Updated November 5, 2019 2.1k votes 227 voters 8.8k views41 items
List RulesNon-fiction novels written about the author's life
This list is about the best autobiographical novels; it answers the question, “What are the best autobiographies of all times?” An autobiography can be gripping, motivating and lighthearted at the same time. It allows a reader to truly get to see the world through the author’s perspective, creating a unique sense of empathy. It allows us to open up our minds to someone else’s beliefs and struggles.What distinguishes an autobiography from a biography is that it is written directly from an author about the author’s life; a biography is written by another person other than the author himself. For example, “The Autobiography of Albert Einstein” was written by himself with the help of a good friend Gerhard Roth. However, “Einstein: His Life and Universe” by Walter Isaacson was a book written by an author about the life of another person. The effects of reading an autobiography and a biography are very similar: both can capture the reader’s soul potentially more than any other literary type of work out there. A person can be emotionally moved by a great work of fiction, but a true story about an actual human being can take a reader beyond their emotions into actual motivations about the important things in life.Is there an autobiography that has meant a lot to you? Vote on your favorite today!
...more
1
15248A Child Called "It"
Dave Pelzer2
13638Angela's Ashes
Frank McCourt3
10335Girl, Interrupted
Susanna Kaysen4
9027I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Maya Angelou5
62146
7530Go Ask Alice
Beatrice Sparks7
5016The Night Trilogy
Elie Wiesel8
3614To Sir, with Love
E. R. Braithwaite9
3216Go Tell It on the Mountain
James Baldwin10
3221The Bell Jar
Sylvia Plath11
3224Post Office
Charles Bukowski12
1911Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
Azar Nafisi13
2723A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
James Joyce14
2116Boyhood
Leo Tolstoy15
262316
2219Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!
Richard Feynman17
2320Empire of the Sun
J. G. Ballard18
2118The Dharma Bums
Jack Kerouac19
2727A Death in the Family
James Agee20
1817Running with Scissors
Augusten Burroughs21
2629The Last Lecture
Randy Pausch, Jeffrey Zaslow22
161823
1416Desert Solitaire
Edward Abbey24
1618The Way of All Flesh
Samuel Butler25
1822Tropic of Cancer
Henry Miller