Salon's Favorite Biographies, 1997

Salon lists the best biographies of the year

By Salon Magazine

  • Pages 1

Nov 19, 1997 | "Louis Armstrong: An Extravagant Life,"
by Laurence Bergreen (Broadway)

"Francis Bacon: Anatomy of an Enigma,"
by Michael Peppiatt (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)

"The Creation of Dr. B: A Biography of Bruno Bettelheim,"
by Richard Pollak (S&S)

"With Chatwin: Portrait of a Writer,"
by Susanna Clapp (Knopf)

"Misfit: The Strange Life of Frederick Exley,"
by Jonathan Yardley (Random House)

"Cary Grant: A Class Apart,"
by Graham McCann (Columbia University Press)

"Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood,"
by Todd McCarthy (HarperCollins)

"The Hitler of History,"
by John Lukacs (Knopf)

"American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson,"
by Joseph J. Ellis (Knopf)

"Alfred C. Kinsey: A Public/Private Life,"
by James H. Jones (Norton)

"Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now,"
by Barry Miles (Henry Holt)

"Pickford: The Woman Who Made Hollywood,"
by Eileen Whitfield (University Press of Kentucky)

"Space is the Place: The Lives and Times of Sun Ra,"
by John F. Szwed (Pantheon)

"Walt Whitman: A Gay Life,"
by Gary Schmidgall (Dutton)

"Virginia Woolf,"
by Hermione Lee (Knopf

Recent Stories

A suicide in the family
Two gripping memoirs explore the guilt and confusion left behind when a relative kills himself.
Cats behaving badly
"Achewood," Chris Onstad's hilarious online comic strip, translates perfectly into a book about male friendship and testosterone overload.
A nation of conspiracy theorists can't be wrong
From miracle diets to creationism to rumors about the origins of 9/11, a new book traces our irrational love of misinformation.
"Thank You for All Things"
A messed-up Midwestern family grapples with buried secrets in Sandra's Kring's gripping saga "Thank You for All Things."
Who is the real John McCain?
From David Foster Wallace to Paul Begala, four authors trace the politician's journey from the liberal's conservative to flip-flopping hack.

Daily Newsletter

Get Salon in your mailbox!