The World's Best Memoir Writing [Paperback]

Claxton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2007

Eve Claxton has taken the most intriguing portions of the world’s most famous memoirs and compiled them in this volume. The reader experiences world history as the authors lived it and gains rare insight into the lives and personalities of some of the world’s most important writers, thinkers, athletes and artists.

From Charlie Chaplin’s childhood walks through Victorian London and Alan Bennett’s wartime boyhood in Yorkshire to the day Muhammad Ali discovered boxing and Mahatma Gandhi experimented with cigarettes; from Primo Levi’s capture of fascist militia at twenty-one and Katherine Hepburn’s first acting job at the same age to Charles Darwin on his lifelong love-his work-and Nelson Mandela on being released from prison at seventy-one.

The World’s Best Memoir Writing is a uniquely enjoyable immersion into some of the world’s best, and most personal, writing.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Amazing life stories told in their own words

These are the people who changed the world. In one volume, centuries of great artists, writers, thinkers and athletes share the stories of their lives. Organized chronologically from youth to adulthood to old age, you’ll see the history these men and women were born into and how they changed it, from ancient Europe to contemporary Africa.

From Charlie Chaplin’s childhood walks through Victorian London to the day Muhammad Ali discovered boxing, from Mahatma Gandhi’s experiment with cigarettes to Primo Levi’s capture by fascist militia at age 21, from Charles Darwin on his lifelong love-his work-to Nelson Mandela on being released from prison at age 71, The World’s Best Memoir Writing is a uniquely enjoyable immersion into some of the world’s best, and most personal, writing.

“The reader is very aware of the marvelous, pulsing veined and passionate, unique-to-every-individual life force...fascinating.”
-Daily Mail

“Occasionally a book comes along that is so well conceived and artfully constructed it demands a place on a book lover’s shelf-[ The World’s Best Memoir Writing] is one. Moving, emotional, revealing-this is a book that devotees of the written word will read again and again.”
-Daily Record

“Bold and endlessly diverting; insightful, humane and re-readable: a perfect gift.”
-Scotland on Sunday

Product Details

• Paperback: 412 pages
• Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.; 1 edition (September 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1402209754
• ISBN-13: 978-1402209758
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #389,017 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The World's Best Memoir Writing, October 9, 2010

By 

ADW - See all my reviews

This review is from: The World's Best Memoir Writing (Paperback)

I haven't read this entire book, just some of the parts from people I was interested in reading about. The book includes excerpts from various people's memoirs. Some of them are Muhammad Ali, Bertrand Russell, Salvadore Dali, Mahatma Gandhi, Elie Wiesel, Charlie Chaplin, and Kurt Vonnegut. Some of the excerpts made me laugh such as Dali's and Kurt Vonnegut's excerpt from his later years (Vonnegut was a feisty old man). I would say the main drawback of this book is that some of the excerpts are too short. I wanted to read more and wish they hadn't ended so soon, but maybe the purpose of the book is to pique your interest in reading the person's whole memoir. The book is divided into Beginnings, Youth, The Middle, and Toward the End so you get glimpses of different people in different phases of their lives with some of the authors' memoir excerpts covered in more than one section.

5.0 out of 5 stars Good short read, December 8, 2011

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Daisy Mae - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The World's Best Memoir Writing (Paperback)

Picked up this book from the library and enjoyed it so much that I ordered my own copy. I can pick it up and read one memoir when I have just a few minutes--a good addition to any library.

5.0 out of 5 stars Cream of the Crop, December 6, 2010

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Dirk K Cockrum - See all my reviews

This review is from: The World's Best Memoir Writing (Paperback)

This book skims the cream of memoirs. It will lead to you to pick up several other books, based upon the excerpts used. The background on the authors provides additional insight to the passages.