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Women's Biographies Celebrating the lives of fierce women from history and today March 2025 |
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She came to slay : the life and times of Harriet Tubman
by Erica Armstrong Dunbar
"Harriet Tubman is best known as one of the most famous conductors on the Underground Railroad. As a leading abolitionist, her bravery and selflessness has inspired generations in the continuing struggle for civil rights. Now, National Book Award nomineeErica Armstrong Dunbar presents a fresh take on this American icon blending traditional biography, illustrations, photos, and engaging sidebars that illuminate the life of Tubman as never before. Not only did Tubman help liberate hundreds of slaves, she was the first woman to lead an armed expedition during the Civil War, worked as a spy for the Union Army, was a fierce suffragist, and was an advocate for the aged. She Came to Slay reveals the many complexities and varied accomplishments of one of our nation's true heroes and offers an accessible and modern interpretation of Tubman's life that is both informative and engaging."
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Janis : her life and music
by Holly George-Warren
The Grammy nominee and award-winning co-author of The Road to Woodstock presents an intimate portrait of the counterculture music artist that includes coverage of her conservative upbringing, her extraordinary voice and her boundary-breaking legacy. 100,000 first printing. Illustrations.
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Elizabeth I : collected works
by Elizabeth
Arranges the queen's poems, letters, speeches, and prayers chronologically, revealing her relationships with her family and courtiers, support of England in times of war, and knowledge of Scripture
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Honky tonk angel : the intimate story of Patsy Cline
by Ellis Nassour
A newly revised and abridged edition of the classic Patsy Cline biography retraces her colorful life, including her numerous love affairs, her wise career choices, and her legendary songwriting.
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Cleopatra : a life
by Stacy Schiff
A Pulitzer Prize winner weaves together sex and celebrity, empire and politics in a story that is as contemporary as it is ancient, capturing fully for the first time the operatic power of Cleopatra's life and reign. By the author of Vera (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov).
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Notorious RBG : the life and times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg
by Irin Carmon
In a lively illustrated biography of the feminist icon and legal pioneer, readers can get to know the Supreme Court Justice and fierce Jewish grandmother, who has changed the world despite our struggle with the unfinished business of gender equality and civil rights, standing as a testament to what a little chutzpah can do.
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Nellie Bly : daredevil, reporter, feminist
by Brooke Kroeger
A portrait of the pioneer of investigative journalism recounts her daring exploits--such as feigning insanity in order to get herself committed to a lunatic asylum so she could expose its horrid conditions. 17,500 first printing.
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My life in France
by Julia Child
A memoir begun just months before Child's death describes the legendary food expert's years in Paris, Marseille, and Provence and her journey from a young woman from Pasadena who cannot cook or speak any French to the publication of her legendary Mastering cookbooks and her winning the hearts of America as "The French Chef." 150,000 first printing.
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Joan of Arc : a life transfigured
by Kathryn Harrison
A fully documented, inspiring portrait of the 15th-century peasant-turned-saint draws on historical facts, folklore and centuries of critical interpretation to evaluate the questions attributed to her character. 75,000 first printing.
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Wrapped in rainbows : the life of Zora Neale Hurston
by Valerie Boyd
Traces previously unexplored aspects of the career of the influential African-American writer, citing the historical backdrop of her life and work while considering her relationships with and influences on top literary, intellectual, and artistic figures. 60,000 first printing.
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Unforgettable women of the century by People MagazineCelebrates the lives of such notable women as Marlene Dietrich, Georgia O'Keefe, Ann Frank, Marie Curie, Margaret Sanger, and Sally Ride
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Herstory : women who changed the world
by Ruth Ashby
A very special collection of short biographies offers insightful sketches of the lives and accomplishments of 150 of history's most influential and brilliant women, including Clara Barton, the legendary Trung Sisters of medieval Vietnam, and many others.
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Well-behaved women seldom make history
by Laurel Ulrich
The Pulitzer and Bancroft Prize-winning author of A Midwife's Tale looks at the making of history from a woman's perspective, looking at three key works--the fifteenth-century Book of the City of Ladies by Christine de Pizan, Elizabeth Cady Stanton's memoirs, and Virginia Woolf's essay, A Room of One's Own, to reveal how women both make and record history. 40,000 first printing.
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The book of gutsy women : Favorite Stories of Courage and Resilience
by Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Rodham Clinton and her daughter, Chelsea, share the stories of the gutsy women who have inspired them -- women with the courage to stand up to the status quo, ask hard questions, and get the job done. Ensuring the rights and opportunities of women and girls remains a big piece of the unfinished business of the twenty-first century. While there's a lot of work to do, we know that throughout history and around the globe women have overcome the toughest resistance imaginable to win victories that have made progress possible for all of us. That is the achievement of each of the women in this book. So how did they do it? The answers are as unique as the women themselves. Civil rights activist Dorothy Height, LGBTQ trailblazer Edie Windsor, and swimmer Diana Nyad kept pushing forward, no matter what. Writers like Rachel Carson and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie named something no one had dared talk about before. Historian Mary Beard used wit to open doors that were once closed, and Wangari Maathai, who sparked a movement to plant trees, understood the power of role modeling. Harriet Tubman and Malala Yousafzai looked fear in the face and persevered. Nearly every single one of these women was fiercely optimistic -- they had faith that their actions could make a difference. And they were right. To us, they are all gutsy women -- leaders with the courage to stand up to the status quo, ask hard questions, and get the job done. So in the moments when the long haul seems awfully long, we hope you will draw strength from these stories. We do. Because if history shows one thing, it's that the world needs gutsy women
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The American women's almanac : 500 years of making history
by Deborah G Felder
Illustrates the history of women in America through biographies, historical facts and essays on legislation and movements highlighting both well- and lesser-known figures, including Susan B. Anthony, Clara Barton, Nellie Bly, Julie Ward, Dolley Madison, Pocahontas and many others. (U.S. history).
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Jane Crow : the life of Pauli Murray
by Rosalind Rosenberg
"Euro-African-American activist Pauli Murray was a feminist lawyer who played pivotal roles in both the modern civil rights and women's movements, and later become the first woman ordained a priest by the Episcopal Church. Born in 1910 and identified as female, she believed from childhood that she was male. Jane Crow is her definitive biography, exploring how she engaged the arguments used to challenge race discrimination to battle gender discrimination in the 1960s and 70s. Before there was a social movement to support transgender identity, she mounted attacks on all arbitrary categories of distinction. In the 1950s, her legal scholarship helped Thurgood Marshall to shift his course and attack segregation frontally in Brown v. Board of Education. In the1960s, Murray persuaded Betty Friedan to help her found an NAACP for women, which Friedan named NOW. Appointed by Eleanor Rossevelt to the President's Commission on the Status of Women in 1962, she advanced the idea of Jane Crow, arguing that the same reasons used to attack race discriminatio n could be used to battle gender discrimination. In the early 1970s, Murray provided Ruth Bader Ginsberg with the argument Ginsberg used to persuade the Supreme Court that the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution protects not only blacks but also women--and potentially other minority groups--from discrimination. helping to propel Ruth Bader Ginsberg to her first Supreme Court victory for women's rights and greatly expanding the idea of equality in the process. Murray accomplished all of this as someone who would today be identified as transgender but who, due to the limitations of her time, focused her attention on dismantling systematic injustices of all sorts, transforming the idea of what equality means"
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Frida in America : the creative awakening of a great artist
by Celia Stahr
Describes the years the Mexican artist spent in America beginning in 1930 with her new, older, and already world-famous husband, Diego Rivera, and the impact living in diverse cities of San Francisco, Detroit and New York had on her painting. Illustrations.
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Louisa on the front lines : Louisa May Alcott in the Civil War
by Samantha Seiple
An examination of Little Women author Louisa May Alcott's service as a Civil War nurse reveals how her experiences shaped her writing and activism, from her commitment to abolitionism to the creation of her book, Hospital Sketches. (United States history). 15,000 first printing.
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Queen Victoria : Twenty-Four Days That Changed Her Life
by Lucy Worsley
The BBC historian presenter and best-selling author of Courtiers explores the life and myriad roles of Queen Victoria as they reflected her defiance of gender conventions and defining position in a time of extraordinary change and political resistance.
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In search of Mary Shelley
by Fiona Sampson
Published to coincide with the 200th anniversary of Frankenstein, a major new biography of Mary Shelley, written by an award-winning poet, shares literary insight into Shelley's firsthand experiences throughout her infamously turbulent life.
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The doctors Blackwell : how two pioneering sisters brought medicine to women--and women to medicine
by Janice P. Nimura
"The vivid biography of two pioneering sisters who, together, became America's first female doctors and transformed New York's medical establishment by creating a hospital by and for women. Elizabeth Blackwell believed from an early age that she was destined for greatness beyond the scope of "ordinary" womanhood. Though the world recoiled at the notion of a woman studying medicine, her intelligence and intensity won her the acceptance of the all-male medical establishment and in 1849 she became the firstwoman in America to receive a medical degree. But Elizabeth's story is incomplete without her often forgotten sister, Emily, the third woman in America to receive a medical degree. Exploring the sisters' allies, enemies and enduring partnership, Nimura presents a story of both trial and triumph: Together the sisters' founded the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children, the first hospital staffed entirely by women. Both sisters were tenacious and visionary; they were also judgmental, uncompromising, and occasionally misogynistic--their convictions as 19th-century women often contradicted their ambitions. From Bristol, England, to the new cities of antebellum America, this work of rich history follows the sister doctors as they transform the nineteenth century medical establishment and, in turn, our contemporary one"
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The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks
by Rebecca Skloot
Documents the story of how scientists took cells from an unsuspecting descendant of freed slaves and created a human cell line that has been kept alive indefinitely, enabling discoveries in such areas as cancer research, in vitro fertilization and gene mapping.
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The making of Jane Austen
by Devoney Looser
"Returning author Devoney Looser has written a study of Jane Austen's legacy in high and popular culture, looking at stage and film adaptations of her work, how Austen has been taught in classrooms, Austen's depiction in visual culture, and Austen's rolein the women's suffragist movement. Looser draws on popular print and unpublished archival sources, amassing evidence from high, middlebrow, and popular culture, in order to craft a more capacious history of posthumous reception. The book is a detailed and revealing account of what Looser calls the "public dimension" of Jane Austen, who is a "manufactured creation." Looser has dug deep and come up with brand-new material on Austen, something that is very hard to do. This is the kind of material that Janeites and Austen scholars live for"
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On her own ground : the life and times of Madam C.J. Walker
by A'Lelia Perry Bundles
Written by her great-great-grandaughter, the biography of one of history's great entrepreneurs and philanthropists, Madam C. J. Walker, is told through personal letters, records, and never-before-seen photographs from the family collection. .
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Come fly the world : the jet-age story of the women of Pan Am
by Julia Cooke
Documents the high standards once required of Pan Am stewardesses, from second-language fluency and a college education to youth and a trim figure, sharing the stories of remarkable, high-achieving women who served during the jet age.
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Ida B. the queen : the extraordinary life and legacy of Ida B. Wells
by Michelle Duster
Written by her great-granddaughter, a historical portrait of the boundary-breaking civil rights pioneer includes coverage of Wells' early years as a slave, her famous acts of resistance and her achievements as a journalist and anti-lynching activist. Illustrations.
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Josephine : the hungry heart
by Jean-Claude Baker
In a volume filled with little-known facts and anecdotes, a man who was close to famed entertainer Josephine Baker reveals the truth behind her captivating legend.
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Savage beauty : the life of Edna St. Vincent Millay
by Nancy Milford
From the author of the critically acclaimed Zelda comes a fascinating, authorized portrait of the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet that draws on Millay's intimate diary, letters, and other papers to capture the flamboyant and turbulent life of a remarkable woman.
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Aretha Franklin : the queen of soul
by Mark Bego
Traces the life of Aretha Franklin, from deserted child and teenage mother to Grammy winner and inductee in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
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Anne Sexton : a biography
by Diane Wood Middlebrook
A biography of Anne Sexton explores the work and the tormented emotional life of the powerful American poet, a woman who struggled with mental illness throughout her career, finally taking her own life in 1974
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Anne Frank : the biography
by Melissa Mèuller
Updated with new material, this biography of the famous young Jewish girl whose posthumous diary put a face on the Holocaust includes interviews and correspondence with family and friends, newly discovered diary pages and letters written by her father.
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Unbowed : a memoir
by Wangari Maathai
The recipient of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize describes her life as a feminist, political activist, and environmentalist in Kenya, detailing her determination to receive an education despite the odds, her confrontations with the brutal Moi government, the 1977 establishment of the Green Belt Movement, her role in the transformation of Kenya's government, and her hope for the future.
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Just as I am : a memoir
by Cicely Tyson
The Academy, Tony, and three-time Emmy Award-winning actor and trailblazer tells her stunning story, looking back at her six-decade career and life. .
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First : Sandra Day O'Connor
by Evan Thomas
Based on exclusive interviews and access to archives, an authoritative portrait of America's first female Supreme Court justice includes coverage of her convention-breaking achievements and role in shaping decades of American law. By the best-selling author of Being Nixon.
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The woman who split the atom : Lise Meitner
by Marissa Moss
This riveting story of the Jewish physicist who, after overcoming adversity, anti-Semitism and sexism, made a discovery that rocked the world. Includes an afterword, author's note, timeline, select terms of physics, glossary of scientists mentioned, endnotes, select bibliography, index and Marissa Moss' celebrated drawings throughout. Illustrations.
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Bessie
Profiles the life and career of legendary blues singer Bessie Smith
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Agatha Christie
Profiles the life and career of Agatha Christie; examines how the places and people Agatha Christie encountered in her life became immortalized in her novels
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Iris
Explores the life of fashion icon Iris Apfel
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Statue of Liberty
A documentary on the symbol of freedom which stands in New York Harbor, tracing the statue's history from her creation through her current refurbishment
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Maria by Callas
Using opera excerpts, TV interviews, home movies, family photographs, private letters, and unpublished memoirs, provides an intimate look into the life of Maria Callas
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Rachel CarsonProfiles scientist and writer Rachel L. Carson, whose 1962 book "Silent Spring" warned of the impact of pesticides on the environment and started the modern environmental movement
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Janis
Explores the life and career of singer/songwriter Janis Joplin
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Victorian rebelTells the story of Victorian botanical artist Marianne North, who traveled the world alone to pursue painting a variety of plants in their natural settings
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The brass notebook : a memoir of feminism and freedom
by Devaki Jain
In this extraordinary and globe-spanning memoir, the Indian feminist economist shows how she navigated a world determined to contain her ambitions and seized the cause of feminism, championing the poor women who labored in the informal economy long before mainstream economics attended to questions of inequality.
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Beautiful country : a memoir
by Qian Julie Wang
This memoir from a Chinese woman who arrived in New York City at age 7 examines how her family lived in poverty out of fear of being discovered as undocumented immigrants and how she was able to find success.
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First they killed my father : a daughter of Cambodia remembers
by Loung Ung
Soon to be a feature film on Netflix directed and produced by Angelina Jolie Pitt, an unforgettable narrative of war crimes and desperate actions follows Loung Ung, one of seven children of a high-ranking government official, as she and her courageous spirit survived the Cambodian genocide under Pol Pot’s brutal regime.
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The dragons, the giant, the women : a memoir
by Wayâetu Moore
The author shares her experiences of escaping the First Liberian Civil War and building a life in the United States, shining the light on the great political and personal forces that continue to affect many migrants around the world.
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Becoming
by Michelle Obama
An intimate and uplifting memoir by the former First Lady chronicles the experiences that have shaped her remarkable life, from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago through her setbacks and achievements in the White House.
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Aftershocks : a memoir
by Nadia Owusu
An award-winning essayist combines literary memoir and cultural history to examine her personal struggles with her mixed-heritage identity and the emotional trauma of her mother's abandonment and father's dark secrets.
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Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
by Azar Nafisi
Describes growing up in the Islamic Republic of Iran and the group of young women who came together at her home in secret every Thursday to read and discuss great books of Western literature, explaining the influence of Lolita, The Great Gatsby, Pride and Prejudice, and other works on their lives and goals. .
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In the shadow of the mountain : a memoir of courage
by Silvia Vasquez-Lavado
A Latinx powerhouse in the tech world of Silicon Valley returns home to Peru and turns her life around by climbing the world's highest peaks along with other victims of childhood trauma,
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My life on the road
by Gloria Steinem
A feminist activist and co-founder of Ms. magazine presents a memoir comprised of reflections on definitive events in her career, from her time on the campaign trail and interactions with forefront political leaders to her visits to India and her encounters with civilian feminists.
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Jane Goodall : the woman who redefined man
by Dale Peterson
An in-depth biography of Jane Goodall describes how the seminal scientist and naturalist revolutionized the study of primates through her years of study of the chimpanzees of Gombe, helped establish radical new standards and a new intellectual style in the study of animal behavior, and how her work inevitably led to her career as an activist.
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A natural woman : a memoir
by Carole King
The legendary, award-winning singer, songwriter and pianist tells her life story, beginning with her childhood in Brooklyn, through her marriage to co-writer Gerry Goffin, her experiences as a mother and what it was like to write and record Tapestry. .
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Spoken from the heart
by Laura Welch Bush
In a candid memoir, the former first lady discusses the frantic and fearful months after 9/11, her trip to Afghanistan, her advocacy on behalf of women in oppressed countries, her love of libraries, what really happens in the White House and much more, in a book with 24 pages of full-color photos.
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HRC : state secrets and the rebirth of Hillary Clinton
by Jonathan Allen
Chronicles the return of Hillary Clinton from her primary defeat and achievements as Secretary of State through her consideration as a presidential candidate for the 2016 election, covering such topics as her decision to join the 44th President's cabinet and her relationship with Obama.
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My beloved world
by Sonia Sotomayor
The first Hispanic-American on the U.S. Supreme Court shares the story of her life before becoming a judge, describing such experiences as her youth in a Bronx housing project, her relationship with a passionately spiritual grandparent, the ambition that fueled her ivy-league education and the individuals who helped shaped her career.
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Everything is copyProfiles writer and director Nora Ephron, featuring interviews with family and friends, video and audio clips of Ephron, and dramatic readings of her essays
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He named me Malala /
Profiles the life of young Pakistani student Malala Yousafzai who advocated for women's rights and education in the Taliban-controlled Swat Valley, survived an assassination attempt, and became the youngest nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize
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