Favorite literary memoirs, diaries or autobiographies?
Favorite literary memoirs, diaries or autobiographies?
One of my first classic books I ever read was Goethe's Italian Journey and it has since been one of my favorite books.
Has anyone read Cesare Pavese "This Business of Living"? I like depressing books and it is on the chart for that.
I enjoyed Helen Keller's autobio
Eckermann's Conversations with Goethe, extremely insightful into why he towered above all Germans
Victor Klemperer's diaries (there are various abridged editions), Jewish WW1 war hero litterateur with Aryan wife who tried to survive as best as possible
Marcel Reich-Ranicki's Mein Leben/My Life, biggest German lit critic, huge influence on post-war German literature
Zweig's The World Of Yesterday, autobiography of the Vienna that Zweig lost due to WW1/WW2, the cultural center of Europe
Reck's Diary Of A Man In Despair (NYRB edition is nice), the diary of a reactionary who hated the Nazis
Surely you're joking Mr Feynman
Goodbye to all that
Also, while it's technically historical fiction, I, Claudius is a great read with lots of historical info
Also, Twain's nonfiction work, life on the Mississippi
And dh Lawrences nonfiction
The Happy Hooker is excellent.
Trollope and Yeats wrote the best autobiographies that I've ever read.
augustine's confessions anyone? memoirs of hadrian, miles davis' autobio
Magda Szabó wrote a very nice little book about her childhood.
It was like reading a children's storybook written for adults.
memoirs of hadrian is his fic, still good tho, by some french lady
Speak, Memory by Nabokov. My favorite thing he ever wrote.
I've spent a lot of time reading through Kafka's diaries. I'm much more familiar with them than any of his stories.
bump
Robert Musil's diaries are very good, he wrote tons of little stories that are really fascinating
I liked Malcolm X's biography. As it turns out, quite a bit was made up but it's still a great read.
Charlie Chaplin's autobiography is really good. What made it especially joyous for me was the fact that we both come from the same area in south London.
Been meaning to read My Education: A Book of Dreams by Burroughs and A User's Guide to the Millennium by Ballard.
Patti Smith Just Kids
Religio Medici
Really enjoyed the Miles Davis autobiography.
Anyone have any favorite biographies on painters/artists?
Thoreau's diaries are better than his novels.
bump for this. Really am itching to read some great art bios
Walden
The Man Who became Caravaggio is a favorite anyway.
My own desu