Autobiography Examples: 14 Famous Autobiography Books

An autobiography is a life story written by the person who lived it, and the best way to see what the form can do is through examples. Below are fourteen well-known autobiography books, from a fourth-century bishop to a 21st-century rock guitarist, each with its author, year and a one-line description. After the list, we look at what makes a celebrity autobiography different, including how ghostwriters and "with" credits work.

Fourteen autobiography examples at a glance

Book	Author	Year	Field
Confessions	Augustine of Hippo	c. 397–400	Religion and philosophy
Life (Vita)	Benvenuto Cellini	begun 1558; printed 1728	Art
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin	Benjamin Franklin	1791 (French); 1793 (English)	Public life
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass	Frederick Douglass	1845	Abolition
Darwin's autobiography	Charles Darwin	written 1876; published 1887	Science
Up from Slavery	Booker T. Washington	1901	Education
The Story of My Life	Helen Keller	1903	Disability and education
The Story of My Experiments with Truth	Mohandas K. Gandhi	1925–1929 (serialized)	Politics
My Autobiography	Charlie Chaplin	1964	Film
The Autobiography of Malcolm X	Malcolm X with Alex Haley	1965	Civil rights
Long Walk to Freedom	Nelson Mandela	1994	Politics
Open	Andre Agassi	2009	Sport
Autobiography of Mark Twain, vol. 1	Mark Twain	2010	Literature
Life	Keith Richards with James Fox	2010	Music

Classic autobiographies

• Augustine, Confessions (c. 397–400). Thirteen books in Latin tracing his youth and his conversion, often described as the first Western autobiography.
• Benvenuto Cellini, Life (begun 1558). The Italian goldsmith and sculptor's energetic, boastful account of his career, loves and quarrels, first printed in 1728.
• Benjamin Franklin, his autobiography (written 1771–1790). Written in four parts, starting with his family, childhood, reading and apprenticeship; unfinished, it stops in 1758 and first appeared in French in 1791.
• Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845). The abolitionist's account of his life in slavery, the first of three autobiographies he wrote.
• Charles Darwin, "Recollections of the Development of my Mind and Character" (written 1876). Written for his family in about two months and published in 1887, five years after his death; the complete text was restored by his granddaughter Nora Barlow in 1958.
• Booker T. Washington, Up from Slavery (1901). The educator's journey from enslavement to his schooling at Hampton Institute and his work building Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.
• Helen Keller, The Story of My Life (1903). Written while she was a student at Radcliffe College, it tells of her early years and her teacher Anne Sullivan, and later inspired the 1959 play The Miracle Worker.
• Mohandas K. Gandhi, The Story of My Experiments with Truth (1925–1929). Written in Gujarati and published in 166 weekly installments in his journal Navajivan, it traces his life from early childhood through his years of public work.

Modern autobiographies

• Charlie Chaplin, My Autobiography (1964). The filmmaker's own story of his life and career; it was a main source for the 1992 film Chaplin.
• The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965). Built from more than 50 interviews with the journalist Alex Haley between 1963 and 1965, and published after Malcolm X's assassination.
• Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom (1994). His life story, including his long years in prison on Robben Island and at Pollsmoor Prison.
• Andre Agassi, Open (2009). A tennis champion's life story, written with the journalist J. R. Moehringer.
• Mark Twain, Autobiography of Mark Twain, volume 1 (2010). Mostly dictated in 1906 and 1907 and meant for publication long after his death; the first volume appeared in 2010, the 100th anniversary of his death, with further volumes in 2013 and 2015.
• Keith Richards, Life (2010). The Rolling Stones guitarist's life in music, with the writer James Fox credited as co-author.

What makes a celebrity autobiography different

A celebrity autobiography is usually written for readers who already know the name and want the person behind it. That changes how the book is made.

Ghostwriters and collaborators

Ghostwriters are widely used by celebrities and public figures who want to publish an autobiography or memoir. Their part ranges from light editing to writing the whole book from interviews. Some are named, some are not, and some are bound by contracts that forbid them to mention their role at all.

J. R. Moehringer, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, worked with Andre Agassi on Open and later ghostwrote Phil Knight's Shoe Dog (2016) and Prince Harry's Spare (2023). His career shows how a skilled collaborator can give very different public figures a strong first-person voice.

How to read the credits

• "By [name]" alone. The subject is the only credited author. A ghostwriter may or may not have been involved.
• "By [name] with [writer]." A common format: the subject's name comes first, with the collaborator underneath in a "with" line. Keith Richards's Life (2010) is an example; James Fox is credited along with Richards as co-author.
• "As told to." The subject told the story aloud and the writer set it down. The Autobiography of Malcolm X was framed this way in Alex Haley's contract.

Other differences

• The public record is already known. The book's value lies in what fans could not see: childhood, doubt, private turning points.
• Voice is everything. A good collaborator listens for how the person talks and builds the book around it.
• Timing follows a career. Many appear after a retirement, a comeback or a major anniversary.

How to choose and use these examples

If you are reading for pleasure, start with a field you already love. If you are reading as a writer, compare one classic and one modern book: notice how Franklin begins with his family and childhood, then look at where a modern sports or music autobiography chooses to begin. To understand the form itself, see what is an autobiography; to try it yourself, follow our guide on how to write an autobiography. For shorter, more focused life stories, browse our memoir examples.