Biography and Memoir
June 2026

Recent Releases
Rasputin: The Downfall of the Romanovs
by Antony Beevor

Russian peasant turned mystic Grigori Rasputin was surrounded by dark rumors while serving the court of Nicholas II and Alexandra in pre-revolution St. Petersburg. People whispered that he had superhuman healing powers and conducted orgies with women of the court. Historian Antony Beevor separates myth from fact, concluding that Rasputin’s abuse of the Tsar’s trust coupled with his well-known corruption and lechery likely helped undermine public faith in the Russian royal house, eventually leading to his murder.
American Rambler: Walking the Trail of Johnny Appleseed
by Isaac Fitzgerald

Memoirist Isaac Fitzgerald (Dirtbag, Massachusetts) combines a love of walking and a fascination with pioneer Johnny Appleseed (aka John Chapman) in his traveling tale, in which he attempts to walk along Chapman’s historic route from Massachusetts to Indiana. Along his journey, Fitzgerald shares his curiosity about the Appleseed legend, myth-making, his own history, and small-town America in a “stirring, singular” (Publishers Weekly) memoir. Read-alike: This Land Is Your Land: A Road Trip Through U.S. History by Beverly Gage.
This Dark Night: Emily Brontë, a Life
by Deborah Lutz

English professor Deborah Lutz has taken what little is known of Wuthering Heights author Emily Brontë and created a richly imagined extrapolation of her inner world. Famously reclusive and resistant to the expectations imposed upon Victorian women, Emily was most inspired by her fantasy life, nourished by her wanderings in the moors surrounding her family home in Yorkshire, where she spent most of her tragically short life. Lush, atmospheric, and “rigorously researched” (Publishers Weekly), Lutz’s book shines new light on a beloved literary figure.
One Aladdin, Two Lamps by Jeanette Winterson
One Aladdin, Two Lamps
by Jeanette Winterson

Prolific novelist and essayist Jeanette Winterson considers the richness of storytelling traditions using One Thousand and One Nights as a guide. Amidst examples of tales spun by Shahrazad that draw parallels with the author’s experiences and the real world, Winterson holds out hope for humanity, expressed through our seemingly inexhaustible imagination. This is an original, thought-provoking work in the vein of Jane Hirshfield’s Ten Windows: How Great Poems Transform the World.
Say It in Letters
While collections of personal letters aren’t technically biographies, letters written by (and to) famous people can be a wellspring of primary source material that biographers use to study their subjects. Indeed, people often reveal sides of themselves in the letters they write that they wouldn’t to the rest of the world! Enjoy these titles that feature interesting people’s collections of correspondence.
 
 
Notes to John
by Joan Didion

After author Joan Didion died in 2021, a journal was found among her papers addressed to her husband John Gregory Dunne, written in the early 2000s and concerning psychotherapy treatment that she received at the behest of her daughter, Quintana Roo Dunne. Readers will empathize with Didion as she gives a detailed account of these intimate but painful talk-therapy sessions, which cover fraught family dynamics, alcoholism, guilt, and emotional distance. Recommended for people who were moved by I Will Do Better by Charles Bock.
Byron: A Life in Ten Letters
by Andrew Stauffer

English professor and Byron authority Andrew Stauffer’s biography of George Gordon, Lord Byron is cleverly framed around ten letters written by the raconteur of the Romantics, presented chronologically from his teen years to the end of his life at 36. This device allows readers a close-up view of Stauffer’s subject and helps to illustrate Byron’s talents, along with all of his best (and worst) qualities. For another literary biography about a brilliant but brief life, try Katherine Mansfield: A Hidden Life by Gerri Kimber.
Love, Nina: A Nanny Writes Home by Nina Stibbe
Love, Nina: A Nanny Writes Home
by Nina Stibbe

What it's about: While working as a 20-year-old nanny in early 1980s London, Nina Stibbe wrote gossipy letters home detailing life with her charges and their famous parents.

Featuring: Stibbe's employers, London Review of Books editor Mary-Kay Wilmers and film director Stephen Frears; playwright Alan Bennett, a frequent dinner guest.

For fans of: quirky British humor and snappy dialogue. 
Contact your librarian for more great books!
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