Biography, Autobiography, Memoir discussion
MONTHLY CHALLENGES
>
Theme For June 2022
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Koren
(new)
Jun 01, 2022 08:56AM
Mod
reply
|
flag
History - anything from 50 years back or more? How far back are we talking..?
Mod
How far back are we talking..?"
Hmm! I haven't really thought about it. Let's say anything you would find in a classroom history book. I'm going to read a bio about the Wright Brothers.
Huh ok a challenge...maybe I'll try and find a bio about Richard Pearse
Mod
Don't feel obligated. Just an idea I had to give me incentive to clear some books from my personal shelves and maybe stimulate some conversation around here.
I don't have any historical bios on my shelf atm! I've just got this memoir Mansfield and Me: A Graphic Memoir by Sarah Laing
I'm not sure if that counts as a historical biography. About writer Katherine Mansfield.
I'm trying to clear my shelf of gardening books to make room for different books.
The other two memoirs I have are of women escaping from Saudi Arabia and North Korea. They just turned up at the same time. I don't think they've met each other (and not sure if they went to the same country?) but they are now side by side on my bookshelf
They are Rebel: My Escape from Saudi Arabia to Freedom and
In Order to Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey to Freedom
So, I guess that's a whole 'nother genre...escaping to freedom? Thing is Katherine Mansfield did 'escape' from NZ. She thought it was too philistine so took off overseas to Europe and died there.
Mod
I've just got this memoir Mansfield and Me: A Graphic Memoir by Sarah Laing
I'm not sure if that counts as a historical biography..."
Hmm. Well, I don't really know who she is, but it doesn't look like she is a historical figure.
Well, I don't really know who the Wright brothers are! lolHistory in my country is way different. There's a museum and garden dedicated to her memory. Anything from more than 50 years ago seems like they count as history.
Saw in the paper today a movie was going to be released about Dame Whina Cooper.
Mod
History in my country is way different. There's a museum and garden dedicated to her memory. Anything from more than 50 years ago seems li..."
The Wright Brothers are credited with inventing the airplane.
Richard Pearse invented an airplane in NZ before the Wright brothers did. I think different countries had their flight at different times, so it wasn't just one or two people who came up with the idea.I'm sure Leonardo Da Vinci also invented some sort of flying machine back in the day.
Funny cos just last week I was looking at some very dated historical bios in for primary schools and they were people I'd never heard of, like people who were famous in the 1960s. Norman Kirk? Maui Pomare? Jon Trimmer? It was part of a series called People in New Zealand History by Kevin Boon.
The librarian who had them was like...no child will ever read them. I think I'm going to chuck these out.
Mod
Well, I'm only about 10 pages into the book, so I have no idea if they were the first inventors or the first to fly or what. I did a quick google search and every one says The Wright Brothers invented the airplane. Maybe I will know more after I read the book.
I'm sure this lady counts as an historical figure, in England anyway Florence Nightingale: Lady with the LampI read the graphic library version by Trina Robbins - I found it in the school library
I might get round to reading a full bio of her at some stage but it seems she changed nursing into a respected profession (and cleaned up hospitals). And today we still think nurses need to show kindness, though I do remember some really nasty nurses who treated me horribly when I was sick.
I'm reading one now! Yes, two so close together after such a long dry spell. It's also better written than the one I just posted about here.
Mod
I've now run out of bios to read on my bookshelf. I'll have another look at school and see what else I can find. I think there's several on Jean Batten who was one of the first female aviators to fly solo..from NZ. I think she broke some world records in the 1930s but thats easy when you're the first to do anything. But I don't know if she's remembered now as much as Sir Edmund Hillary, who climbed Mt Everest in 1953.
Sports people tend to be revered in NZ. Whoever is the first to do anything or is really fast. But I don't know if I'm that impressed by that kind of history making really. I'd rather the historical heroes be people who made a difference to peoples lives or improved them in some way, rather than who just came first.
Apparently Jean Batten had an interesting life, but fame was her downfall. She was called the Garbo of the skies.
Ok I had a look and came up with Louis Braille: The Boy Who Invented Books for the Blind by Margaret Davidson
It's a Scholastic Biography
I will also try to read Flying Solo by Diane Bull about Jean Batten. Nobody had ever borrowed it before from the school library but I'll see how I go. It's a NZ educational biography, so it might be a bit dry/didactic!
Louis Braille: The Boy Who Invented Books for the Blind I've finished reading. It has some illustrations - line drawings.
Louis Braille was only 12 years old when he invented the raised dot alphabet that was named after him.
He had full vision originally but was blinded as a toddler when he accidently got poked in the eye with an awl. (Parents with toddlers - keep an eye on them and all sharp objects away from curious hands!)
His parents took him from his French village to a school for the blind in Paris. There he invented his alphabet and his classmates loved it because they could now read books without anyone having to read out loud for them. But the alphabet was hard to catch on with those who already could see, and they didn't want to lose their jobs if the blind could read for themselves!
It took many years but eventually braille became popular in all schools for the blind and known worldwide.
I enjoyed reading this book, it is geared for children so, maybe doesn't have the full story but enough for us to know that Louis was a very special boy who changed the world for the better. He stayed a school teacher all his life and people didn't know much about him (or care) but his invention was far reaching.
It's not on Goodreads, but Flying Solo by Diane Bull is a short biography for school children about Jean Batten. Has photos and a good over view of her life which was full of adventure. She broke many world records for solo flights across the world and was feted and sought after, but died in poverty and anonymously in Mallorca, Spain. She never married, but had many boyfriends (who funded her exploits) and 2 fiances that were killed in plane accidents.
After the second world war she became a bit of a recluse as no men with deep pockets or gas companies were funding flights across the world anymore.
Sort of reminds me of Sir Edmund Hillary how his first wife died tragically as well. As our nation loves sportsmen and dare devils, she was highly regarded at the time as an aviator but now seems to be largely forgotten.
I personally think it would be exhausting to fly all over the world (in all kinds of weather, one flight from England to Australia took 14 days) solo but she must have absolutely loved it to really go for it and not let anyone put her off doing it. Her gipsy moth airplane is in MOTAT, the museum of Transport and Technology in Auckland, where she lived while growing up (she was born in Rotorua). She learned flying in England but her mum and dad broke up and her dad was against her flying, though her mum encouraged her.
The other day was at a pub and on the wall were portraits of famous NZers, and one of them was Jean Batten so, I think many still remember her, though probably not many outside of NZ. Each nation would have their own heroes/historical figures I would think.
Koren wrote: "I am officially giving up on the Wright Brothers book. I'm only at 60 pages and just can't get into it. I keep thinking it will get more interesting, as I know David McCullough is a wonderful histo..."They are mainly interesting for their part in the history of flight, so my son read about them. I have no desire to read about them.
That said, I once read an interesting biography about Amelia Earhart, but I got the book in my brief foray into the book a month club (probably just for the introductory bit because I wasn't making much money at that point.) I don't remember the title or the cover.
Mod
3 stars
Short stories about people that have been influential in American history. Some are familiar, some are not. Some are interesting. Some are not. Here is a list of the people he wrote about:
German scientist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt
19th-century scientist and educator Louis Agassiz
Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of the novel Uncle Tom's Cabin
Theodore Roosevelt and the Marquis de Mores as relates their time in North Dakota in the 1880s
Western artist Frederic Remington
Construction of the original Panama Railway in the 1850s
Engineer John A. Roebling and his son, Washington Roebling, architects of the Brooklyn Bridge
Early aviators Charles Lindbergh, Antoine de Saint Exupéry, and Beryl Markham
American author Conrad Richter
Author and anti-strip mining political activist Harry M. Caudill
English zoologist and entomologist Miriam Rothschild
American photographer David Plowden
I didn't remember to post it here, but the one I posted in the other thread counts, Composition in Black and White: The Life of Philippa Schuyler by Kathryn TalalayShe lived from 1931 until the 1960s.
Biography, Autobiography, Memoir
Books mentioned in this topic
The Book of Sisters: Biographies of Incredible Siblings Through History (other topics)Composition in Black and White: The Life of Philippa Schuyler (other topics)
Brave Companions: Portraits in History (other topics)
Louis Braille: The Boy Who Invented Books for the Blind (other topics)
Louis Braille: The Boy Who Invented Books for the Blind (other topics)
More...
