Biography & Memoir audiobooks

Hegel in 90 Minutes

By: Paul Strathern

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 1 hour 16 minutes

Abridged: No

Hegel’s dialectical method produced the most grandiose metaphysical system known to man. Its most vital element was the dialectic of the thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. This sprung from Hegel’s aim to overcome the deficiencies of logic and ascend toward Mind as the ultimate reality. His view of history as a process of humanity’s... Read more

Confucius in 90 Minutes

By: Paul Strathern

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 1 hour 16 minutes

Abridged: No

Confucius taught a moral wisdom that would become a predominant social force in China from the second century BCE until the mid-twentieth century. It would appear that his aim was to turn his pupils into good government officials, but his quaint humanistic platitudes, maxims, and quasi-enigmatic anecdotes made spiritual fodder for the next two... Read more

Into the Rising Sun

By: Patrick K. O’Donnell

Narrated by: Jeff Riggenbach

Length: 9 hours 12 minutes

Abridged: No

Patrick O’Donnell has made a career of uncovering the hidden history of World War II by tracking down and interviewing its most elite troops: the Rangers, Airborne, Marines, and First Special Service Force, forerunners to America’s Special Forces. These veterans were often the first in and the last out of every conflict, from Guadalcanal and... Read more

One Man’s War

By: Tommy LaMore & Dan Baker

Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor

Length: 9 hours 32 minutes

Abridged: No

Escaping certain death—not once but several times—lies at the core of the riveting, real-life story of an American soldier during World War II. In One Man's War, B-17 pilot Tommy LaMore vividly details his experiences in war-ravaged Germany, from the horrific to the romantic and beyond.LaMore's saga began when his plane collided with another... Read more

The Unruly Life of Woody Allen

By: Marion Meade

Narrated by: Mary Woods

Length: 15 hours 35 minutes

Abridged: No

After forty years in the spotlight as comedian, author, director, and professional neurotic, Woody Allen is a living legend. To fans, his films have always represented a sort of ongoing autobiography. This is the first uncensored biography to investigate one of our era’s most celebrated, distinctive, and confounding filmmakers.For over three... Read more

Steve Martin

By: Morris Wayne Walker

Narrated by: Barrett Whitener

Length: 8 hours 32 minutes

Abridged: No

This is the story of the wild and crazy years that the author spent growing up with Steve Martin and their apprenticeship in comedy. No one could better chronicle Steve’s life than his best and oldest friend, Morris Walker.Steve and Morris were class clowns together, charming the girls and the teachers with their wit and later setting out on the... Read more

Facets of Ayn Rand

By: Mary Ann Sures & Charles Sures

Narrated by: Susan O’Malley

Length: 3 hours 51 minutes

Abridged: No

Facets of Ayn Rand is based on forty-eight hours of interviews with Mary Ann and Charles Sures, longtime personal friends of Ayn Rand. Their recollections make vividly real the Ayn Rand they knew so well.Here are many examples of not only Ayn Rand’s mind and intellectual generosity in action but also lesser-known aspects of this unique woman.... Read more

What One Man Said to Another

By: Peter Josyph

Narrated by: Peter Josyph & Raymond Todd

Length: 10 hours 33 minutes

Abridged: No

What One Man Said to Another is, on one level, a series of extended conversations between friends. On another, it is the spoken autobiography of Richard Selzer, respected surgeon and writer, as recorded by artist and writer Peter Josyph.In these pages, we learn firsthand of Selzer’s life as a surgeon in an isolated village in Korea in the early... Read more

To Hell and Back

By: Audie Murphy

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

Length: 8 hours 9 minutes

Abridged: No

The time is 1943, the place is Sicily, and the event is the start of the most remarkable career of any American infantryman in the war. Audie Murphy was a desperately poor eighteen-year-old orphan when he joined the Army, nineteen when he first saw a buddy die from an enemy bullet and an enemy die from one of his own. By V-E day, he had killed... Read more

Living Biographies of Famous Women

By: Henry Thomas & Dana Lee Thomas

Narrated by: S. Patricia Bailey

Length: 9 hours 54 minutes

Abridged: No

Each of the individuals featured in this book played an important role in history. Their accomplishments span a wide range of fields, from the literary and the political to the medical. They include Cleopatra; Theodora; Joan of Arc; Mary, Queen of Scots; Queen Christina; Madame de Maintenon; Charlotte Brontë; George Eliot; Elizabeth Barrett... Read more

The Sage of Monticello

By: Dumas Malone

Narrated by: Anna Fields

Length: 18 hours 26 minutes

Abridged: No

The Sage of Monticello is the sixth and final volume of distinguished historian Dumas Malone’s epic masterwork, Jefferson and His Time, a biography begun in 1943 and awarded the Pulitzer Prize in history in 1975. More wide ranging than the preceding volumes, The Sage of Monticello brilliantly recounts the accomplishments, friendships, and family... Read more

Rose Cottage Chronicles

By: Arch Frederick Blakely, Ann Smith Lainhart & Wi...

Narrated by: Christopher Walker

Length: 18 hours 8 minutes

Abridged: No

As fresh and poignant today as when they were written, these touching letters capture the heart of everyday life during the Civil War.Set both at home in Florida and on the front, the letters were written by two generations of families whose members included radical secessionists, moderates, and even a few unionists.The domestic letters, written... Read more

Edison

By: Paul Israel

Narrated by: Raymond Todd

Length: 22 hours 41 minutes

Abridged: No

The definitive biography of the century's godfather of invention—from the preeminent Edison scholarThe conventional story of Thomas Edison reads more like myth than history: with only three months of formal education, a hardworking young man overcomes the odds to become one of the greatest inventors in history. But the portrait that emerges from... Read more

Anne Morrow Lindbergh

By: Susan Hertog

Narrated by: Marguerite Gavin

Length: 17 hours 19 minutes

Abridged: No

In this first full-length study of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Susan Hertog pierces the public image of Anne and Charles to reveal their story from inside the marriage and gives us a true understanding of the author of the bestselling classic The Gift from the Sea.Susan Hertog plumbs the depths of Anne Lindbergh’s search for her own identity and... Read more

The Last Marlin

By: Fred Waitzkin

Narrated by: Lloyd James

Length: 9 hours 53 minutes

Abridged: No

The Last Marlin is an unforgettable memoir of growing up in the fifties. Young Fred is a Jewish boy who is stretched between the divergent values of parents who cannot tolerate one another. Fred's father, Abe, is a brilliantly talented salesman whose relentless will drives him to succeed, at any cost. He marries Stella, an abstract artist, the... Read more

A Personal Odyssey

By: Thomas Sowell

Narrated by: Jeff Riggenbach

Length: 10 hours 55 minutes

Abridged: No

Here is the gritty, powerful story of Thomas Sowell’s life-long education in the school of hard knocks, as the journey took him from Harlem to the Marines, the Ivy League, and a career as a controversial writer, teacher, and economist in government and private industry. It is also the story of the dramatically changing times in which this... Read more

Living Biographies of Religious Leaders

By: Henry Thomas & Dana Lee Thomas

Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon

Length: 8 hours 35 minutes

Abridged: No

This absorbing book presents the lives of twenty great founders and leading advocates of the world’s foremost religions. Here are the historical facts and legends associated with these forceful personalities who have inspired and influenced humankind through the centuries.In the telling of these vivid and fascinating life stories, the authors... Read more

Magnolia Grove

By: Harvey Rosenfeld

Narrated by: John Lescault

Length: 8 hours 39 minutes

Abridged: No

Rear Admiral Richmond Pearson Hobson was a charismatic American hero whose colorful life at the beginning of the twentieth century reflected the rapidly changing politics of his day. Highly honored in his lifetime, he is largely unknown today.During the Spanish-American War, Hobson survived a “suicide mission,” sinking the Merrimac in an... Read more

California Characters

By: Charles Hillinger

Narrated by: Dennis McKee

Length: 10 hours 40 minutes

Abridged: No

For forty-six years, Charles Hillinger journeyed around the world writing human-interest stories for the Los Angeles Times. He also helped to create and produce special features for the popular NBC television show Real People.From this work comes California Characters, a collection of stories of intriguing, eccentric, or simply amazing... Read more

Living Biographies of Great Philosophers

By: Henry Thomas & Dana Lee Thomas

Narrated by: Edward Lewis

Length: 9 hours 42 minutes

Abridged: No

Every biography is a story of adventure. The energetic personalities of the world represent an adventure in living. The philosophical personalities, on the other hand, represent an adventure in thinking. And when we examine the lives of the philosophers, we find that the procession of a man’s thoughts can be as exciting a spectacle as the... Read more

East to the Dawn

By: Susan Butler

Narrated by: Anna Fields

Length: 18 hours 41 minutes

Abridged: No

Amelia Earhart captured the hearts of the nation after becoming the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic in 1928—and her disappearance on an around-the-world flight in 1937 is an enduring mystery.The image we have of Amelia Earhart today—a tousle-haired, androgynous flier clad in shirt, silk scarf, leather jacket, and goggles—is only one... Read more

Dorothy Day

By: Robert Coles

Narrated by: C. M. Hébert

Length: 6 hours 52 minutes

Abridged: No

Robert Coles first met Dorothy Day over thirty-five years ago when, as a medical student, he worked in one of her Catholic Worker soup kitchens. He remained close to this inspiring and controversial woman until her death in 1980. His book, an intellectual and psychological portrait, confronts candidly the central puzzles of her life: the... Read more

The Fighting Pattons

By: Brian M. Sobel

Narrated by: Adams Morgan

Length: 14 hours 5 minutes

Abridged: No

This book gives readers a unique look at a bold and legendary general, and the compelling story of his only son, who followed in his father’s footsteps.In America’s triumph over Nazi Germany, no name was more legendary than Patton, the general feared and admired even by his enemies. While Patton cut a path of victory in Europe, his son was... Read more

Jefferson the President: Second Term, 1805–1809

By: Dumas Malone

Narrated by: Anna Fields

Length: 24 hours 14 minutes

Abridged: No

The fifth volume of the Pulitzer Prize–winning Jefferson series completes the story of his presidency, carrying him through his troubled second term but also to the end of an official career that spanned some forty years. Although Jefferson remained the major unifying factor in his party, the government, and the country, he was confronted by a... Read more