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.
Did you find this review helpful?
35 Items found Print
Active Filters: 20th Century: 1900-1928, 8th grade (Ages 13-14)
Albert Schweitzer
by Geoff & Janet Benge
from YWAM Publishing
Biography for 4th-8th grade
in Christian Heroes: Then and Now (Location: BIO-BENGE)
$11.99
Falcons of France
by Charles Nordhoff & James Norman Hall
from Little, Brown & Company
for 7th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Helen Keller: The Story of My Life
Signet Classics
by Helen Keller
Reprint from Signet Classics
Autobiography for 7th-10th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$5.95
Helen Keller: The Story of My Life
by Helen Keller
from Dover Publications
Autobiography for 7th-10th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$1.50 (4 in stock)
Helen Keller: The Story of My Life
Signet Classics
by Helen Keller
from Living Book Press
Autobiography for 7th-10th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$15.99
John Flynn
by Geoff & Janet Benge
from YWAM Publishing
Biography for 4th-8th grade
in Christian Heroes: Then and Now (Location: BIO-BENGE)
$11.99
Lawrence of Arabia
Sterling Point Books
by Alistair Maclean
from Sterling Publishing Co.
Biography for 5th-9th grade
in World War I (1914-1919) (Location: HISA-20WW1)
Lindbergh Alone
by Brendan Gill
from Harcourt, Brace & World
for 4th-9th grade
in Clearance: History & Geography (Location: ZCLE-HIS)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Mildred Cable
by Geoff & Janet Benge
from YWAM Publishing
Biography for 4th-8th grade
in Christian Heroes: Then and Now (Location: BIO-BENGE)
$11.99
Ranch under the Rimrock
by Dorothy Lawson McCall
from Binford & Mort Publishing
for 8th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Sergeant York and the Great War
by Alvin C. York
from My Father's World
Autobiography for 7th-Adult
in World War I (1914-1919) (Location: HISA-20WW1)
$22.00
Sir Charlie
by Paul Fleishman
from Greenwillow Books
for 4th-8th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Soldier Doctor
by Clara Ingram Judson
from Charles Scribner's Sons
for 5th-8th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
Story of Amelia Earhart
Signature Books #33
by Adele de Leeuw, illustrated by Harry Beckhoff
from Grosset & Dunlap
Biography for 3rd-8th grade
in Grosset & Dunlap Signature Books (Location: VIN-SIG)
Story of Annie Oakley
Grosset & Dunlap Signature #37
by Edmund Collier, illustrated by Leon Gregori
from Grosset & Dunlap
Biography for 5th-9th grade
in Grosset & Dunlap Signature Books (Location: VIN-SIG)
Story of Buffalo Bill
Signature Books #1
by Edmund Collier, illustrated by Nicholas Eggenhofer
from Grosset & Dunlap
Biography for 5th-9th grade
in Grosset & Dunlap Signature Books (Location: VIN-SIG)
Story of Clara Barton
Grosset & Dunlap Signature #25
by Olive Price, illustrated by Ruth Ives
from Grosset & Dunlap
Biography for 5th-9th grade
in Grosset & Dunlap Signature Books (Location: VIN-SIG)
Story of Dan Beard
Grosset & Dunlap Signature #43
by Robert N. Webb, illustrated by Everett Raymond Kinstler
from Grosset & Dunlap
Biography for 5th-9th grade
in Grosset & Dunlap Signature Books (Location: VIN-SIG)
Story of Dwight D. Eisenhower
Signature Books #38
by Arthur J. Beckhard, illustrated by Charles H. Geer
from Grosset & Dunlap
Biography for 3rd-8th grade
in Grosset & Dunlap Signature Books (Location: VIN-SIG)
Story of Edith Cavell
Signature Books #47
by Iris Vinton, illustrated by Gerald McCann
from Grosset & Dunlap
Biography for 4th-8th grade
in Grosset & Dunlap Signature Books (Location: VIN-SIG)
Story of Eleanor Roosevelt
Grosset & Dunlap Signature #48
by Lorena A. Hickok, illustrated by William Barss
from Grosset & Dunlap
Biography for 5th-9th grade
in Grosset & Dunlap Signature Books (Location: VIN-SIG)
Story of Florence Nightingale
Grosset & Dunlap Signature #10
by Margaret Leighton, illustrated by Corinne B. Dillon
from Grosset & Dunlap
Biography for 5th-9th grade
in Grosset & Dunlap Signature Books (Location: VIN-SIG)
Story of Franklin D. Roosevelt
Grosset & Dunlap Signature #39
by Lorena A. Hickok, illustrated by Leonard Vosburgh
from Grosset & Dunlap
Biography for 5th-9th grade
in Grosset & Dunlap Signature Books (Location: VIN-SIG)
Story of George Washington Carver
Signature Books #17
by Arna Bontemps, illustrated by Harper Johnson
from Grosset & Dunlap
Biography for 4th-8th grade
in Grosset & Dunlap Signature Books (Location: VIN-SIG)
Story of Geronimo
Signature Books #44
by Jim Kjelgaard, illustrated by Charles Banks Wilson
from Grosset & Dunlap
Biography for 4th-8th grade
in Grosset & Dunlap Signature Books (Location: VIN-SIG)
Story of Madame Curie
Grosset & Dunlap Signature #46
by Alice Thorne, illustrated by Federico Castellon
from Grosset & Dunlap
Biography for 5th-9th grade
in Grosset & Dunlap Signature Books (Location: VIN-SIG)
Story of President Kennedy
Grosset & Dunlap Signature #50
by Iris Vinton, illustrated by Carl Cassler
from Grosset & Dunlap
Biography for 5th-9th grade
in Grosset & Dunlap Signature Books (Location: VIN-SIG)
Story of Thomas Alva Edison
Grosset & Dunlap Signature #4
by Enid LaMonte Meadowcroft, illustrated by Harvé Stein
from Grosset & Dunlap
Biography for 5th-9th grade
in Grosset & Dunlap Signature Books (Location: VIN-SIG)
Story of Winston Churchill
Grosset & Dunlap Signature #40
by Alida Sims Malkus, illustrated by H. B. Vestal
from Grosset & Dunlap
Biography for 3rd-8th grade
in Grosset & Dunlap Signature Books (Location: VIN-SIG)
Surfman's Daughter
by Rebecca Locklear
for 6th-12th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$7.95
Theodore Roosevelt - The Strenuous Life
by John A. Garraty
from American Heritage Publishing Co.
Biography for 4th-8th grade
in American Heritage Junior Library (Location: VIN-HIS)
Twelve Seconds to the Moon
by Rosamond Young & Catharine Fitzgerald
2nd edition from Air Force Museum Foundation, Inc.
for 7th-Adult
in Aviation History (Location: HISV-AVIA)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Walter Reed: Vanquishing Yellow Fever
by Edward F. Dolan, illustrated by Dan Siculan
from Encyclopedia Britannica
for 6th-10th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Winston Churchill and the Story of Two World Wars
by Olivia Coolidge
from Houghton Mifflin
Biography for 7th-10th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Wright Brothers
by Russell Freedman
from Holiday House
Biography for 5th-8th grade
1992 Newbery Honor Book
in Aviation History (Location: HISV-AVIA)
$16.99