tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post7681116611274707530..comments2024-03-28T00:17:55.823+00:00Comments on Bruce Charlton's Notions: AutobiographiesBruce Charltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-26730938243060074862011-09-04T20:21:34.914+01:002011-09-04T20:21:34.914+01:00@Dale - Diaries and journals are a different genre...@Dale - Diaries and journals are a different genre from autobiography - but I certainly agree that Kilvert's is first rate! I shall blog on my favourite diaries some time - I read them quite a lot; and then there are letters, which are another favourite genre of mine. I read a lot more auto/biographies, diaries and letters than I do novels.Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-72561425031549371292011-09-04T19:54:03.686+01:002011-09-04T19:54:03.686+01:00Arthur Machen's Far-Off Things has quite a bit...Arthur Machen's Far-Off Things has quite a bit of appeal to me, not so much his sequels Things Near and Far and The London Adventure.<br /><br />Alexander Herzen's Chilhood, Youth and Exile (Oxford World's Classics paperback)<br /><br />Konstantin Paustovsky's Story of a Life I: Childhood and Schooldays (there are several sequels, but this is the only one I have read)<br /><br />Coleridge's Biographia Literaria and Wordsworth's Prelude perhaps?<br /><br />How about published diaries, such as that of the Victorian clergyman Francis Kilvert?Wurmbrandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17345523517796356674noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-84254384047175371602011-09-04T15:16:59.498+01:002011-09-04T15:16:59.498+01:00I would recommend "The Autobiography of Malco...I would recommend "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Haley and "The Glass Castle" by Jeanette Walls. Much lower-brow fare but rather informative.Brett Stevenshttp://www.amerika.org/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-58602496242364030002011-09-03T18:54:58.709+01:002011-09-03T18:54:58.709+01:00The Diary of H.L. Mencken qualifies as an autobiog...The Diary of H.L. Mencken qualifies as an autobiography, I suppose, and is excellent. <br /><br />Agree with Thursday's Life of Frederick Douglass - he actually wrote 3 autobiographies. Same genre, Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington.Dennis Manganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16934802482968611507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-81843731891607660872011-09-03T18:20:12.344+01:002011-09-03T18:20:12.344+01:00Here's one:
"Inside my egg there was so...Here's one: <br /><br /><i>"Inside my egg there was so much to see, <br />a frog by a pond, and a crow in a tree, <br />a bear licking honey, three mice and a flea, <br />and sights never seen, not by them, not by me. <br /><br />How big is this egg? asked the frog to he bear, <br />but the bear could not answer, for he did not care. <br />We don't think it matters, squeaked the mice, over there, <br />to the crow, who decided to see, from the air. <br /><br />So I jumped from the tree and fell into the skies, <br />and discovered no limit to what filled my eyes. <br />I think it's as big as the biggest of size, <br />squawked I, to the frog, and continued to rise. <br /><br />Soon all the egg was left far down below, <br />and the heavens now opening, continued to grow. <br />While the air became thinner, and progress was slow, <br />still I climbed ever higher, still wanting to know. <br /><br />With a crack, I ran into the edge of the shell, <br />and pecked it a few times, really doing quite well. <br />And when I was able, I popped through, and fell, <br />and discovered this thing that I now want to tell... <br /><br />For my egg was the same, both without and within, <br />but to tell it, I don't quite know where to begin. <br />There are parts of the shell quite especially thin, <br />where the light from forever comes streaming right in. <br /><br />If you look very hard for the light that is there, <br />you will find that it leads you to everywhere. <br />There are frogs, there are mice, there are crows, and a bear, <br />there is honey, a tree, and a great deal of air. <br /><br />And this is my little autobiography. <br />From an egg to a crow to a life in a tree. <br />With a great deal of noise, just to fall silently, <br />to be right where I am, is just right where I'll be."</i>The Crowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04323413604073160469noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-89511105062036274492011-09-03T17:21:40.658+01:002011-09-03T17:21:40.658+01:00Worth re-reading:
Augustine
Rousseau
Mill
Baldwin
...Worth re-reading:<br />Augustine<br />Rousseau<br />Mill<br />Baldwin<br />Styron<br />Tolstoy<br /><br />Not so sure about the rest, though they were definitely worth reading once.<br /><br />Also, Wordsworth's Prelude, though it is in verse, is well worth re-reading.<br /><br />BTW it was DeQuincey, not Mill who had the opium dreams. My mistake.Thursdayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13002311410445623799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-90163060616237060122011-09-03T17:02:20.343+01:002011-09-03T17:02:20.343+01:00@Thursday
Some good ideas here. I am v. slowly r...@Thursday <br /><br />Some good ideas here. I am v. slowly reading St Augustine, didn't warm to De Quincey, Goethe's Italian or Newman and didn't finish them, hated Annie Dillard, read Ruskin as a young man but it left no trace. <br /><br />I was somewhat disappointed with Chesterton, but it was worth reading once.<br /><br />I had raised the bar, here, to books I have re-read with profit and enjoyment, sometimes more than once. <br /><br />Does the re-reading test apply to any of your choices here?Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-27332738249893161022011-09-03T16:11:26.989+01:002011-09-03T16:11:26.989+01:00Another I've read and liked:
Leo Tolstoy - A C...Another I've read and liked:<br />Leo Tolstoy - A Confession<br /><br /><br />A few others I'm interested in:<br /><br />St. Teresa of Avila - Autobiography<br />John Bunyan - Grace Abounding in the Chief of Sinners<br />Edward Gibbon - Autobiography<br />Chateaubriand – Memoirs from Beyond the Tomb<br />Henry Adams - The Education of Henry Adams<br />John Ruskin – Praeterita<br />I.B. Singer – In My Father’s Court<br />Isak Dinesen - Out of Africa, Shadows on the Grass<br />Annie Dillard - Pilgrim at Tinker CreekThursdayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13002311410445623799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-27211787131004486832011-09-03T16:09:30.144+01:002011-09-03T16:09:30.144+01:00How do find Mark Twain's Autobiography - well,...How do find Mark Twain's Autobiography - well, as far as it has been taken?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-24041755166255782282011-09-03T15:51:57.906+01:002011-09-03T15:51:57.906+01:00Autobiographies I have read and enjoyed:
Augustin...Autobiographies I have read and enjoyed:<br /><br />Augustine - Confessions<br />Cellini - My Life (very entertaining description of Renaissance Italy)<br />Rousseau - Confessions (a very bad man, but the book is a must read, brilliant, with many great psychological insights)<br />Thomas De Quincey - Confessions of an English Opium Eater<br />J.S. Mill - Autobiography (best at describing his bizarre and disturbing opium dreams, including when he makes out with the alligator)<br />Frederick Douglass - Life<br />James Baldwin - Essays (all the good ones are autobiographical)<br />William Styron - Darkness Visible<br /><br /><br />Books I plan to read at some point:<br /><br />Goethe - Poetry and Truth, Italian Journey<br />Benjamin Franklin - Autobiography<br />Newman - Apologia Pro Vita Sua<br />Richard Wright - Black Boy<br />G.K. Chesterton - Autobiography<br />J.P. Sartre - The Words<br />Primo Levi - If This Is A Man, The Truce<br />Vladimir Nabokov - Speak, Memory<br />C.S. Lewis - Surprised by Joy, A Grief ObservedThursdayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13002311410445623799noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-26302927659893508492011-09-03T13:35:44.616+01:002011-09-03T13:35:44.616+01:00I haven't yet read any Merton. Interestingly M...I haven't yet read any Merton. Interestingly Merton didn't respond to an enquiry by the young Eugene (later Father Seraphim) Rose - the counter-factual is what if he had responded and established a link- would the greatest modern American monk have become Roman rather than Orthodox Catholic... Of course not, but anyway.<br /><br />JD Watson's Double Helix - absolutely! I have read it many times, and always love it. <br /><br />Medawar - I read a lot of his stuff including the autobiography about 25 years ago, but have never felt inclined to re-read. As I recall, he hated Gilbert and Sullivan therefore he must be a bad person.Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-52466010834801160192011-09-03T12:29:43.886+01:002011-09-03T12:29:43.886+01:00Come to that, how do you rate the writings of Meda...Come to that, how do you rate the writings of Medawar?deariemenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-54418579619940209152011-09-03T12:28:45.948+01:002011-09-03T12:28:45.948+01:00A recent one that's sheer good fun-
"Co...A recent one that's sheer good fun- <br /><br />"Cold Cream: My Early Life and Other Mistakes" by Ferdinand Mount<br /><br />For a biographical/autobiographical snippet: Jim Watson's "The Double Helix".deariemenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-43918449551827038462011-09-03T11:40:32.975+01:002011-09-03T11:40:32.975+01:00Fully concur with Beyond a Boundary. My copy was s...Fully concur with Beyond a Boundary. My copy was signed by Garry Sobers who seemed less than impressed when I asked if he would do the honours. Why this was I didn't dare ask!<br /><br />Seven Storey Mountain? Whatever one makes of Merton's eventual trajectory it is full of real youthful insight and wonder - a great 'early' autoboigraphy.Phil Rnoreply@blogger.com