Autobiographies
 

What are some autobiographies you've read. OR, who are some people you wish had autobiographies?

I'm currently reading Charlie Chaplin's, and I wish there was one for Marilyn Monroe.

I'm sure there are biographies on Marilyn, but not an autobiography. She only made it to 36 and people generally write autobiographies later in life.

Charlie is interesting, he goes a little all over the place between his childhood years and I haven't even gotten to him starting in movies yet but he describes things like an artist. I can definitely believe he wrote it instead of a ghost writer.

Well she was a bit busy with all of the stress of her life, and the addictions that lead to. From what I've read she was a sweet girl who had way too much stress and no way of really dealing with it in a healthy way.

Yes, it seems like the most famous people in the world are generally the ones that suffered the most. Maybe it's what makes them interesting. At least Chaplin ended up happy with his wife and many children.

He liked younger women, got married 3 times before his final wife, oona, and had 8 kids with her and a few before that. All but one of his wives were below 20 when they married, but the last one lasted until he died.

Yep, they lived out their days in Switzerland at the end. I've read a lot about him, so I'm glad to finally have his own perspective on his life. I doubt it's 100% accurate, but seeing things from his eyes is just so interesting.

I actually got it for christmas but didn't read it because of school. I brought it with me for the plane ride and got about 100 something pages in, not even close to done. Just wish school let me read more.

I'll hopefully make time, worst case is I just start reading it over the summer.

Did you lose it the first time around? Another person I wish had an autobiography would be Harvey Milk, though there is a good biography of him. Unfortunately I could only read part of it because I was using it for a research project and had to go through some other sources.

awwww, that sucks. I lost a book once... the 5th and last in the series but it didn't really matter. It was a little too cliche so I didn't buy it again.

Personaly I'm not inclined to believe that. The suffering of famous people is, simply, more likely to get noticed.



I'm generally not one to read autobiographies, or even biographies much. They just aren't my thing, though I used to watch them on TV often enough. The only one I recall actually reading was of "Big Ben," a showjumping horse for Canada that was of some repute. I grew up watching him competing, and read the book when I was around 11 or so.

Otherwise, I find things like letters and such more interesting, even though I feel a little guilty about it. John Keat's letters are very interesting, and it was hard to put them down when I should have been doing my paper. A fair bit of biography was in there too. Goes with the territory I guess.

Forgot to mention before, but while not an 'official' autobiography, Stephen King's On Writing starts out that way, as he talks a little about his childhood and his early writing endeavours. It was very fun to read. I actually didn't get to the other half of the book, the actual "writing" part, before leaving the house where the book was. I should pick up a copy from the library to finish.

I've read Helen Keller's, R.L. Stine's, and Kirby Puckett's and a few others, but I don't remember them really. I read the ones I can remember because I respected each one greatly. R.L. Stine's books is one of many reasons I got into writing myself, Helen Keller I read hers I suppose because she was one of my heroes, she was handicapped in her way, me in mine, and although I was never quite the hellion she was, the fact that she grew up and learned and lived a life much like a normal seeing-hearing person, it was an inspiration to me to make due with what I had, when I could, and break past the obstacles I can change, it was really a great help to me. I read Kirby Puckett's biography because I was into baseball then and because he was my favorite player. He was also a hero of mine because he never did steroids and other drugs when he could help it. I was determined to be the same, never taking drugs for recreation.