This page brings together free pdf books on biography and autobiography. Our collection covers dozens of topics related to historical figures, world leaders, pioneering scientists, literary icons, and everyday individuals across various eras. Materials range from older public domain works for free download to best modern books.
The Topics section below helps readers find books and documents within the huge Internet Archive collection, which includes periodicals and other materials, from older historical works to recent publications. Each topic link generates an Internet Archive search focused on that subject. Clicking our topics usually works better than searching Internet Archive directly.
The sections below Topics provide links to vintage audiobooks and modern Open Access books. See those sections for more information.
Explore the Biography, Autobiography, and Memoir Index
Individual Biographies D, E, F
Individual Biographies I, J, K, L
Individual Biographies M, N, O
Individual Biographies P, Q, R
Individual Biographies T, U, V
Individual Biographies W, X, Y, Z
Topics – Free Biography and Autobiography PDF Directories
The topic links below lead to Internet Archive search results related to pdf books on individual lives, ancestral lines, and historical memoirs. Each link opens a books-and-documents search focused on a particular topic.
Search results generally include fully readable eBooks and textbooks. For some subjects, Internet Archive also contains other media, such as images, audio, or video files. These can be selected from the media options above the search results. Filters on the left side of Internet Archive pages can help narrow search results by years of publication, language, or specific subjects.
- Biographies and Autobiographies at Folkscanomy
- Adventurers Biographies
- Aeronautics
- African Americans
- Agriculture
- Arab
- Architects
- Artists
- Read Asian
- Asian American
- Authors
- Automobile Racing
- Aviation
- Business
- Christian
- Composers
- Cooks
- Criminals
- Cultural
- Dance
- Editors
- Emergency
- Entertainment
- Environmentalists
- Explorers
- Famous
- Fashion
- Fire
- Heads of State
- Physicians
- Political
- Presidents
- Psychologists
- Publishers
- Reference
- Regional
- Religious
- Royalty
- Science
- Social Activists
- Social Scientists
- Sports
- Surgeons
- Survival
- Technology
- Television
- World War, 1914-1918
- World War, 1939-1945
- To 500 C.E.
- 500-1500 C.E.
- 16th century
- 17th century
- 18th century
- 19th century
- 20th century
- 21st century
Comprehensive Directory of Biographies (Alphabetical A–Z)
Individual biographies and autobiographies are divided up among a number of webpages, per the list below. Click the header above the box to go to the page.
A & B – Biography and Autobiographies PDF
- “Hank” Aaron Free Online Biography Book
- Adams, Charles Francis
- Adams, Henry Free Autobiography Online
- Adams, John, U.S. President
- Adams, Abigail Smith Free Biography
- Adams, John Quincy, U.S. President
- Adams, Samuel
- Addams, Jane
- Agassiz, Louis Free Correspondence
- Ailes, Roger
- Louisa May Alcott Free Online Biographies
- Alexander the Great Biographies PDF Download
- Alfred the Great, King of England Biography
- Ambrose, Stephen Autobiography Free PDF
- Andersen, Hans Christian Biographies Download PDF
- Angelou, Maya Autobiography Free
- Anthony, Susan B.
- Antin, Mary Free Memoirs
- Appleseed, Johnny Download Biographies
- Audubon, John James Free Biographies
- Jane Austen Free Biography
- Barnum, Phineas Taylor “P.T.” Free Online Autobiography
- Barr, Amelia Edith Huddleston
- Barton, Clara Harlowe
- Ludwig van Beethoven ebook Biography
- Harry Belafonte Autobiographies PDF
- Benny, Jack Free Biography
- Benton, Thomas Hart
- Sarah Bernhardt Autobiography Free PDF
- Berra, Lawrence Peter “Yogi”
- Bird, Larry
- Otto von Bismarck, Biography Book
- Black Elk Free Memoir
- Black Hawk
- Blake, William Free Biography Book
- Bloch, Robert
- Bly, Nellie (Seaman, Elizabeth) Free PDF Memoir
- Bochkareva, Maria Leontievna (Frolkova) Autobiography eBook
- Bolton, Sarah Knowles Autobiography eBook
- Bombeck, Erma
Napoleon Bonaparte (Napoleon I) PDF Biography
Daniel Boone Free Online Biography
Booth, Catherine Mumford
Borgia, Lucrezia
Bourdain, Anthony Free Autobiography PDF
Brahms, Johannes
Charlotte Bronte PDF Download Biography
Bronte, Emily
Bronte, Anne
Brooke, James, Rajah of Sarawak
Browning, Robert
Elizabeth Barrett Browning Letters Free
Bryan, William Jennings
Buffalo Bill (Cody, William Frederick) Free Biographies Online
Barbara Pierce Bush Free Autobiographies
George Herbert Walker Bush U.S. President Free Correspondence
Bush, Laura Lane Free PDF Autobiography
C – Autobiographies and Biographies PDF
- Gaius Julius Caesar Biography in English
Calhoun, John Caldwell
Calvin, John
Cantacuzène, Julia Dent Grant (Princess Cantacuzène) Autobiography eBook Free Download
Carlyle, Thomas
Hoagy Carmichael Free Memoirs
Andrew Carnegie Autobiography Free PDF
Carroll, Lewis
Carson, Christopher
Cartier, Jacques
Cary, Alice
Cary, Phoebe
Cass, Lewis
Caterina da Siena, Saint
Cavour, Camillo Benso, Conte di
- Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de
Champlain, Samuel de
Chapman, John (Johnny Appleseed)
Charlemagne Biographies PDF Download
Salmon Portland Chase Biography Download
Chaucer, Geoffrey
Chopin, Fryderyk
Clark, George Rogers
Clarke, Mrs. Caroline Cowles
Henry Clay Biographies Download
Clemenceau, Georges
Samuel Langhorne (Mark Twain) Clemens Free Correspondence
Hilary Rodham Clinton Free Online Biography
Cobb, Ty
- Cobden, Richard
Cody, William Frederick (Buffalo Bill)
Coffin, Levi
Cohen, Rose Gollup
Columbus, Christopher
Cook, James
Cooper, James Fenimore
Coughlin, Father Charles
Crane Gartz, Kate
Cromwell, Oliver
Cumming, Kate
Curie, Marie Sklodowska
Curie, Pierre
Custer, George Armstrong
D, E & F – Biographical PDF
- Daly, Augustin
- Dante (Alighieri, Dante)
- Darwin, Charles Robert
- Davies, William Henry
- Davis, Jefferson
- Davis, Miles
- Dean, James
- Debs, Eugene
- Deutsch, Leo
- Dewey, George
- Dewey, Thomas E.
- Dickens, Charles
- Diderot, Denis
- Disraeli, Benjamin
- Dostoevsky, Fedor
- Douglas, Stephen A.
- Douglass, Frederick
- Du Bois, W.E.B.
- Edison, Thomas Alva
- Edwards, Jonathan
- Eggleston, Edward
- Elizabeth, Queen of England
- Emerson, Ralph Waldo
- Isabella d’Este, Consort of Giovanni Francesco II
- Evans, Robley Dunglison
- Farragut, David Glasgow
- Ferber, Edna
- Fink, Mike
- Ford, Betty
- Ford, Gerald R., U.S. President
- Ford, Henry
- Francis of Assisi, Saint
- Franklin, Aretha
- Franklin, Benjamin
- Franklin, John
- Fraser, Mary Crawford
- Frederick the Great, King of Prussia
- Friedan, Betty
- Fulton, Robert
G, H
- Gale, Zona
Galileo
Gallatin, Albert
Gambetta, Leon Michel
Garfield, James A., U.S. President
Garrison, William Lloyd
Garvey, Marcus
Gauguin, Paul
George, Henry
Geronimo, Apache Chief
Gladstone, William Ewart
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von
Goldsmith, Oliver
Goodman, Benny
Gordon, Charles George
Grant, Ulysses Simpson, U. S. President
Grey, Zane
Grissom, Virgil “Gus”
Guevara, Ernesto “Che”
- Hale, Edward Everett
Hamilton, Alexander
Hannibal
Hardie, James Keir
Harding, Warren G., U.S. President
Hardy, Thomas
Harris, Townsend
Harrison, Benjamin, U.S. President
Harrison, William Henry, U.S. President
Harte, Bret
Haviland, Laura
Hawthorne, Nathaniel
Hayes, Rutherford B., U.S. President
Hefner, Hugh
Hegermann-Lindencrone, Lillie de
Hemingway, Ernest
Henry the Navigator
Henry, Patrick
- Herman, Woody
Hickok, “Wild Bill”
Hill, Lucy Ann
Hoffa, James
Holmes, Oliver Wendell
Homer, Winslow
Houdini, Harry
House, Edward Mandell
Houston, Samuel
Howe, Julia (Ward)
Hugo, Victor
Hurston, Zora Neale
Hyndman, Henry Mayers
I, J, K, L – Biography and Autobiographies PDF
- Iacocca, Lee
- Ibsen, Henrik
- Irving, Washington
- Isabella d’Este
- Iswolsky, Alexander Petrovich
- Jackson, Andrew, U.S. President
- Jackson, Thomas Jonathan
- James, William
- Jaures, Jean
- Jay, John
- Jeanne d’Arc, Saint (Joan of Arc)
- Jefferson, Thomas, U. S. President
- Johnson, James Weldon
- Johnson, William
- Jones, John Paul
- Kartini, Raden Adjeng
- Keats, John
- Keller, Helen Adams
- Kellogg, Clara Louise
- Kennan, George
- Kenton, Simon
- Kevorkian, Jack
- King, Martin Luther
- Kropotkin, Pyotr, Prince
- Lafayette, Marie Joseph Paul, Marquise de
- Lardner, Ring
- Laurier, Wilfrid
- Lee, Robert Edward
- LeMay, Curtis
- Leopold, Aldo
- Letterman, David
- Liberace
- Lincoln, Abraham, U. S. President
- Lincoln, Mary Ann Todd
- Liszt, Franz
- Livermore, Mary Ashton
- Livingstone, David
- Lloyd George, David
- Lombardi, Vince
- London, Jack
- Louis, Joe
- Loyola, Ignacio de, St
- Luther, Martin
M, N, O – Biographical PDF
- MacDonald, John Alexander
- Machiavelli, Niccolo
- Madison, Dolley Payne
- Madison, James Jr., U.S. President
- Madonna
- Magellan, Ferdinand
- Mann, Horace
- Marquette, Jacques
- Marshall, John
- Martin, Dean
- Marx, Karl
- Mather, Cotton
- McCarthy, Joseph
- McKinley, William, U. S. President
- McQueen, Steve
- Catherine de Medicis, Queen of Henry II, King of France
- Meir, Golda
- Melville, Herman
- Milton, John
- Monroe, James, U. S. President
- Moody, Anne
- Morgan, James Morris
- Morris, Gouverneur
- Morris, William
- Morrison, Toni
- Morse, Samuel Finley Breese
- Mozart, Johann Wolfgang Amadeus
- Muir, John
- Napoleon I, Emperor of the French
- Napoleon III, Emperor of the French
- Nehru, Jawaharlal
- Nelson, Horatio Nelson, Viscount
- Ness, Eliot
- Newman, John Henry, Cardinal
- Nicklaus, Jack
- Nightingale, Florence
- Nixon, Richard Milhous, U.S. President
- Oakley, Annie
- O’Connell, Daniel
- O’Keeffe, Georgia
- Owen, Robert
- Owens, Jesse
P, Q, R – Biography PDF
- Page, Larry
Paine, Ralph Delahaye
Paine, Thomas Biography Free Online
Parkman, Francis
Pasteur, Louis
Patrick, Saint
St. Vincent de Paul
Pauley, Jane
Penn, William
Pennell, Elizabeth Robins
Pepys, Samuel Biography PDF
Perry, Oliver Hazard
Peter I, the Great, Emperor of Russia Biography Book PDF
Petrarca, Francesco
Pitt, William,
Pizarro, Francisco
Poe, Edgar Allan
Pontiac, Odawa Indian Chief
Porter, Cole
Post, Marjorie Merriweather
Prince, Erik
Pryor, Sara Agnes (Rice)
Pumpelly, Raphael
Pyle, Ernest “Ernie” Free Online Biography
- Raleigh, Sir Walter
Randolph, John
Ravage, Marcus Eli
Reagan, Ronald, U.S. President Biography Free Online
Redmond, John Edward
Reed, Anna Stevens
Rehnquist, William H.
Reid, Whitelaw
Resnik, Judith
Reuther, Walter
Rhodes, Cecil John Biography Book PDF
Richards, Caroline Cowles
Richelieu, Armand Jean du Plessis, Cardinal
Rickenbacker, Eddie
Riel, Louis
Riis, Jacob August
Ringling Brothers
Robespierre, Maximilien Marie Isidore de
Rogers, Roy
Romney, George
Roosevelt, Theodore, U.S. President Biography PDF
Ross, Diana
Rossetti, Dante Gabriel Biography PDF
Rossetti, Christina Georgina
Rousseau, Jean Jacques Biography Book PDF
Ruskin, John Biography PDF
S – Biographical Books PDF
- Samuels, Captain Samuel
Savonarola, Girolamo Biography PDF
Schubert, Franz Peter Biography Book PDF
Schurz, Carl
Schuyler, Catherine (Van Rensselaer)
Sedgwick, Catharine M.
Sevigne, Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise de
Seward, William H.
Shackleton, Sir Ernest Henry Biography PDF
- Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper
Shaw, Anna Howard
Shaw, George Bernard Biography PDF
Sherman, William Tecumseh
Skinner, Burrhus Frederic
Slessor, Mary Mitchell
Smith, Adam
Smith, John
Smith, Joseph Jr.
Spencer, Herbert Biography PDF
Stanley, Henry Morton
Steinbrenner, George
- Steinem, Gloria
Steiner, Edward Alfred
Stevens, Thaddeus
Stillman, William James
Stowe, Harriet Beecher
Straus, Oscar Solomon
Strindberg, August
Mary Stuart, Queen of the Scots
Sullivan, Louis Henry
Sumner, Charles
Swedenborg, Emanuel
T, U, V
- Taft, William Howard, U.S. President
Talon, Jean
Taylor, Marshall “Major”
Biography of Tecumseh PDF
Thomas, Augustus
Thoreau, Henry David Biography PDF
Thurston, Lucy G.
Titian, Vecelli
Tolstoy, Leo Biography PDF
- Torquemada, Tomas de
Tracy, Spencer
Trudeau, Edward Livingston
Truth, Sojourner Biography PDF
Tubman, Harriet Biography PDF
Twain, Mark Biography PDF (Clemens, Samuel Langhorne)
- Vaka, Demetra (Mrs. Kenneth Brown)
Van Buren, Martin, U.S. President
Venizelos, Eleftherios
Verlaine, Paul Marie
Victoria, Queen of Great Britain
Villiers, Frederic
St. Vincent de Paul
Voltaire, Francois Marie Arouet de
Vonnegut, Kurt Biography Book PDF
W, X, Y, Z – Autobiographies and Biographies Free Online
- Waddington, Mary Alsop King
Wagner, Richard
Walker, Madam C. J. Free Online Biography
Wallace, Lew Online Biographies
Ward, Mary Augusta
Warner, Jack
Warwick, Richard Neville, Earl of
Washington, Booker T. Free Online Biographies
Washington, George, U.S. President Free Online Biography
Washington, Martha Dandridge
Waterbury, Maria
Watson, Jeannette Grace
- Webster, Daniel
Wellesley, Arthur, 1st Duke of Wellington
Wells, Ida B. Free Online Biographies
Wesley, John
Westinghouse, George
Whitman, Walt Biography Books in English
Willard, Frances
William, the Conqueror, King of England
Williams, Roger
- Wilson, Woodrow, U.S. President Free Online Biography
Winslow, Anna Green
Winthrop, John
Wister, Sarah
Wolsey, Thomas, Cardinal
Woolf, Virginia PDF Download Biography
Wright Brothers
Wright, Frank Lloyd Free Biography Download
Wycliffe, John
X, Malcolm
Yeats, William Butler PDF Download Biography
Younghusband, Sir George John
Vintage Biography Dictionaries and Collective Reference Books
These historical reference volumes and biographical dictionaries were published before 1930 and reside securely within the public domain. Because these assets are completely free of copyright restrictions, you can legally download, copy, and print them for individual reference or genealogical research. This collection offers a fascinating, firsthand glimpse into multi-volume historical registers, early “Who’s Who” editions, and the foundational charting of notable lives from generations past.
Collective Biographies – Authors A to F
- Heroines of Modern Progress
- Makers of Naval Tradition
- Four American Naval Heroes
- Famous American Statesmen
- Famous Leaders Among Women
- Famous Voyagers and Explorers
- Lives of Girls Who Became Famous
- American Portraits
- Confederate Portraits
- Portraits of American Women
- Union Portraits
- Story Lives of master Musicians
- Woman in the Making of America
- Four American Patriots
- American Masters of Painting
- Painters, Sculptors, Architects, Engravers
- Famous Composers
- The Queens of American Society
- The Women of the American Revolution
- The Britannica Guide to the 100 Most Influential Americans
- The Britannica Guide to the 100 Most Influential Scientists
- Leading American Novelists
- Lives of the Fathers; Sketches of Church History in Biography
- Nelson and His Captains: Sketches of Famous Seamen
- Black Leaders of the Twentieth Century
- Pirates
- Sea Fighters from Drake to Farragut
Collective Biographies – Authors G to P
- Explorers and Travelers
- Studies in Modern Music
- Women Authors of Our Day in their Homes
- Little Pilgrimages Among the Women Who have Written Famous Books
- Washington and His Generals
- Inventors
- Stories of Remarkable Women
- Americans by Adoption
- Leading American Inventors
- Leading American Soldiers
- Leading American Men of Science
- Great Masters
- I Dream a World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America
- Pathfinders of the West
- Masters of German Music
- From Grieg to Brahms; Studies of Some Modern Composers
- Our American Humorists
- The French Impressionists
- British Political Portraits
- Portraits of the Sixties
- American Writers and Compilers of Sacred Music
- Heroes of Progress in America
- Women of the Four Winds
- Makers of Florence; Dante, Giotto, Savonarola, and their City
- The Women who Make our Novels
- Heroines of Service
- Leading American Essayists
- Maids and Matrons of New France
- Four American Pioneers: Daniel Boone, George Rogers Clark, David Crockett, Kit Carson
Collective Biography – Authors Q to Z
- The Norton Book of Women’s Lives
- Twelve Naval Captains: Being a Record of Certain Americans
- Industrial Biography: Iron-Workers and Tool-Makers
- Lives of the Engineers, with an Account of their Principal Works
- Barbizon Days
- American Biography (12 volumes)
- Studies of a Biography (4 volumes)
- Men of Business
- Eminent Victorians
- Famous Actors of the Day in America
- Famous Actresses of the Day in America
- Agnes Strickland’s Queens of England (3 volumes)
- Ten American Girls from History
- Throne-Makers
- Southern Statesmen of the Old Regime
- Luther and Other Leaders of the Reformation
- Lives of Seventy of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and Architects (4 volumes)
- American Writers of To-day
- Ten New England Leaders
- London Days; a Book of Reminiscences
- From Cromwell to Wellington: Twelve Soldiers
- Presidents of the United States 1789-1902
- Great American Educators, with Chapters on American Education
- Our Famous Women. Lives and Deeds of Distinguished American Women of Our Times
- Our Famous Women. America Women in Literature, Science, Art, Music, and the Drama
- Pioneers of Science in America; Sketches of their Lives and Scientific Work
Free Historical Memoirs and Biography Audiobooks – Stream & Download
These links to audiobook searches of memoirs and biographies lead to public domain recordings from the LibriVox.org collection at Internet Archive. The audiobooks, recorded by Librivox volunteers, were nearly all published before 1930. Recordings include works on personal diaries, famous letters, and classic personal histories read aloud.
All Librivox audiobooks are in the public domain. They can be freely streamed online or downloaded for offline listening.
- Biographies Audio Books
- Memoirs
- Autobiographies
- Journals
- Diaries
- Narratives
- Lives
- Memories
- Life Recollections
- Reflections
- Letters and Correspondence
- Oral Histories
- Composers Lives
- Abolition and Emancipation
- Adventure
- African American
- American Historical
- People from Ancient Times
- Artists
- Authors and Writers
- Businessmen
- Canadians
- Catholics
- Children’s Lives
- Christians
- Civil War
- Colonial Americans
- Confederates and Confederacy
- Crime
- Explorers
- France and Frenchmen
- Frontier Historical
- German
- Girls Lives
- Greece and Greeks
- Heroes and Heroines
- History
- Industry
- Inventors
- Irish and Ireland
- Italy and Italians
- Kings and Royalty
- Literature
- Medical Lives
- Medieval and Middle Ages
- Missionaries
- Music
- Native Americans
Open Access Life History and Academic Biography Books Free Download
The Open Access materials below are modern books and other works made freely available online by universities, academic publishers, the Library of Congress, and other nonprofit organizations. Open Access collections usually include pdf textbooks, online courses, classroom lesson plans, and recent academic books that reflect current scholarship and research.
Some works may only be read online, but many can be downloaded as PDF or EPUB files.
Related Pages on Century Past
See our comprehensive Century Past directories for hundreds of dedicated pages featuring Books; Magazines; Articles, Vintage Maps, & Archival Photos; and Newspapers. You’ll find these same exact directories listed on our top main navigation Menu. Here are some highly recommended related pages: