Free Autobiography Books and Biographies – Subjects M, N, O

Sir John A. MacDonald (Makers of Canada)

Parkin, George R.

Toronto: Morang 1910 Dewey Dec. Biography

A Scottish-born Canadian politician and father of Confederation who was the first Prime Minister of Canada. His political career spanned nearly half a century; 19 years as Prime Minister.

MacDonald, John Alexander (1815-1891)

Life and times of Niccolo Machiavelli

Villari, Pasquale

Unwin 1898 Dewey Dec. Biography

Florentine historian and philosopher during the Renaissance. His masterpiece The Prince, an amoral guide to achieving and maintaining political power, is still widely read.
“A fascinating life of the great secretary of the Florentine republic which strives “to describe him as he really was, with all his merits and demerits, his vices and his virtues.” The biography proper is prefaced by some two hundred pages on the Renaissance. The work is based on original source material.”
— A.L.A. Catalog 1926

Machiavelli, Niccolo (1469-1527)

Memoirs and letters of Dolly Madison, wife of James Madison, President of the United States

Madison, Dorothy Payne

Houghton 1886 Dewey Dec. Biography

Letters written by the wife of the fourth president, a bright intelligent woman who took a lively interest in what was passing about her. Sprightly and entertaining, giving valuable accounts of important historical events. Short narrative statements by editor connect letters and explains allusions. — A.L.A. Catalog 1904

Madison, Dolley Payne Todd (1768-1849)

James Madison (American statesmen)

Gay, Sydney Howard

Houghton 1884 Dewey Dec. Biography

Study of the statesman and of the political movement in which he took part; critical and generous. From federalist standpoint; specially full on origin of federal convention.
— A.L.A. Catalog 1904

Madison, James Jr., U.S. President (1751-1836)

Madonna: An Intimate Biography

Taraborrelli, J. Randy

Simon & Schuster 2001

Madonna was born in Bay City, MI and grew up in the Detroit suburbs of Pontiac and Avon Township. She graduated from Rochester Adams High School and began working on a degree at University of Michigan, but dropped out in 1978 and relocated to New York City, to pursue a career as a dancer.

Ciccone, Madonna Louise (1958-)

The Life of Ferdinand Magellan and the first circumnavigation of the globe, 1480-1521 (World’s great explorers and explorations)

Guillemard, Francis Henry Hill

Dodd 1890 Dewey Dec. Biography

“Relates with spirit the heroic adventures of the first circumnavigator of the globe. Based on a critical study of all the sources accessible, printed and unprinted.”
— A.L.A. Catalog 1926

Magellan, Ferdinand (d. 1521)

Horace Mann and the Common School Revival in the United States (Great Educators series)

Hinsdale, Burke A.

Scribner 1898 Dewey Dec. Biography

Resume of prior history of elementary education in America and summary of results of Mann’s work.
— A.L.A. Catalog 1904

Mann, Horace (1796-1859)

Father Marquette (Appleton’s Life Histories)

Thwaites, Reuben Gold

Appleton 1902 Dewey Dec. Biography

A French Jesuit missionary to the Native American tribes of the present-day Upper Peninsula of Michigan. In 1673 he and explorer Louis Jolliet were the first Europeans to discover and map the northern portion of the Mississippi River.
“The historian is thoroughly familiar with the facts concerning the Jesuit hero’s services as missionary and explorer of the Mississippi.” — A.L.A. Catalog 1926

Marquette, Jacques (1637—1675)

The Life of John Marshall, Vol 1

Volume 2

Volume 3

Volume 4

Beveridge, Albert Jeremiah

Houghton 1919-1922 Dewey Dec. Biography

Served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1801-1835, playing an important role in the development of the American legal system.
“A full and accurate biography, with historic background, well documented and based on wide research.
— A.L.A. Catalog 1926
“Among the great judicial cases which come up for treatment in the two volumes are the case of Marbury versus Madison, which established the right of the Supreme court to declare legislation unconstitutional, and the Burr conspiracy and trial which established the American law of treason.”
“Never before have the great Judicial decisions, through which Marshall molded American institutions in a way that changed our entire history, been so dramatically presented with their entire historical background.” – The Book Review Digest.

Marshall, John (1755-1835)

Martini Man: The Life of Dean Martin

Schoell, William

Taylor 1999

“Martini Man peeks beneath the cool veneer of one of America’s most beloved entertainers, detailing Dean’s professional highs and lows and the intimate secrets of his private life.” – Book jacket

Martin, Dean [Deano Paul Crocetti] (1917-1995)

Karl Marx, his life and work

Spargo, John

Huebsch 1910 Dewey Dec. Biography

“The first adequate biography of the founder of socialism, presenting an admirably clear and on the whole unprejudiced, though sympathetic, survey of his life and labors.”
— A.L.A. Catalog 1926

Marx, Karl (1818-1883)

Cotton Mather, The Puritan Priest

Wendell, Barrett

Dodd, Mead 1891 Dewey Dec. Biography

DDC: Biography Dewey Dec. Biography

From the series Makers of America.

Mather, Cotton (1663-1728)

A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy

Oshinsky, David M.

Collier Macmillan 1985

“Acclaimed historian David Oshinsky’s chronicling of the life of Senator Joe McCarthy has been called both “nuanced” and “masterful.” In this new paperback edition Oshinsky presents us with a work heralded as the finest account available of Joe McCarthy’s colorful career. With a storyteller’s eye for the dramatic and presentation of fact, and insightful interpretation of human complexity, Oshinsky uncovers the layers of myth to show the true McCarthy. His book reveals the senator from his humble beginnings as a hardworking Irish farmer’s son in Wisconsin to his glory days as the architect of America’s Cold War crusade against domestic subversion; a man whose advice if heeded, some believe, might have halted the spread of Communism in Southeast Asia and beyond.
A Conspiracy So Immense reveals the internal and external forces that launched McCarthy on this political career, carried him to national prominence, and finally triggered his decline and fall. More than the life of an intensely- even pathologically- ambitious man however, this book is a fascinating portrait of America in the grip of Cold War fear, anger, suspicion, and betrayal.” – Publisher

McCarthy, Joseph (1908-1957)

The Life of William McKinley, Vol 1

Volume 2

Olcott, Charles Sumner

Houghton 1916 Dewey Dec. Biography

Ohio politician and governor who was U.S. President from 1897 until his assassination in September 1901.
“The official biography based on correspondence and memoranda, devoted primarily to his political career.” — A.L.A. Catalog 1926

McKinley, William, U. S. President (1843-1901)

McQueen

Nolan, William F.

Congdon & Weed 1984

“Steve McQueen was called “The King of Cool”, and his anti-hero persona developed at the height of the counterculture of the 1960s made him a top box-office draw of the 1960s and 1970s. McQueen received an Academy Award nomination for his role in The Sand Pebbles. His other popular films include The Cincinnati Kid, Love With the Proper Stranger, The Thomas Crown Affair, Bullitt, The Getaway, and Papillon … In 1974 he became the highest-paid movie star in the world.” – Wikipedia
“In his last years, Steve McQueen looked back on his life. Here is his own story, much of it in his own words, told to his friend, William F. Nolan.” -Book cover

McQueen, Terrence Stephen “Steve” (1930-1980)

Catherine de Medicis, Vol 1

Volume 2

Van Dyke, Paul

Scribner 1922 Dewey Dec. Biography

Italian noblewoman of the 16th century who became Queen of France.
“A biography that has all of the interesting qualities of good fiction, based on first-hand evidence. It makes no effort “to coincide with the popular belief in her extreme wickedness or to serve as a special pleader in maintaining the contrary.”
Bibliography (19p.)”
— A.L.A. Catalog 1926

Catherine de Medicis, Queen of Henry II, King of France (1519-1589)

Golda

Burkett, Elinoar

Harper 2008

Golda Meir immigrated from Russia to Milwaukee with her family when she was a small child. She lived in Milwaukee until she and her husband moved to Palestine in 1921. She was a graduate of North Division High School and briefly attended UW-Milwaukee (then Milwaukee State Normal School).
“The first female head of state in the Western world and one of the most influential women in modern history, Golda Meir was a member of the tiny coterie of founders of the State of Israel, the architect of its socialist infrastructure, and its most tenacious international defender…. In this masterful biography, critically acclaimed author and Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist Elinor Burkett looks beyond Meir’s well-known accomplishments to the complex motivations and ideals, personal victories and disappointments, of her charismatic public persona.” – Book jacket

Meir, Golda (1898-1978)

Herman Melville, Mariner and Mystic

Weaver, Raymond Melbourne

Doran 1921 Dewey Dec. Biography

“Herman Melville, 1819-1891, the literary discoverer of the South seas, spent his youth and early manhood in the forecastle of a merchant-man, on Whalers and a man-of-war, and lived for four months among the cannibals of the Marquesas. All his best known books, including “Typee,” “Omoo” and “Moby Dick” were written before he was thirty-two and at the time received little recognition. The rest of his long life was lived in obscurity, his last thirty years in New York city. This long period, on which his biography has little data, is disposed of in the concluding chapter “The long quietus.” The early part of his life is treated with considerable detail.”
“Mr Weaver has done his work with enthusiasm, with ample materials at his command, and with a healthy consciousness of its importance. Here is God’s plenty for readers and lovers of Melville. . . Given this biography and Melville’s works, we have the man, vigorous, observant, eloquent, but torn by unending speculations, baffled by sad defeats. To him all those will turn who love the tingle and tang of life yet who do not fear to think.” – The Book Review Digest

Melville, Herman (1819-1891)

Milton (English men of letters)

Pattison, Mark

Macmillan 1919 Dewey Dec. Biography

An English poet, man of letters and civil servant of the 17th century who is best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost.
“An able monograph, invaluable to students of Milton and his times.”
— A.L.A. Catalog 1926

Milton, John (1608-1674)

James Monroe (American statesmen)

Gilman, Daniel Coit

Houghton 1917 Dewey Dec. Biography

A Virginia veteran of the Revolutionary War who was elected to the new U.S. Senate in 1790 and later served as Secretaries of War and State prior to becoming U.S. President (1817-1825).
“A short, simple account of the most important events in Monroe’s life. Contains a thorough bibliography of Monroe and the Monroe doctrine.” — A.L.A. Catalog 1926

Monroe, James, U. S. President (1758-1831)

Coming of Age in Mississippi: An Autobiography by Anne Moody

Moody, Anne

Dial 1968

The unforgettable memoir of a woman at the front lines of the civil rights movement—a harrowing account of black life in the rural South and a powerful affirmation of one person’s ability to affect change.
Born to a poor couple who were tenant farmers on a plantation in Mississippi, Anne Moody lived through some of the most dangerous days of the pre-civil rights era in the South. The week before she began high school came the news of Emmet Till’s lynching. Before then, she had “known the fear of hunger, hell, and the Devil. But now there was . . . the fear of being killed just because I was black.” In that moment was born the passion for freedom and justice that would change her life.
“Engrossing, sensitive, beautiful . . . so candid, so honest, and so touching, as to make it virtually impossible to put down.”—San Francisco Sun-Reporter

Moody, Anne (1940-2015)

Recollections of a Rebel Reefer

Morgan, James Morris

Houghton 1917 Dewey Dec. Biography

“A humorous and zestful narrative of the events of an unusually varied life. Colonel Morgan was a fifteen year-old midshipman on a Confederate raider, was an officer in the army of the Khedive of Egypt, lived in South Carolina during reconstruction days, and visited Mexico, Australia and Panama in different capacities.”
“Few men could possibly set down such a record of their activities as this book affords. Not every man would care to tell so freely all his escapades as Mr Morgan has told his. Taken as a whole, his story may not inspire the reader to nobler ambitions or a loftier purpose, but it is a positive change from the customary ‘Recollections’ and ‘Reminiscences’ that so many have written, and it reads almost like a romance.”
“Throughout Mr Morgan enlivens his book by witty anecdotes mostly concerning persons famous during the Civil war.”
– The Book Review Digest

Morgan, James Morris (1845-1928)

Gouverneur Morris (American Statesmen series)

Roosevelt, Theodore

Houghton, Mifflin 1891 Dewey Dec. Biography

American statesman and Founding Father, who authored sections of the U.S. Constitution.
“Outline sketch, vivid enough to make the man comprehensible and to offer a lively view of his habits, tendencies, deeds and thoughts. Some new material and many anecdotes.”
— A.L.A. Catalog 1926

Morris, Gouverneur (1752-1816)

William Morris, his work and influence

Clutton-Brock, Arthur

Holt 1914 Dewey Dec. Biography

An English poet, activist and designer who was influential in the arts as well as the socialist reform movement of late-19th century England.
“A good short biography treating of his life, friends, interests and activities in literature, craftsmanship and socialism.”
— A.L.A. Catalog 1926

Morris, William (1834-1896)

Conversations with Toni Morrison

Taylor-Guthrie, Danille, ed.

University Press of Mississippi 1994

“These interviews beginning in 1974 reveal an artist whose creativity is intimately linked with her African-American experience and is fueled by cultural and societal concerns. For twenty years she has created unforgettable characters in her acclaimed novels – The Bluest Eye, Sula, Song of Solomon, Tar Baby, Beloved, and Jazz. Morrison tells her interviewers that her goal as a writer is to present African-American life not as sociology but in the full range of its depth, magic, and humanity.” – Publisher

Morrison, Toni (1931 – 2019)

Samuel Finley Breese Morse (Beacon biographies of eminent Americans)

Trowbridge, John

Small 1901 Dewey Dec. Biography

Best known as an inventor (i.e. of the telegraph) he was also one of the most notable American painters of his time.

Morse, Samuel Finley Breese (1791-1872)

The Letters of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1769-1791), Vol 1

Volume 2

Wallace, Grace, Lady

Hurd 1866 Dewey Dec. Biography

A child prodigy as a musician in mid-18th century Austria, he became one of the greatest classical composers before dying at the age of 35.
“Letters written with the wit, charm and characteristic energy of the master.”
— A.L.A. Catalog 1926

Mozart, Johann Chrysostom Wolfgang Amadeus (1756-1791)

The Story of my Boyhood and Youth; with illustrations from sketches by the author

Muir, John

Boston: Houghton Mifflin 1913

John Muir (1838-1914), whose writings about the natural world have shaped the conservation and environmental movements for more than a century, wrote this autobiographical account near the end of his life about his childhood in Dunbar, Scotland, his immigration to America (1849), his adolescence on a pioneer farmstead near Kingston, Wisconsin, and his student years at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. The Story of My Boyhood and Youth reveals the evolution of Muir’s scientific curiosity and the beginnings of his reverential attitude towards nature. Treating his encounters with wildlife as high adventure, he gives especially informed attention to bird life in both Scotland and Wisconsin.
-Summary of the entry at the Library of Congress American Memory website

“In essence it is largely a chronicle of two things, of many animal pets and of the Spartan upbringing which Muir’s father, to an even greater degree than other strongly religious Scotchmen of his day, felt wise for his children. Added to this are many well-told anecdotes of Scotch life and of times and habits in Wisconsin 60 years ago, when forests were being felled to make farms for the new settlers and when though there does not seem to have been actual menace from the Indians, livestock would occasionally be stolen or killed by a thieving redskin. But one of the most remarkable features of the book is to be found In the descriptions of Muir’s various inventions as a boy and later as a young man while painfully working his way through the University of Wisconsin before he began roamIng the world as a naturalist.”
“It is a notable piece of autobiographic writing – the story of an unusually interesting boyhood and youth told with an energy and an eye for the diverting and significant that distinguish it at once from the slipshod garrulity of most books of the kind.”
– The Book Review Digest

Muir, John (1838-1914)

Napoleon the First

Fournier, August

Holt 1903 Dewey Dec. Biography

Rose to prominence as a military leader during the French Revolution, becoming Emperor of the French, 1804-1815. He led French armies to numerous victories, conquering much of continental Europe before his final defeat at Waterloo.
“One of the more important of the shorter biographies; based on thorough research, and giving a good view of the general historical situation.” — A.L.A. Catalog 1926

Napoleon I, Emperor of the French (1769-1821)

The Rise of Louis Napoleon

Simpson, Frederick Arthur

Longmans 1909 Dewey Dec. Biography

A nephew of Napoleon I, he led France as President and then as Emperor, 1848-1870.
“A realistic, authoritative account of the first forty years of Louis Napoleon’s dramatic life, from his birth to his election as President of the French assembly. Louis Napoleon and the recovery of France continues the record of this fascinating career.”
— A.L.A. Catalog 1926

Napoleon III, Emperor of the French (1808-1873)

Louis Napoleon and the Recovery of France

Simpson, Frederick Arthur

Longmans 1923 Dewey Dec. Biography

The sequel to Frederick Simpson’s Rise of Louis Napoleon.

Napoleon III, Emperor of the French (1808-1873)

Nehru: A Political Life

Brown, Judith M.

Yale 2003 Dewey Dec. 000

A penetrating study of the man who led India through her long struggle to independence in 1947, and, as Prime Minister until his death in 1964, steered her through her formative years as one of the world’s great nations. Judith Brown, a leading authority on Nehru, explores his many achievements. She examines his relations with both Britain and with his fellow countrymen, and shows us a man caught between two worlds – a sensitive visionary with no real love for the political life who died frustrated at his failure to lead India into more radical change. This is a moving account written for a wide readership, and is an excellent introduction to the society and politics of India as well as to its central character. – Publisher

Nehru, Jawaharlal (1889-1964)

Life of Nelson, the Embodiment of the Sea Power of Great Britain

Mahan, Alfred Thayer

Little 1918 Dewey Dec. Biography

Vice Admiral in the British Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars at the beginning of the 19th century, where he became Great Britain’s greatest naval hero.
“Formerly an officer in the United States navy, the writer became, after his retirement, an authority in naval history. His exposition of Nelson the seaman in this work is unequaled.”
“An authoritative biography which treats with full competence the three aspects involved: personal, professional and political. It makes Nelson describe himself as far as possible, and tell the story of his own inner life as well as of his external actions.”
— A.L.A. Catalog 1926

Nelson, Horatio Nelson, Viscount (1758-1805)

Eliot Ness: The Real Story

Heimel, Paul W.

Cumberland House 2000

Eliot Ness was “the man most often associated with bringing down the notorious Chicago crime boss, Al Capone. . . The Ness that Paul Heimel uncovered was more – and less – than the mythical Untouchable who single-handedly cleaned up Chicago. Eliot Ness was fallible, frustrated, and a victim of his own success. . . The Eliot Ness revealed here is fully human, a driven overachiever, a man in search of recognition, and a tragic figure.” – Book cover

Ness, Eliot (1903-1957)

Life of John Henry, Cardinal Newman, based on his Private Journals and Correspondence, Vol 1

Volume 2

Ward, Wilfrid Philip

Longmans 1912 Dewey Dec. Biography

An Anglican priest who converted to Catholicism in 1845, and was eventually made a Cardinal by the Pope for his service to the Catholic Church.
“A careful selection from original sources makes the work almost autobiography while the admirable introduction prepares the reader for the treatment of Newman not only as an ecclesiast but as a writer, thinker and a force in the intellectual life of England.” — A.L.A. Catalog 1926

Newman, John Henry, Cardinal (1801-1890)

Jack Nicklaus: My Story

Nicklaus, Jack and Bowden, Ken

Simon & Schuster 1997

“In 1988 Jack Nicklaus was honored by his peers as the Golfer of the Century…. During his more than forty-year career as champion amateur, dominating professional, and senior star, the Golden Bear has won almost one hundred tournaments around the world… ‘My Story’ is Jack Nicklaus’s complete and compelling inside, in-depth account …” -Book jacket

Nicklaus, Jack William (1940 -)

Florence Nightingale: The Making of an Icon

Bostridge, Mark

Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2008

The common soldier’s savior, the standard-bearer of modern nursing, a pioneering social reformer: Florence Nightingale belongs to that select band of historical characters who are instantly recognizable. Home-schooled, bound for the life of an educated Victorian lady, Nightingale scandalized her family when she found her calling as a nurse, a thoroughly unsuitable profession for a woman of her class. As the “Lady with the Lamp,” ministering to the wounded and dying of the Crimean War, she offers an enduring image of sentimental appeal. Few individuals in their own lifetime have reached the level of fame and adulation attained by Nightingale as a result of her efforts. Fewer still have the power of continuing to inspire controversy in the way she does almost a century after her death. – Publisher

Nightingale, Florence (1820-1910)

Life of Florence Nightingale

Tooley, Sarah A. (Southall)

Macmillan 1905 Dewey Dec. Biography

A founder of the nursing profession, Nightingale came to prominence when she organized medical care for British soldiers during the Crimean war of the 1850s.
“An enthusiastic biography, giving a full account of Miss Nightingale’s training, work in the Crimea, and of her life, friendships and literary work to 1905.”– A.L.A. Catalog 1926

Nightingale, Florence (1820-1910)

Richard M. Nixon: A Life in Full

Black, Conrad

Public Affairs 2007 Dewey Dec. 000

From the late 1940s to the mid-1970s, Richard Nixon was a polarizing figure in American politics, admired for his intelligence, savvy, and strategic skill, and reviled for his shady manner and cutthroat tactics. Conrad Black, whose epic biography of FDR was widely acclaimed as a masterpiece, now separates the good in Nixon — his foreign initiatives, some of his domestic policies, and his firm political hand — from the sinister, in a book likely to generate enormous attention and controversy.

Nixon, Richard Milhous (1913-1994)

The Life and Legacy of Annie Oakley

Riley, Glenda

University of Oklahoma 2002

“With a widowed mother and six siblings, Annie Oakley first became a trapper, hunter, and sharpshooter simply to put food on the table. Yet her genius with the gun eventually led to her stardom in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show during the latter half of the nineteenth century. The archetypal western woman, Annie Oakley urged women to take up shooting to procure food, protect themselves, and enjoy healthy exercise, yet she was also the proper Victorian lady, demurely dressed and skeptical about the value of women’s suffrage. Glenda Riley presents the first interpretive biography of the complex woman who was Annie Oakley.” – Book cover

Oakley, Annie [Phoebe Ann Mosey] (1860-1926)

Daniel O’Connell and the revival of national life in Ireland (Heroes of nations)

Dunlop, Robert

Putnam 1900 Dewey Dec. Biography

Irish political leader in the early 19th century who worked for Irish independence from Great Britain and for equal rights for Catholics.
Expansion of article in Dictionary of national biography; contains an account of O’Connell’s public career, relation to Catholic association 1823-25, Thomas Drummond, repeal agitation, etc. from sympathetic point of view.
— A.L.A. Catalog 1904

O’Connell, Daniel (1775-1847)

Full Bloom: The Art and Life of Georgia O’Keeffe

Drohojowska-Philp, Hunter

Norton 2004

“Georgia O’Keeffe was one of the most successful artists of the twentieth century. She made enormous contributions to modern art, and in her seminal paintings of intimately rendered flowers, desert landscapes, and stark white cow skulls, she applied the photographic techniques of cropping and composition usually relegated to the camera lens. But behind O’Keeffe’s bold work and celebrity was a woman misunderstood by even her most ardent admirers. This finely balanced biography offers an astonishingly honest portrayal of a life shrouded in myth.” – Book jacket

O’Keeffe, Georgia (1887-1986)

Robert Owen, Vol 1

Volume 2

Podmore, Frank

Appleton 1907 Dewey Dec. Biography

He grew rich managing textile mills in England at the beginning of the 19th century. He then dedicated his efforts and his fortune to social reform, founding a model community at New Harmony, Indiana.
“A well balanced biography, of interest to students of present social conditions. Contains a good account of the settlement at New Harmony, Indiana.” — A.L.A. Catalog 1926

Owen, Robert (1771-1858)

Jesse Owens: An American Life

Baker, William J.

Collier Macmillan 1986

“The tenth and last child of a dirt poor Southern sharecropper, James Cleveland Owens at 22 became the idol of millions worldwide, stunning Hitler’s Third Reich with the superlative athletic feats that won him an unprecedented four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics… Yet as William Baker shows in this, the most probing biography of Owens ever written, the great track star’s life was far from a rags-to-riches fable.” – Book jacket

Owens, Jesse [James] Cleveland (1913-1980)