Biographies - Exodus Books

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"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.

	Abraham Lincoln, the Writer A Treasury of His Greatest Speeches and Letters by Harold Holzer from Boyds Mill Press for 6th-Adult in Biographies (Location: BIO) $5.00 (1 in stock)
	Beatrix Potter's Journal (Abridged) 1881-1897 by Beatrix Potter, abridged and introduced by Glen Cavaliero from Viking Press for Adult in Biographies (Location: BIO) $12.00 (1 in stock)
	Benjamin Franklin Inventor, Statesman, and Patriot by R. Conrad Stein from Rand McNally Biography for 3rd-6th grade in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS) $3.00 (2 in stock)
	Benjamin Franklin by Carl Van Doren from Library of America for 10th-Adult in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS) $14.00 (1 in stock)
	Book of Concord by William Howarth from Viking Press for Adult in Biographies (Location: BIO) $8.00 (1 in stock)
	Brothers Grimm by Raymond H. Miller from Thomson Learning for 4th-6th grade in Biographies (Location: BIO) $6.00 (1 in stock)
	Carl Sandburg A Biography by Milton Meltzer from Twenty-first Century Books for 9th-Adult in Biographies (Location: BIO) $5.00 (1 in stock)
	Cheer the Lonesome Traveller The Life of W.E.B. Du Bois: by Leslie Alexander Lacy, illustrated by James Barkley from Dial Press for 9th-Adult in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS) $6.00 (1 in stock)
	Clive Staples Lewis A Dramatic Life by William Griffin from Harper & Row for 10th-Adult in Biographies (Location: BIO) $12.00 (1 in stock)
	Dante Penguin Lives by R.W.B. Lewis from Penguin Putnam for 10th-Adult in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS) $6.00 (1 in stock)
	Dickens: His Work and His World by Michael Rosen, illustrated by Robert Ingpen from Candlewick Press for 4th-8th grade in Biographies (Location: BIO) $8.50 (1 in stock)
	Edwardian Lady The Story of Edith Holden by Ina Taylor from Holt, Rinehart and Winston for 9th-Adult in Biographies (Location: BIO) $16.00 (1 in stock)
	Extravagant Hunger The Passionate Years of M.F.K. Fisher by Anne Zimmerman from Counterpoint, LLC for Adult in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS) $8.00 (1 in stock)
	Gertrude Chandler Warner and the Boxcar Children by Mary Ellen Ellsworth 1^st edition from Albert Whitman & Company for 3rd-6th grade in Biographies (Location: BIO) $4.00 (1 in stock)
	Grant and Twain The Story of a Friendship That Changed America by Mark Perry from Random House for Adult in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS) $7.50 (1 in stock)
	Harriet Beecher Stowe by Noel Bertram Gerson 1^st edition from Henry Holt and Company for 10th-Adult in Biographies (Location: BIO) $3.00 (1 in stock)
	Harriet Beecher Stowe by Suzanne M. Coil from Franklin Watts for 7th-12th grade in Biographies (Location: BIO) $6.00 (1 in stock)
	Homesick: My Own Story by Jean Fritz from Penguin Putnam for 4th-8th grade in Biographies (Location: BIO) $6.00 (1 in stock)
	James Fenimore Cooper by Donald A. Ringe from Twayne Publishers for 6th-10th grade in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS) $4.00 (1 in stock)
	James Fenimore Cooper, the American Scott by George Dekker from Routledge for 8th-Adult in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS) $2.00 (1 in stock)
	John Calvin: Man of the Millennium A Family Read-Aloud Biography from Vision Forum in Biographies (Location: BIO) $12.00 (1 in stock)
	Laura's Album A Remembrance Scrapbook of Laura Ingalls Wilder by William Anderson 1^st edition from HarperCollins for 4th-6th grade in Little House Materials (Location: LIR-LHM) $9.00 (1 in stock)
	Library for Juana The World of Sor Juana Inés by Pat Mora, illustrated by Beatriz Vidal from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. for 1st-3rd grade in Biographies (Location: BIO) $7.00 (1 in stock)
	Life of Emerson by Van Wyck Brooks First Edition from E.P. Dutton & Co. for Adult in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS) $6.00 (1 in stock)
	Lifetime of Wisdom by Joni Eareckson Tada from Zondervan Autobiographies & Memoirs for Adult in Biographies (Location: BIO) $6.00 (1 in stock)
	Lost Garden A Memoir by the Author of Dragonwings by Laurence Yep from Simon and Schuster Autobiography for 6th-9th grade in Biographies (Location: BIO) $3.00 (1 in stock)
	Man Called Cervantes by Bruno Frank from Viking Press for 10th-Adult in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC) $10.00 (1 in stock)
	Mark Twain The Man and His Work by Edward Wagenknecht 2nd Printing, 1962 from University of Oklahoma Press for 10th-Adult in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS) $8.00 (1 in stock)
	Mark Twain and the Queens of the Mississippi by Cheryl Harness from Simon and Schuster Biography for 2nd-5th grade in Biographies (Location: BIO) $12.00 (1 in stock)
	Milton Meltzer Writing Matters by Milton Meltzer from Franklin Watts for 8th-Adult in Biographies (Location: BIO) $8.00 (2 in stock)
	On My Way from G.P. Putnam's Sons for 2nd-5th grade in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA) $6.00 (1 in stock)
	Picturing Hemingway A Writer in His Time by Frederick Voss, with an essay by Michael Reynolds from Yale University Press for Adult in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS) $8.00 (1 in stock)
	Present Indicative by Noel Coward from Doubleday, Doran & Company Inc. for Adult in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS) $6.00 (1 in stock)
	River Boy: The Story of Mark Twain by William Anderson, illustrated by Dan Andreasen from HarperCollins for Preschool-2nd grade in Biographies (Location: BIO) $9.00 (1 in stock)
	Rudyard Kipling by Lord Birkenhead from Random House for 11th-Adult in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS) $8.00 (1 in stock)
	Sparky & Spike Charles Schulz and the Wildest, Smartest Dog Ever by Barbara Lowell, illustrated by Dan Andreasen from Harry N. Abrams, Inc. Picture Biography for Preschool-3rd grade in Biographies (Location: BIO) $16.95 $10.00 (1 in stock)
	Story of Harriet Beecher Stowe Cornerstones of Freedom by R. Conrad Stein from Children's Press for 4th-6th Grade in Cornerstones of Freedom (Location: VIN-CORN) $5.00 (2 in stock)
	Visit to William Blake's Inn by Nancy Willard 1^st edition for Kindergarten-3rd grade in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL) $9.00 (1 in stock)
	Wanda Gag: The Girl Who Lived to Draw by Deborah Kogan Ray from Viking Press for Preschool-2nd grade in Biographies (Location: BIO) $7.00 (1 in stock)
	Will in the World How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare by Stephen Greenblatt 1^st edition from W. W. Norton and Co. for 10th-Adult in Biographies (Location: BIO) $7.50 (1 in stock)
	Woodie Guthrie Poet of the People by Bonnie Christensen from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. for 1st-4th grade in Biographies (Location: BIO) $6.00 (1 in stock)
	Yoshiko Uchida The Invisible Thread by Yoshiko Uchida from Julian Messner for 3rd-8th grade in Biographies (Location: BIO) $6.00 (1 in stock)

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