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BIOGRAPHIES

A DEI COLLECTION OF PEOPLE WHO MADE A DIFFERENCE

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Thomas Paine

By Ellery Sedgwick

This book is a comprehensive biography that delves into the life and impact of one of the most influential political thinkers of the 18th century. Published in 1899, the book explores Paine's radical philosophy and his significant contributions to revolutionary thought in both America and Europe. Sedgwick provides a detailed analysis of Paine's major works, including “Common Sense” and “The Rights of Man,” and examines the controversies and challenges Paine faced throughout his life.

Read-Me.Org Inc. 2025. 53p.

Life Of Thomas Paine: Written Purposely To Bind With His Writings

By Richard Carlile

Richard Carlile's "The Life of Thomas Paine," published in 1821, is a detailed biography that aims to provide a comprehensive and unvarnished account of Thomas Paine's life and contributions. The book is structured to accompany Paine's writings, offering readers insights into his mind, principles, and works.

Carlile begins by discussing Paine's early life in Thetford, England, his education, and his initial career as a staymaker. Paine's journey from a staymaker to a prominent political thinker is highlighted, including his brief stint at sea and his eventual turn to excise work. His early literary efforts, such as "The Case of the Officers of Excise," are noted for their clarity and impact.

The biography delves into Paine's move to America, where he became a key figure in the American Revolution. His pamphlet "Common Sense" is credited with galvanizing American sentiment towards independence. Carlile also covers Paine's involvement in the French Revolution, his opposition to the execution of Louis XVI, and his subsequent imprisonment during the Reign of Terror.

Carlile provides a balanced view of Paine, acknowledging both his contributions and controversies. He discusses Paine's later works, including "The Rights of Man" and "The Age of Reason," and his efforts to promote political and social reforms. The biography also touches on Paine's personal life, his relationships, and his final years in America.

Overall, Carlile's work is a tribute to Paine's enduring legacy as a champion of liberty and human rights. The biography is noted for its thorough research and objective tone, making it a valuable resource for understanding the life and impact of Thomas Paine.

Read-Me.Org Inc. 2025. 28p.

Life of Thomas Paine Volumes 1+2

By Moncure Daniel Conway

Dive into the captivating world of one of history's most influential figures with Moncure Conway's comprehensive biography, "The Life of Thomas Paine." Spanning two volumes, this meticulously researched work offers an in-depth look at the life, ideas, and legacy of Thomas Paine, the Anglo-American revolutionary whose writings inspired and shaped the course of history.

Volume 1 explores Paine's early life, his journey to America, and his pivotal role in the American Revolution. From the publication of "Common Sense" to his contributions as a soldier and secretary, readers will gain a profound understanding of Paine's impact on the fight for independence.

Volume 2 delves into Paine's later years, including his involvement in the French Revolution and his enduring influence on political thought. This volume also addresses the controversies and challenges Paine faced, providing a balanced and nuanced portrait of this complex figure.

Moncure Conway's narrative is not only informative but also engaging, making "The Life of Thomas Paine" a must-read for history enthusiasts, scholars, and anyone interested in the revolutionary ideas that continue to resonate today. Embark on a journey through the life of a true revolutionary and discover the enduring power of Thomas Paine's words and deeds. This version contains an explanatory introduction by Colin Heston and details of the earlier publications of the works.

First published in 1893. Current version Read-Me.Org 2025. 464p.

Thomas Paine and Life of Thomas Paine

By Ellery Sedgwick and Richard Carlile

Thomas Paine, one of the most influential political thinkers of the 18th century, played a crucial role in shaping revolutionary thought in both America and Europe. His writings, including *Common Sense* and *The Rights of Man*, championed democracy, individual rights, and the overthrow of oppressive governments. Given his enduring impact, numerous biographers have sought to interpret his life and legacy, each bringing a unique perspective to his story.

Though writing in different eras and contexts, Ellery Sedgwick and Richard Carlile explored Paine’s radical philosophy and the controversies surrounding his life. Sedgwick, a historian and editor, approached Paine’s biography with a more traditional scholarly lens, analyzing his ideas within the broader intellectual movements of the time. Carlile, a 19th-century political radical and free-speech advocate, viewed Paine as a heroic figure in the struggle for reform, often emphasizing his persecution and the suppression of his works. Together, these biographies offer contrasting yet complementary portraits of Paine, reflecting both the man and the ever-evolving debate over his contributions to political and social thought.

"Thomas Paine" 1899. "Life of Thomas Paine" 1821. This combined edition 2025. 108p.

Unbuttoning America: A Biography of "Peyton Place"

By Ardis Cameron

Published in 1956, Peyton Place became a bestseller and a literary phenomenon. A lurid and gripping story of murder, incest, female desire, and social injustice, it was consumed as avidly by readers as it was condemned by critics and the clergy. Its author, Grace Metalious, a housewife who grew up in poverty in a New Hampshire mill town and had aspired to be a writer from childhood, loosely based the novel’s setting, characters, and incidents on real-life places, people, and events. The novel sold more than 30 million copies in hardcover and paperback, and it was adapted into a hit Hollywood film in 1957 and a popular television series that aired from 1964 to 1969. More than half a century later, the term ""Peyton Place"" is still in circulation as a code for a community harboring sordid secrets. In Unbuttoning America, Ardis Cameron mines extensive interviews, fan letters, and archival materials including contemporary cartoons and cover images from film posters and foreign editions to tell how the story of a patricide in a small New England village circulated over time and became a cultural phenomenon. She argues that Peyton Place, with its frank discussions of poverty, sexuality, class and ethnic discrimination, and small-town hypocrisy, was more than a tawdry potboiler. Metalious’s depiction of how her three central female characters come to terms with their identity as women and sexual beings anticipated second-wave feminism. More broadly, Cameron asserts, the novel was also part of a larger postwar struggle over belonging and recognition. Fictionalizing contemporary realities, Metalious pushed to the surface the hidden talk and secret rebellions of a generation no longer willing to ignore the disparities and domestic constraints of Cold War America. ; Published in 1956, Peyton Place became a bestseller and a literary phenomenon. A lurid and gripping story of murder, incest, female desire, and social injustice, it was consumed as avidly by readers as it was condemned by critics and the clergy. Its author, Grace Metalious, a housewife who grew up in poverty in a New Hampshire mill town and had aspired to be a writer from childhood, loosely based the novel's setting, characters, and incidents on real-life places, people, and events. The novel sold more than 30 million copies in hardcover and paperback, and it was adapted into a hit Hollywood film in 1957 and a popular television series that aired from 1964 to 1969. More than half a century later, the term "Peyton Place" is still in circulation as a code for a community harboring sordid secrets.In Unbuttoning America, Ardis Cameron mines extensive interviews, fan letters, and archival materials including contemporary cartoons and cover images from film posters and foreign editions to tell how the story of a patricide in a small New England village circulated over time and became a cultural phenomenon. She argues that Peyton Place, with its frank discussions of poverty, sexuality, class and ethnic discrimination, and small-town hypocrisy, was more than a tawdry potboiler. Metalious's depiction of how her three central female characters come to terms with their identity as women and sexual beings anticipated second-wave feminism. More broadly, Cameron asserts, the novel was also part of a larger postwar struggle over belonging and recognition. Fictionalizing contemporary realities, Metalious pushed to the surface the hidden talk and secret rebellions of a generation no longer willing to ignore the disparities and domestic constraints of Cold War America.

Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2015.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

By Malcolm X with the assistance of Alex Haley

“This is the absorbing personal story. of the man who rose from hoodlum, thief, dope peddler, and pimp to become the most dynamic leader of the Black Revolution. It is, too, a testament of great emotional power from which every American can learn much: But, above all, this book shows the Malcolm X that very few people knew, the man behind the stereotyped image of the hate-preacher-a sensitive, proud, highly intelligent man whose plan to move into the mainstream of the Negro Revoltition was cut short by a hail of assassins' bullets, a man who felt certain he would not live long enough to see this book…”

NY. Grobe Press. 1964. 482p.

Young Man Luther: A Study in Psychoanalysis and History

USED BOOK. MAY CONTAIN MARK-UP

By Erik H. Erikson

FROM THE PREFACE: “This study of Martin Luther as a young man was planned as a chapter in a book on emotional crises in late adolescence and early adulthood, But Luther proved too bulky a man to be merely a chapter. His young manhood is one of the most radical on record: whatever he became part of, whatever became part of him, was eventually destroyed or rejuvenated. The clinical chapter became a historical book. But since clinical work is integral to its orientation, I will, in this preface, enlarge briefly on my colleagues and my patients, and our common foci of preoccupation…”

NY. W.W-Norton & Company. 1962. 289p.

The Autobiography Of Bertrand Russell. 1872-1914.

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FROM THE PROLOGUE: “ Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a deep ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair. I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness--that ter- rible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it, finally, because ni the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what--at last I- have found. With equal passion I have sought knowledge…”

London. George Allen And Unwin Ltd. 1967. 240p.

Joan Of Arc

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By Mary Gordon

FROM THE INTRODUCTION: “…March 14, 1999. The city of Rouen, the province of Normandy, the country of France, the continent of Europe. It is 5 p.M. on an unseasonably warm spring day. People have flung their jackets over their shoulders. They are sitting outside in cafés, reckless from the sunlight, which seems miraculous, unearned, suggestive of improvidence. We are in the marketplace, the place where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake. An attempt has been made to make this a viable city center; there is an open space for a market and, next to it, a cathedral. It is one of those good ideas that didn't work; it might have worked had there been a genius to design it, but it was not designed by a genius. The church is in the shape of an overturned boat, and the motif is meant to be nautical: Rouen is a seafaring city. But the idea fails; it provides us only with the always dispiriting spectacle of over- strained originality. The church has the sad, earnest quality of mediocre modern architecture, and we are left with a sense of betrayal, because we think that plainmaterials and an abundance of light ought to equal beauty, and when they don't, not only art, but nature as well, has let us down…”

London. Orion Books. Phoenix. 2000. 187p.

Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther

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By Roland H. Bainton

FROM THE COVER: “Accused of heresy, threatened with excommunication and death, Martin Luther spoke these fateful words as he took his unyielding position against the abuses of the medieval church. Here is an outstanding modern contribution to religious literature--a vivid portrait of the man who, because of his unshakable faith in his God, helped to bring about the Protestant Reformation.”

NY. Bantam. 1950. 338p.

When Heaven and Earth Changed Places: A Vietnamese Woman's Journey from War to Peace

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By Le Ly Hayslip with Jay Warts

FROM THE COVER: “-Le Ly Hayslip was just twelve years old when U.S. helicopters landed in her tiny village in central Vietnam. As the government and Viet Cong troops ravaged the area, both sides recruited children as spies and saboteurs. Le Ly was one of those chil- dren. Before the age of sixteen, she had suffered near starvation, imprisonment, and the deaths of beloved family members--but miraculously found the strength to keep going, ultimately fleeing to the United States. Almost twenty years after her escape, she returned to the devastated country and loved ones she'd left behind. Scenes of this joyous reunion are interwoven with the brutal war years, creating an extraordinary portrait of the nation, then and now--and of one courageous woman who held fast to her faith in humanity. First published in 1989, When Heaven and Earth Changed Places was hailed as an instant classic. Now, more than two decades later, this indispensable memoir continues to be one of our most important accounts of a conflict we must never forget.

NY. Anchor. 2017. (1989). 460p.

Champlain's Dream

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By David Hackett Fischer.

From the jacket: “In this sweeping, enthralling biography, acclaimed historian David Hackett Fischer brings to life the remarkable Samuel de Champlain-soldier, spy, master mariner, explorer, cartographer, artist, and Father ofNew France. Born on France's Atlantic coast, Champlain grew to manhood in a country riven by religious warfare. The historical record is unclear on whether Champlain was baptized Protestant or Catholic, but he fought in France's religious wars for the man who would become Henri IV, one of France's greatest kings, and like Henri, he was religiously tolerant in an age of murderous sectarianism. Champlain was also a brilliant navigator. He went to sea as a boy and over time acquired the skills that allowed him to make twenty-seven Atlantic crossings without losing a ship. But we remember Champlain mainly as a great explorer. On foot and by ship and canoe, he traveled through what are now six Canadian provinces and five American states. …”

NY. Simon and Schuster. 2008. 857p.

Elizabeth's Women: Friends, Rivals, and Foes Who Shaped the Virgin Queen

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By Tracy Borman

FROM THE COVER FLAP: “A source of endless fascination and speculation, the subject of countless biographies, novels, and films, Elizabeth I is now considered from a thrilling new angle by the brilliant young historian Tracy Borman. So often viewed in her relationships with men, the Virgin Queen is portrayed here as the product of women--the mother she lost so tragically, the female subjects who worshipped her, and the peers and intimates who loved, raised, challenged, and sometimes opposed her.”

NY. Bantam. 2009. 505p.

The Perfect King: The Life of Edward III Father of the English Nation

By Ian Mortimer

FROM THE INTRODUCTION: “On 19 October 1330, at dusk, two dozen men gathered in the centre of Nottingham. They were mostly in their twenties, and all on horsback, ready to ride out of the town. But unlike merchants or pilgrims assem- bling to set out together, these men were silent and unsmiling. Beneath their riding cloaks they were all heavily armed. The reason for their gathering lay within the fortress which overlooked the town. Somewhere within those walls, high on the massive outcrop, was Roger Mortimer, the earl of March, who kept the young king, Edward III, within his power and ruled in his place.”

London. Published by Jonathan Cape. 2006. 571p. USED BOOK. MAY CONTAIN MARK-UP

The Life And Times Of Winston Churchilll

By Malcolm Thomson

From Winston Churchill's speech made in the House of Commons on June 4th, 1940: “Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen, or may fall, into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail, we shal go on ot the end, we shal fight in France, we shallfight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and strength in the air, we shall defend our island whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills, we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this island, or a large part of it, were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle until in God's good time the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and liberation of the Old.”

London. Odhams Press. 1945. 324p. USED BOOK. MAY CONTAIN MARK-UP.

Darcus Howe: A Political Biography

By Robin Bunce and Paul Field

 Darcus Howe: a Political Biography examines the struggle for racial justice in Britain, through the lens of one of Britain’s most prominent and controversial black journalists and campaigners. Born in Trinidad during the dying days of British colonialism, Howe became an uncompromising champion of racial justice. The book examines how Howe’s unique political outlook was inspired by the example of his friend and mentor C.L.R. James, and forged in the heat of the American civil rights movement, as well as Trinidad’s Black Power Revolution. The book sheds new light on Howe’s leading role in the defining struggles in Britain against institutional racism in the police, the courts and the media. It focuses on his part as a defendant in the trial of the Mangrove Nine, the high point of Black Power in Britain; his role in conceiving and organizing the Black People’s Day of Action, the largest ever demonstration by the black community in Britain; and his later work as one of a prominent journalist and political commentator.

London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2013. 305p.

Box Man: A Professional Thief's Journey

By Harry King . As told to and edited by Bill Chambliss

FROM THE INTRODUCTION: “From approximately 1910 until 1960 Harry King lived a life of crime. For the better part ofthose years he was a professional thief specializing in safe-cracking. This is his story. Through it we are provided a glimpse into a life style, a philosophy and a pattern of living that is ordinarily obscured from our vision. By coming to grips with Harry's life we learn a great deal more about America, Law, Order and Being.”

NY. Harper & Row. 1972. 186p. USED BOOK. MAY CONTAIN MARK-UP

Charles Darwin: A New Life

By John Bowlby

From the Preface: I first became interested in Charles Darwin as a personality, and as a scientist and invalid, thirty years ago when I read the new and complete version of his Autohiography, edited by hisgranddaughter, Nora Barlow. In it, amongst much else, he makes brief reference to the chronic ill-health from which he suffered over many years and the nature of which, I knew, hadfor long been a subject of controversy, the major issue being whether his symptoms were caused by an organic illness or were of emotional origin. At the time, I was working on the psychological il-effects that are apt to follow a childhood bereavement and so, when I learned that Darwin's mother had died when he was eight years old, I began to wonder whether that might have played some part in the genesis ofhis troubles. Alittle later, when the medical controversy erupted again, I made a brief contribution raising the issue. Having many other commitments at the time,I was unable to pursue the idea further, though Thoped it might one day be possible…”

NY. W. W. Norton. 1990. 511p. CONTAINS MARK-UP