Best of
Autobiography

1940

I Married Adventure: The Lives of Martin and Osa Johnson


Osa Johnson - 1940
    Together the Johnsons flew and sailed to Borneo, to Kenya, and to the Congo, filming Simba and other popular nature movies with Martin behind the camera and Osa holding her rifle at the ready in case the scene's big game star should turn hostile. This bestselling memoir retraces their careers in rich detail, with precisely observed descriptions and often heart-stopping anecdotes. Illustrated with scores of the dramatic photos that made the Johnsons famous, it's a book sure to delight every lover of true adventure.

All for the Love of Mothers


Lisbeth Burger - 1940
    She had a key insight into the intimate lives of a generation being revolutionized, and the reality is that her experiences are priceless in understanding modern man.The primary interest of this work is not historical, it is educational and moral. It contains dozens of short stories of personal, first hand experiences from the author's life regarding courtship, marriage, and raising children.This book of experience will have the advantage of spurring on parents to prepare their children for the great lessons of life, and of giving to these same young people living examples to illustrate these lessons, hopefully sparing them the cost of irreversible consequences.

Memory Hold-the-Door: The Autobiography of John Buchan


John Buchan - 1940
    A highly accomplished man, his was a life of note. Although now known by many chiefly as an author, he was also an historian, Unionist politican and Governor General of Canada. Although he stated that it was not strictly an autobiography, Memory Hold-the-Door provides a reflective, personal account of his childhood in Scotland, his literary work from his time at Oxford University to the famous Hannay and Leithen stories and his extensive public service in South Africa, Scotland, France in the Great War, and Canada. Of great interest are his accounts of key contemporary figures, including Lord Grey, Lord Haldane, Earl Balfour, Lord Haig, T.E. Lawrence and King George V. Known in the United States as Pilgrim's Way, Memory Hold-the-Door was reportedly one of the favourite books of John F. Kennedy.

Testament of Friendship


Vera Brittain - 1940
    The author traces her friendship with the author, Winifred Holtby, from their meeting at Oxford to Holtby's death at the age of thirty-seven.