Books, Movies, Music & Entertainment - Best biography or autobiaography you have read?

What is the best biography or autobiography you have read? It can be political, sports, entertainment - doesn't matter.

Errol Flynns autobiography My Wicked Wicked Ways is a great rollicking read, even if the truth is stretched in one or two places:D

Though it could be argued that it is not technically a biography I can also recommend David Remnicks book on Muhummad Ali King of the World.

My final one is Charles Shar Murrays biograhy on Jimi Hendrix Crosstown Traffic. I loaned it years ago and never got it back.:(

Memories, Dreams, Reflections - Jung/Jaffe
Theodore Rex - Edmund Morris

"Rock and Roll Doctor-Lowell George: Guitarist, Songwriter, and Founder of Little Feat" was good, not so much for the style or way it was written, but for the subject matter, IMHO.

Anyone read any of the LBJ biographies by Robert Caro or Robert Dallek?

Cheers.

Not quite an autobiography, but a collection of letters that do a pretty good job of being a first person account of his life:

Hunter S. Thompson's The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman (Fear and Loathing Letters, Vol. 1) (http:/http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0679406956/sr=8-1/qid=1149704462/ref=sr_1_1/104-3107742-0423132?%5Fencoding=UTF8/)

Funny, desperate, thought provoking. From HST's Air Force days through the publishing of Hell's Angels. Before he went Gonzo on the world. The second volume, Fear and Loathing in America, is a bit more whacked out as the 70's hit.

Lindbergh by A. Scott Berg

Charles Lindbergh was not only an enigmatic man but his life story reads like a history of the 20th century – he was involved so often in key events. The book won the Pulitzer Prize

It's not about the bike - Lance Armstrong (interesting read)

David Niven - The Moon is a Balloon and Bring on the Empty Horses.

Roland Huntford - The Last Place on Earth (Scott and Amundsen)

Roland Huntford - Shackleton

Robert Lacey - Ford.

Adolph Galland - The First and the Last.

Leonard Bickel - This Accursed Land (Mawson).

Not quite an autobiography, but a collection of letters that do a pretty good job of being a first person account of his life:

Hunter S. Thompson's The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman (Fear and Loathing Letters, Vol. 1) (http:/http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0679406956/sr=8-1/qid=1149704462/ref=sr_1_1/104-3107742-0423132?%5Fencoding=UTF8/)

Funny, desperate, thought provoking. From HST's Air Force days through the publishing of Hell's Angels. Before he went Gonzo on the world. The second volume, Fear and Loathing in America, is a bit more whacked out as the 70's hit.
If you like Hunter S. Thompson, read www.devilmonkey.net , start at the bottom. That site is ADDICTING!

For me, it also isn't an autobiography in the truest sence, but I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell by Tucker Max.

David Niven - The Moon is a Balloon and Bring on the Empty Horses.



Both good reads.

Two I've read this past year are "Django" about guitarist Django Reinhardt, by Michael Dregni, and the bio of President Harry Truman by David McCullogh. I like a biography that tells me about things I never knew; the story of Parisian jazz and of the Gypsy people in the Django book, and the wild west that was 19th century Missouri in the Truman biography--who'd have thought that the American midwest would be turned into something very like Afghanistan once white poeple got ahold of it!?

"The Autobiography of Malcolm X" was wonderful for its portrayal of his life and for the times in which he lived.

Alan Alda- Never have your Dog Stuffed

"The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin"

The Jim Morrison biography, No One Here Gets Out Alive. I forgot who wrote it.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Iacocca - Lee Iacocca

See if you can dig up PJ O'Roukes review of Iacocca. It's hilarious. It's in one of his books.

Che Guevara, A Revolutionary Life by Jon Lee Anderson
Miles by Miles Davis
Cochise by Edwin R. Sweeney
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Jaco by Bill Milkowski

Plus, for a very insightful look into the world of addiction:
Scar Tissue by Anthony Keidis
This one has a little too much emphasis on sexual exploits for my taste. But, it's not done in a "bravado" manner. That being said, many of the encounters influenced his song writing.

Oh, by the way, the first four books I listed should be read by everyone, regardless of political views. And no, I'm not a liberal.

Jaco deals with manic depression in an era that it wasn't really understood.

Che Guevara, A Revolutionary Life by Jon Lee Anderson
Scar Tissue by Anthony Keidis

Thanks Tod, I've been meaning to buy these for the past year!

Growing Up by Russell Baker (thanks to my professor). I relished this book so much. Lots of insights from young russell and his younger sister, a very smart girl. this book is among those few that made me laugh and cry.

Iacocca - Lee Iacocca

+1!!

I also liked Yeager: An Autobiography (http://www.amazon.com/Yeager-Autobiography-Chuck/dp/0553256742) by Chuck Yeager and Jack: Straight from the Gut (http://www.amazon.com/Jack-Straight-Gut-Welch/dp/0446690686/sr=1-2/qid=1161877205/ref=sr_1_2/104-1219377-2912717?ie=UTF8&s=books) by Jack Welch.

Miles by Miles Davis
The Autobiography of Malcolm X


I can vouch for these two as well.

Plutarch's Lives is a classic in this genre.

I really liked The Thought And Character of William James by Ralph Barton Perry, but I'm a philosophy geek.

Best autobiography I can remember reading was about Chuck Yeager. I can't remember the name of the book now since it was a long time ago that I read it. I'm not much of a reader but I could not put it down. He was an amazing character.

I'm pretty sure this is it.... but just can't be 100% sure...... http://www.amazon.com/Yeager-Autobiography-Chuck/dp/0553256742/sr=8-1/qid=1163442174/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-6404046-8933410?ie=UTF8&s=books



edit....Just saw that this was already mentioned above. Sorry for the repeat. It is a GREAT book!