman Doctor
Pioneer Books
by Ann McFerran, illustrated by Leonard Vosburgh
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 6th-9th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Frontiersman
by Marian T. Place
First Ediition from Holt, Rinehart and Winston
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Gallaudet: Friend of the Deaf
by Etta DeGering, illustrated by Emil Weiss
from David McKay Company
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
George Washington: Man and Monument
by Frank Freidel and Lonnelle Aikman
from Washington National Monument Assoc.
for 6th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Henry Hudson
by Nina Brown Baker, illustrated by George Fulton
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 3rd-8th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$64.00 (1 in stock)
Hunters Blaze the Trails
by Edith S. McCall
New 1980 Edition from Children's Press
for 4th-6th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Hunters Blaze the Trails
by Edith S. McCall
from Children's Press
for 4th-6th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
John and Sebastian Cabot
by Henry Ira Kurtz
from Franklin Watts
for 4th-8th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$7.00 (1 in stock)
Johnny Appleseed
by Robert Price
from Indiana University Press
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Kit Carson: Mountain Scout
by Donald E. Worcester, illustrated by Jo Polseno
from Houghton Mifflin
for 4th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Lafayette: French-American Hero
from Garrard Publishing Company
for 2nd-6th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Man Named Washington
by Gertrude Norman, illustrated by James Caraway
from G.P. Putnam's Sons
for 1st-3rd grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$24.00 (1 in stock)
Marconi: Father of Radio
World in the Making
by David Gunston
from Crowell-Collier
for 6th-12th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Napoleon
by Manual Komroff
from Julian Messner
for 4th-9th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Our Lady of Guadalupe
by Helen Rand Parish, illustrated by Jean Charlot
1964 Printing from Viking Press
for Kindergarten-3rd grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Pioneer Traders
by Edith S. McCall
from Children's Press
for 4th-6th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Queen Victoria
by Molly Costain Haycraft
from Julian Messner
for 6th-10th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Raphael: Painter of the Renaissance
Immortals of Art
by Henry S. Gillette
from Franklin Watts
for 7th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
South Town
by Lorenz Graham
from Follett Publishing Co.
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Story of Two Years Before the Mast
by Frank L. Beals, illustrated by E.E. King, original story by Richard H. Dana Jr.
Adapted & Retold from Benj. H. Sanborn & Co.
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Taller Than Bandai Mountain
by Dan D'Amelio, illustrated by Fred Banbery
from Viking Press
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$20.00 (1 in stock)
Tom Edison Finds Out
by Sadybeth and Anson Lowitz
from Grosset & Dunlap
for Preschool-2nd grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
True Story of Albert Einstein
by Ruth L. Oldfield
from Children's Press
for 4th-8th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Wilderness Trail
Our Changing World
by Allen Chaffee, illustrated by Earl B. Winslow
from Thomas Nelson Publishers
for 3rd-5th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$30.00 (1 in stock)
Wilderness Wife
by Etta B. Degering, illustrated by Ursula Koering
from David McKay Company
for 4th-8th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$35.00 (1 in stock)
Will Rogers
by Cathareen L. Bennett
from Lerner Publishing Group
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
William Bradford of Plymouth Colony
by W.J. Jacobs
from Franklin Watts
for 4th-8th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$6.00 (1 in stock)