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Collective Biographies – Authors Q-Z

Free online collective biographies by authors whose names begin with A to F; one of three such pages on this site. Collective (or group) biographies usually contain a set of short individual bios of people in the group. Visit the ‘Directory’ for a complete list of individual and collective biographies on this site, with links to pages.

Biographies Index

Authors Q-Z

The Norton Book of Women’s Lives

Rose, Phyllis
Norton 1995 Dewey Dec. 973.91

Biographies of famous women, biographies of women online, women’s biographies, American women’s biographies, women autobiogaphies, famous female autobiographies.

Twelve Naval Captains; Being a Record of Certain Americans who Made Themselves Immortal

Seawell, Molly Elliot
Scribner 1897 Dewey Dec. Biography

Profiled are: Short biography of John Paul Jones, Richard Dale, Thomas Tuxtun, William Bainbridge, Edward Preble, biography of Stephen Decatur, Richard Somers, Isaac Hull, Charles Stewart, biography of Oliver Hazard Perry, Thomas Macdonough, James Lawrence. Biographies of Naval heroes.

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Industrial Biography: Iron-workers and Tool-makers

Smiles, Samuel
Osgood 1876 Dewey Dec. Biography

Covers inventors, mechanics and iron-workers in the industrial history of Britain.

Chapter headings are: 1. Iron and Civilization, 2. Beginnings of the Iron-Manufacture in Britain, 3. Iron Smelting by Pit-Coal – Dud Dudley, 4. Andrew Yarranton, 5. Coalbrookdale Iron Works – The Darbys and Reynoldses, 6. Invention of Cast Steel – Benjamin Huntsman, 7. The Inventions of Henry Cort, 8. The Scotch Iron Manufacture – Dr. Roebuck – David Mushet, 9. Invention of the Hot Blast – James Beaumont Neilson, 10. Mechanical Inventions and Inventors, 11. Joseph Bramah, 12. Henry Maudslay, 13. Joseph Clement, 14. Fox of Derby – Murray of Leeds – Roberts and Whitworth of Manchester, 15. James Nasmyth, 16. William Fairbairn. Biographies of industrialists.

Lives of the Engineers, With an Account of their Principal Works: Comprising also a History of Inland Communication in Britain. Vol 1

Volume 2 Volume 3 Volume 4 Volume 5

Smiles, Samuel
Murray 1904 Dewey Dec. Biography

Chapter and Section headings are: 1. Introductory, 2. Sir Cornelius Vermuyden – Drainage of the Fens, 3. Sir Hugh Myddelton – Cutting of the New River, 4. Sir Hugh Myddelton (cont.) His other Engineering and Mining Works, His Death, 5. Captain Perry – Stoppage of Dagenham Breach, 6. The Beginning of Canal Navigation, – Part 2 – Life of James Brindley
Volume 2: 1. Shipping and Harbours, 2. Beacons and Lighthouses, 3. Old Bridges, 4. Old London Bridge, 5. William Edwards, Bridge Builder, – Part 2 – Life of John Smeaton, – Part 3 – Life of John Rennie
Volume 3: 1. Old Roads, 2. Early Modes of Conveyance, 3. Manners and Customs Influenced by the State of the Roads, 4. Roads and Travelling in Scotland in the Last Century, 5. Roads and Travelling in England Towards the End of Last Century, 6. John Metcalf, Road-Maker, – Part 2 – Life of Thomas Telford
Volume 4: – Part 1 – Early Life of James Watt, Part 2 – Boulton and Watt, Engineers, Birmingham
Volume 5: – The Locomotive. Biographies of famous engineers.

Barbizon Days

Smith, Charles Sprague
Weasels 1902 Dewey Dec. Biography

Chapters on life and work of Jean-Francois Millet, Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, Pierre-Etienne-Theodore Rousseau and Antoine Louis Barye, compiled from various sources, with personal reminiscence of village and neighboring forest of Fontainebleau.
— A.L.A. Catalog 1904. Artists’ biographies, biographies of famous artists.

American Biography. 12 volumes.

Sparks, Jared
Harper 1902 Dewey Dec. Biography

“Biographic essays of great interest. Contents: Vol 1: Jonathan Edwards; Vol 2: William Eaton; Vol 3: Benedict Arnold; Vol 4: Captain John Smith; Vol 5: John Stark, William Pinkney; Vol 6: Anthony Wayne, Henry Hudson, Pere Marquette; Vol 7: Charles Brockden Brown, Lucretia Maria Davidson. Sebastian Cabot; Vol 8: Israel Putnam, Baron Steuben; Vol 9: Ethan Allen, William Ellery; Vol 10: Sir William Phips, Joseph Warren; Vol 11: Cotton Mather, Richard Montgomery; Vol 12: David Rittenhouse, Robert Fulton.”
– – A.L.A.Catalog 1926
All 12 volumes are at this link. Jonathan Edwards biography, Benedict Arnold biography, Captain John Smith biography, Henry Hudson biography, Father Marquette biography, Israel Putnam biography, Baron Von Steuben biography, Ethan Allen biography, Cotton Mather biography, Robert Fulton biography.

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Studies of a Biographer. Vol 1

Volume 2 Volume 3 Volume 4

Putnam 1898-1902 Dewey Dec. Biography
Stephen, Sir Leslie

Contents: v. 1, National biography; The evolution of editors; John Byrom; Johnsoniana; Gibbon’s autobiography; Arthur Young: Wordsworth’s youth, v. 2, The story of Scott’s ruin; The importation of German; Matthew Arnold; Jowett’s life; Oliver Wendell Holmes: Life of Tennyson; Pascal. v.3,TheBrowning letters; John Donne; John Ruskin; William Godwin’s novels; Walter Bagehot; Thomas Henry Huxley; James Anthony Froude; In praise of walking, v. 4. Shakespeare as a man; Southey’s letters; New lights on Milton; Emerson- Anthony Trollope: Robert Louis Stevenson; The cosmopolitan spirit in literature.
— A.L.A. Catalog 1904

Men of Business (Men of achievement)

Stoddard, William O.
Scribner 1893 Dewey Dec. Biography

Chapter headings are: 1. John Jacob Astor – Romance, 2. Cornelius Vanderbilt – Competition, 3. Charles Louis Tiffany – Taste, 4. John Roach – Genius, 5. Levi Parsons Morton – Development, 6. Edwin Denison Morgan – Variety, 7. Cyrus West Field – Tenacity, 8. Chancy Mitchell Depew – Growth, 9. Alexander Turney Stewart – Perception, 10. Philip Danforth Armour – Organization, 11. Horace Brigham Claflin – Liberality, 12. Marshall Owen Roberts – Dash, 13. George Mortimer Pullman – Originality, 14. Peter Cooper – Invention, 15. Marshall Field – Business Principles, 16. Leland Stanford – Councillor. Famous businessmen biographies. John Jacob Astor biography, Cornelius Vanderbilt biography, Philip Armour biography, George Pullman biography, Leland Stanford biography.

Eminent Victorians

Eminent Victorians – Audio Book – Biography Audio Book

Strachey, Giles Lytton
Putnam 1918 Dewey Dec. Biography

“He has chosen for the subjects of his full-length portraits, not artists nor men of original genius, but three men, and one woman, of action — Cardinal Manning, Florence Nightingale, Dr Arnold, and General Gordon. But with these full-length portraits he gives smaller sketches of many of their contemporaries—of Gladstone. Sidney Herbert, Lord Hartington, Lord Acton and Lord Cromer; of Keble and Clough and Newman and Cardinal Wiseman.”
“The whole forms an interesting picture and a pungent criticism of the Victorian age.”
“It is human nature he is interested in, and he pierces through the most solemn misrepresentations to the core, to the divinity, of his subject. He discloses weaknesses not because he is prying but because he is disclosing. They are relevant weaknesses, without which the story would not fit.”
– The Book Review Digest. Florence Nightingale biography, Cardinal Manning biography, Lord Acton biography.

Famous Actors of the Day in America

Strang, Lewis C.
Page 1900 Dewey Dec. Biography

Actors profiled are: Joseph Jefferson, James A. Herne, Richard Mansfield, E. M. Holland, Edward H. Sothern, John Drew, William Faversham, John B. Mason, Nat C. Goodwin, James O’Neill, William H. Crane, Wilton Lackaye, William Gillette, Henry Miller, James K. Hackett, Henry Jewett, Stuart Robson, Melbourne MacDowell, Sol Smith Russell, Otis Skinner, J. E. Dodson, Robert B. Mantell, Roland Reed, Joseph Haworth, Herbert Kelcey

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Famous Actresses of the Day in America

Strang, Lewis C.
Page 1902 Dewey Dec. Biography

Chapter headings are: 1. Julia Marlowe in Melodrama, 2. Henrietta Crosman, 3. Mary Shaw and “Ben Hur”, 4. Maude Adams in “L’Aiglon”, 5. Amelia Bingham, 6. Ida Conquest, 7. Phoebe Davies, 8. Mrs. Fiske as Becky Sharp, 9. Hilda Spong, 10. Annie Russell in Light Comedy, 11. Valerie Bergere, 12. Mary Mannering as a Star, 13. “Zaza” and Mrs. Leslie Carter, 14. Anna Held, 15. Sarah Cowell LeMoyne, 16. Mary Sanders, 17. Ada Rehan’s Nell Gwyn, 18. Elizabeth Tyree, 19. Grace George, 20. Margaret Anglin, 21. Viola Allen, 22. Maxine Elliott. Stage actresses biographies.

Agnes Strickland’s Queens of England (abridged). 3 volumes.

Lives of the Queens of England – Audio Books Vols 1-9 – Biography Audio Book

Strickland, Agnes and Kaufman, Rosalie
Estes & Lauriat 1882 Dewey Dec. Biography

“Up to Queen Anne, the work is based upon Agnes Strickland’s Queens of England, but subsequent to that period many authorities were consulted.”
Volume 1: Matilda of Flanders, Queen of William the Conqueror, Matilda of Scotland, Queen of Henry I, Matilda of Boulogne, Queen of Stephen, Eleanora of Aquitaine, Queen of Henry II, Berengaria of Navarre, Queen of Richard I, Isabella of Angouleme, Queen of King John, Eleanor of Provence, Queen of Henry III, Eleanora of Castile, Queen of Edward I, Marguerite of France, Second Queen of Edward I, Isabella of France, Queen of Edward II, Philippa of Hainault, Queen of Edward III, Anne of Bohemia, Queen of Richard II, Isabella of Valois, Second Queen of Richard II, Joanna of Navarre, Queen of Henry IV, Katherine of Valois, Queen of Henry V, Margaret of Anjou, Queen of Henry VI, Elizabeth Woodville, Queen of Edward IV, Anne of Warwick, Queen of Richard III, Elizabeth of York, Queen of Henry VII, Katharine of Arragon, First Queen of Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn, Second Queen of Henry VIII, Jane Seymour, Third Queen of Henry VIII, Anne of Cleves, Fourth Queen of Henry VIII, Katharine Howard, Fifth Queen of Henry VIII, Katharine Parr, Sixth Queen of Henry VIII

Volume 2: Mary, First Queen-Regnant of England and Ireland, Elizabeth, Second Queen-Regnant of England and Ireland, Anne of Denmark, Queen of James I, Henrietta Maria, Queen of Charles I, Catharine of Braganza, Queen of Charles II, Mary Beatrice of Modena, Queen of James II, Mary II, Queen-Regent of Great Britain and Ireland, Anne, Queen Regnant of Great Britain and Ireland

Volume 3: Sophia Dorothea of Zell, Wife of George I, Caroline Wilhelmina Dorothea, Wife of George II, Charlotte Sophia, Wife of George III, Caroline of Brunswick, Wife of George IV, Adelaide Louisa, Wife of William IV, Queen Victoria. Queen Anne biography, Catherine of Aragon biography, Anne Boleyn biography, Jane Seymour biography, Queen Victoria biography.

Ten American Girls from History

Sweetser, Kate Dickinson
Harper & Brothers 1917 Dewey Dec. Biography
DDC: Bio Dewey Dec. Biography

Chapter headings are: – Pocahontas: The Indian Girl of the Virginia Forest, – Dorothy Quincy: The Girl of Colonial Days Who Heard the First Gun Fired for Independence, – Molly Pitcher: The Brave Gunner of the Battle of Monmouth, – Elizabeth Van Lew: The Girl Who Risked All that Slavery Might be Abolished and the Union Preserved, – Ida Lewis: The Girl Who Kept Lime Rock Burning; A Heroic Life-Saver, – Clara Barton: “The Angel of the Battlefields”, – Virginia Reed: Midnight Heroine of the Plains in Pioneer Days of America, – Louisa M. Alcott: Author of “Little Women”, – Clara Morris: The Girl Who Won Fame as an Actress, – Anna Dickinson: The Girl Orator. Biographies of American women, biographies of famous women, biography of Clara Barton, biography of Louisa May Alcott, biography of Clara Morris, biography of Elizabeth Van Lew, biography of Pocahontas, biography of Dorothy Quincy.

Throne-makers

Thayer, William Roscoe
Houghton 1899 Dewey Dec. Biography

Studies of four ‘throne-makers’—Bismarck, Napoleon m, Kossuth, Garibaldi—and of Carlyle, Tintoret, Bruno and Bryant.
— A.L.A. Catalog 1904.

Southern Statesmen of the Old Regime; Washington, Jefferson, Randolph, Calhoun, Stephens, Toombs and Jefferson Davis (Library of Economics and Politics)

Trent, William P.
Crowell 1897 Dewey Dec. Biography

By a southerner but free from bias or sectional partisanship.
— A.L.A. Catalog 1904

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Luther and Other Leaders of the Reformation

Tulloch, John
Blackwood 1883 Dewey Dec. Biography

The introductory chapter is about early reformers up to 1450 and reform movements from 1450-1516. The remainder of the book has separate parts for Martin Luther, John Calvin, Hugh Latimer and John Knox.

Lives of Seventy of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and Architects. Vol 1

Volume 2 Volume 3 Volume 4

Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and Architects, Volumes 1-8 – Audio Books – Biography Audio Book

Vasari, Giorgio
Scribner 1901 Dewey Dec. Biography

The groundwork of our knowledge of the great Italian artists of 15th and 16th centuries. Full of anecdote, and picturesque narrative, and brilliant pictures of life in Italy during the epoch.
— A.L.A. Catalog 1904. Collective biographies of artists, collective biographies of architects, collective biographies of sculptors.

American Writers of To-day

Vedder, Henry C.
Silver 1894 Dewey Dec. Biography

Writers profiled are:
Edmund Clarence Stedman, Francis Parkman, William Dean Howells, Henry James, Charles Dudley Warner, Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Mark Twain, Francis Marion Crawford, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Charles Egbert Craddock, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Adeline D. T. Whitney, Bret Harte, Edward Everett Hale, Edward Eggleston, George Washington Cable, Richard Henry Stoddard, Francis Richard Stockton, Joaquin Miller

Ten New England Leaders

Walker, Williston
Silver, Burdett 1901 Dewey Dec. Biography

Chapter headings: 1. William Bradford, 2. John Cotton, 3. Richard Mather, 4. John Eliot, 5. Increase Mather, 6. Jonathan Edwards, 7. Charles Chauncy, 8. Samuel Hopkins, 9. Leonard Woods, 10. Leonard Bacon

London Days; a Book of Reminiscences

Warren, Arthur
Little 1920 Dewey Dec. Biography

“This book of reminiscences begins in 1878, when the author, fresh from Boston, arrived In London at the age of eighteen. The period covers nineteen years of journalism, nine of them as correspondent for the Boston Herald, and combines with memories and impressions of London those of celebrated personages. Contents: First glimpses of London; London in the late seventies; A Norman interlude; I take the plunge; Browning and Moscheles; Patti; John Stuart Blackie; Lord Kelvin; Tennyson; Gladstone; Whistler; Henry Drummond; Sir Henry Irving; Henry M. Stanley; George Meredith; Parnell; “Le brav general” (Boulanger)””
– The Book Review Digest

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From Cromwell to Wellington: Twelve Soldiers

Wilkinson, Spenser, ed.
Lippincott 1899 Dewey Dec. Biography

Profiled are:
Oliver Cromwell, Duke of Marlborough (John Churchill), Earl of Peterborough (John Mordaunt), James Wolfe, Robert Clive, Eyre Coote, Baron Heathfield (George Augustus Elliott), James Abercromby, Viscount Lake (Gerard Lake), David Baird, John Moore, Duke of Wellington (Arthur Wellesley)

Presidents of the United States 1789-1902

Wilson, John Grant, ed.
Appleton 1902 Dewey Dec. Biography

Biographic sketches, many being revisions of articles in Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of Biography. Set of portraits and letters by several presidents.
— A.L.A. Catalog 1904

Profiled are:
George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, James K. Polk, Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, Chester A. Arthur, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt

Great American Educators, with Chapters on American Education (Four Great Americans series)

Winship, A. E.
Werner 1900 Dewey Dec. Biography

Horace Mann, Mary Lyon, David P. Page, Henry Barnard, John Dudley Philbrick, Newton Bateman, Edward A. Sheldon, James P. Wickersham. Also chapters on “Founders and Benefactors of American colleges” and “Historical Sketch of American Education”.
— A.L.A. Catalog 1904

Our Famous Women. An Authorized Record of the Lives and Deeds of Distinguished American Women of our Times;

an Entirely New Work, Full of Romantic Story, Lively Humor, Thrilling Experiences, Tender Pathos, and Brilliant Wit, with Numerous Anecdotes, Incidents, and Personal Reminiscences by the following Twenty Eminent Authors: (authors listed below) superbly illustrated with full-page portraits mainly from photographs taken expressly for this work, and fine full-page engravings from original designs by Mr. T. W. Williams

Worthington & Co.
Hartford, CT: Hartford 1888 Dewey Dec. Biography

Authors are: Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Rose Terry Cooke, Mary A. Livermore, Harriet Prescott Spofford, Marion Harland, Mary Clemmer, Louise Chandler Moulton, Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney, Lucy Larcom, Julia Ward Howe, Susan Coolidge, Kate Sanborn, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucia Gilbert Runkle, Laura Curtis Bullard, Lilian Whiting, Elizabeth T. Spring, Elizabeth Bryant Johnston, Maud Howe

Our Famous Women. Comprising the Lives and Deeds of American Women who have Distinguished Themselves in Literature, Science, Art, Music, and the Drama

or are Famous as Heroines, Patriots, Orators, Educators, Physcians, Philanthropists, etc. with Numerous Anecdotes, Incidents, and Personal Experiences. By the following twenty Authors: (authors listed below) superbly illustrated with full-page portraits mainly from photographs taken expressly for this work

Worthington & Co.
Hartford, CT: Worthington 1883 Dewey Dec. Biography

Authors are: Harriet Beecher Stowe, Rose Terry Cooke, Harriet Prescott Spofford, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney, Mary A. Livermore, Lucia Gilbert Runkle, Marion Harland, Mary Clemmer, Kate Sanborn, Louise Chandler Moulton, Lucy Larcom, Julia Ward Howe, Susan Coolidge, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Laura Curtis Bullard, Lilian Whiting, Elizabeth T. Spring, Elizabeth Bryant Johnston, Maud Howe

Pioneers of Science in America; Sketches of their Lives and Scientific Work

Youmans, William Jay, M.D.
Appleton 1896 Dewey Dec. Biography

50 biographic sketches of early American scientists with descriptions of their work. Revised and enlarged from articles in Popular Science Monthly.
— A.L.A. Catalog 1904

Profiled are:
Benjamin Franklin, John Bartram, William Bartram, John Winthrop, David Rittenhouse, Gotthilf Heinrich Ernst Muhlenberg, Samuel Latham Mitchill, Benjamin Smith Barton, Alexander Wilson, David Hosack, Amos Eaton, Gerard Troost, Charles Alexandre Lesueur, Benjamin Silliman the Elder, John James Audubon, Lewis David Von Schweinitz, Robert Hare, Constantine Samuel Rafinesque, James Pollard Espy, Thomas Nuttall, Thomas Say, William Cranch Bond, Samuel Finley Breese Morse, Denison Olmsted, Isaac Lea, Larner Vanuxem, Elisha Mitchell, Edward Hitchcock, Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, Samuel Luther Dana, Zadoc Thompson, John Torrey, George Catlin, Ebenezer Emmons, Johseph Henry, James Blythe Rogers, John Ericsson, Timothy Abbott Conrad, William Starling Sullivant, William Williams Mather, William Barton Rogers, Charles Upham Shepard, Sears Cook Walker, Alexander Dallas Bache, James Henry Coffin, Leo Lesquereux, Matthew Fontaine Maury, Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz, Arnold Henry Guyot, David Dale Owen

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