100 Best Biographies: Name That Author! (2)

[A] Helen Keller | Keller’s memoir recounts her childhood and education as a deaf‑blind woman and her partnership with teacher Anne Sullivan, a different journey from Hillenbrand’s historical narratives or Obama’s White House memoir.

[C] Viktor E. Frankl | Drawing on his survival of Nazi concentration camps, Frankl blends autobiography with logotherapy, whereas Northup was kidnapped into slavery and Mandela fought apartheid.

[A] Jon Krakauer | Krakauer’s firsthand account of the 1996 Everest tragedy mixes reporting with self‑interrogation; Bryson writes comic travelogues and Brown chronicles Depression‑era rowing.

[A] Jim Gray | Sportscaster Gray reflects on decades of interviews with legends, while Michaels calls games from the booth and O’Connor and Pearlman write coach and player biographies.

[C] Barack Obama | Obama meditates on identity and family in Hawaii, Chicago and Kenya long before the presidency; Mandela chronicles South Africa’s liberation and Noah his mixed‑race childhood.

[A] Laura Hillenbrand | Hillenbrand turns meticulous research into a thrilling tale about an undersized Depression‑era racehorse; McBride writes a family memoir and Brown and Lindhout tackle different adventures.

[A] David McCullough | McCullough’s Pulitzer‑winning biography shows the principled second U.S. president through letters and family life, while Goodwin, Millard and Roberts profile other leaders.

[B] Art Spiegelman | Spiegelman’s graphic masterpiece portrays his father’s Holocaust survival with mice and cats; Satrapi’s illustrated memoir focuses on Iran and Keneally wrote a novel about Oskar Schindler.

[C] Solomon Northup | Kidnapped into bondage, Northup’s 1853 narrative describes life on Louisiana plantations, whereas Douglass was born enslaved and Ung survived the Khmer Rouge.

[D] Frederick Douglass | This 1845 autobiography galvanized abolitionists with Douglass’s escape from slavery and pursuit of literacy, unlike Northup’s kidnapping or Beah’s child‑soldier ordeal.

[B] Jung Chang | Chang traces three generations of women through warlords, revolution and the Cultural Revolution; Park and Ung describe leaving North Korea and Cambodia respectively.

[B] Mitch Albom | Albom recounts weekly visits with his dying sociology professor, distilling lessons on love and death that differ from Sedaris’s humor or McBride’s family memoir.

[D] Michelle Obama | Obama shares her journey from Chicago’s South Side to the White House, offering insights into balancing motherhood and public life, unlike Clinton’s post‑campaign account or Sanders’s press‑room tales.

[D] David Sedaris | Sedaris’s droll essays describe awkward jobs, eccentric family and fumbling attempts at French, while Poehler’s book is comedic advice and Bryson writes travelogue.

[B] Ishmael Beah | Beah recounts being forced into Sierra Leone’s civil war and his rehabilitation, a narrative distinct from Ung’s Cambodian childhood or Mandela’s anti‑apartheid struggle.

[C] Amy Poehler | The comedian mixes behind‑the‑scenes SNL stories with frank advice, while singer Smith recalls 1970s New York and Clinton and Obama write political memoirs.

[A] Bill Bryson | Bryson chronicles a haphazard trek along the Appalachian Trail with humor and history, unlike Krakauer’s Everest reporting or Strayed’s Pacific Crest odyssey.

[B] Augustine of Hippo | This fourth‑century spiritual autobiography reflects on sin, grace and conversion centuries before Lewis’s own Christian journey or Massie’s royal biographies.

[D] Hillary Rodham Clinton | Clinton analyzes her 2016 presidential campaign and its aftermath, providing context on U.S. politics distinct from Obama’s life story or Sanders’s White House memoir.

[C] Michelle Obama | In her follow‑up to “Becoming,” Obama reflects on community, friendship and resilience, whereas Sanders writes from a Trump perspective and Totenberg honors a judicial friendship.

[C] Flora Rheta Schreiber | Schreiber documents psychiatrist Cornelia B. Wilbur’s treatment of Shirley Mason’s dissociative identity disorder, a case wholly different from Cahalan’s illness or Knight’s abduction memoir.

[A] Piper Kerman | Kerman’s memoir of her 13‑month prison stint inspired the hit series; Smart and Knight describe their kidnappings, and Poehler writes comedic essays.

[C] Patti Smith | The punk poet recounts her artistic and romantic partnership with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe in 1970s New York, unlike Karr’s or Totenberg’s memoirs.

[A] Daniel James Brown | Brown follows Depression‑era rowers who overcame odds to win Olympic gold in Hitler’s Berlin; Hillenbrand writes about a racehorse and Millard about President Garfield.

[B] Antonia Fraser | Fraser offers a sympathetic look at the Austrian archduchess turned French queen, while Massie chronicles Catherine the Great and Roberts focuses on Napoleon.

[D] Stephen King | King interweaves his own recovery from a near‑fatal accident with practical writing advice; Hemingway’s Paris reminiscences and Karr’s Texas childhood are very different.

[D] Ernest Hemingway | Hemingway recalls his 1920s Paris years among artists and expatriates, a far cry from Bryson’s hiking humor or Sedaris’s family anecdotes.

[B] James McBride | McBride explores his biracial upbringing and his Jewish mother’s past, contrasting with Brown’s sports saga and Albom’s lessons on mortality.

[B] Walter Isaacson | Isaacson unpacks Einstein’s scientific leaps alongside his bohemian life, while Roberts, McCullough and Massie delve into Napoleon, U.S. presidents and Russian royalty.

[D] Robert K. Massie | Massie charts the German princess’s transformation into a powerful Russian empress, whereas Fraser focuses on Marie Antoinette and Purnell on a WWII spy.