Rare Books - Biography & Memoir

Explore extraordinary lives through rare and collectible biography books at Harry Hartog Bookseller. Featuring first editions, signed copies, and out-of-print treasures, this curated collection highlights remarkable individuals from history, literature, politics, and the arts. Shop online or in-store to own a unique piece of life writing with lasting value.

Showing 49 products
La Vita di Torquato Tasso. Seconda Edizione Corretta ed Accresciuta.
$1,500.00
La Vita di Torquato Tasso. Seconda Edizione Corretta ed Accresciuta.
Pierantonio Serassi
The authoritative eighteenth-century biography of Tasso, expanded and revised, and the very book that sent...
Travels Through Germany, in a Series of Letters, 3 volumes (First English Edition)
$800.00
Travels Through Germany, in a Series of Letters, 3 volumes (First English Edition)
The Baron Riesbeck
Johann Kaspar Riesbeck (1754–1786) died the year before this translation appeared, having achieved genuine notoriety...
Walden: Or Life in the Woods (First Folio Society Edition)
$200.00
Walden: Or Life in the Woods (First Folio Society Edition)
Henry David Thoreau
First Folio Society edition. Introduction by John Updike; photography by Herbert W. Gleason. Large Quarto (32.5 ×...
The Journal of a Mission to the Interior of Africa, in the Year 1805 (Second Edition, First Issue)
$550.00
The Journal of a Mission to the Interior of Africa, in the Year 1805 (Second Edition, First Issue)
Mungo Park
Mungo Park (1771–1806) was a Scottish surgeon and explorer who, in 1795, became the first...
The Golden Cockerel "Bountiana": Complete set of 6 volumes in 2 slipcases (Limited editions, custom-bound and signed)
$4,500.00
The Golden Cockerel "Bountiana": Complete set of 6 volumes in 2 slipcases (Limited editions, custom-bound and signed)
Various
A complete assembly of the Golden Cockerel "Bountiana" series, entirely and distinctively rebound as a...
Confessions of a Young Man (First Edition)
$200.00
Confessions of a Young Man (First Edition)
George Moore
MOORE, George. Confessions of a Young Man. London: William Heinemann, 1917. Octavo. Original red publisher's...
The Voyage of the Bounty Launch: John Fryer's Narrative (Limited Deluxe Edition)
$480.00
The Voyage of the Bounty Launch: John Fryer's Narrative (Limited Deluxe Edition)
John Fryer
The Voyage of the Bounty Launch is a wonderfully descriptive account by John Fryer, Master of...
Jane Austen: In Her Own Hand (Easton Press Edition)
$300.00
Jane Austen: In Her Own Hand (Easton Press Edition)
Jane Austen
Jane Austen (1775–1817) began writing as a teenager, filling notebooks with stories, plays, and verses...
The Education of Henry Adams: An Autobiography. (Easton Press Collector's Edition)
$80.00
The Education of Henry Adams: An Autobiography. (Easton Press Collector's Edition)
Henry Adams
ADAMS, Henry (intro. Henry Seidel Canby; illus. Samuel Chamberlain). The Education of Henry Adams: An...
Marilyn (Taschen Limited Deluxe Edition)
$150.00
Marilyn (Taschen Limited Deluxe Edition)
André de Dienes, Steve Crist, & Shirley T. Ellis de Dienes
DE DIENES, André (ed. Steve Crist; with Shirley T. Ellis de Dienes). Marilyn. Köln: Benedikt...
Travels in Arabia Deserta (Folio Society Limited Deluxe Edition)
$1,000.00
Travels in Arabia Deserta (Folio Society Limited Deluxe Edition)
Charles M. Doughty
Charles Montagu Doughty (1843–1926) spent twenty-one months in the Arabian Peninsula between 1876 and 1878,...
Eat, Pray, Love (Easton Press Signed Collector's Edition)
$100.00
Eat, Pray, Love (Easton Press Signed Collector's Edition)
Elizabeth Gilbert
GILBERT, Elizabeth. Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia....
Wild (Easton Press Signed Collector's Edition)
$130.00
Wild (Easton Press Signed Collector's Edition)
Cheryl Strayed
STRAYED, Cheryl. Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail. Norwalk, Connecticut: The...
Helga's Diary (Easton Press Signed Collector's Edition)
$100.00
Helga's Diary (Easton Press Signed Collector's Edition)
Helga Weiss
WEISS, Helga (intro. Francine Prose; trans. Neil Bermel). Helga's Diary: A Young Girl's Account of...
The Innocents Abroad (Easton Press Collector's Edition)
$80.00
The Innocents Abroad (Easton Press Collector's Edition)
Harry Hartog Bookseller
TWAIN, Mark. The Innocents Abroad, or The New Pilgrim's Progress. Norwalk, Connecticut: The Easton Press,...
The Pargiters (First Edition)
$65.00
The Pargiters (First Edition)
Virginia Woolf
WOOLF, Virginia (ed. & intro. Mitchell A. Leaska; jacket design Angelica Garnett). The Pargiters: The...
Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah (Easton Press Deluxe Limited Edition)
$1,000.00
Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah (Easton Press Deluxe Limited Edition)
Sir Richard Francis Burton
In the spring of 1853, a man presenting himself as Mirza Abdullah joined the pilgrim...
A New, Authentic, and Complete Collection of Voyages Round the World (Easton Press Limited Deluxe Edition)
$1,000.00
A New, Authentic, and Complete Collection of Voyages Round the World (Easton Press Limited Deluxe Edition)
James Cook
James Cook made three voyages of Pacific exploration between 1768 and 1780, and between them...
The Stage in the Year 1900: A Souvenir (De Luxe Edition, Limited and Numbered)
$200.00
The Stage in the Year 1900: A Souvenir (De Luxe Edition, Limited and Numbered)
W. Eden HOOPER & Joseph KNIGHT
The year 1900 was both an ending and a threshold: the close of a Victorian...
The Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Poets, Philosophers, Statesmen, Divines, Painters, Architects, Physicians, and Lawyers, Since the Revival of Art; With their Biographies, Arranged in Chronological Order, 4 volumes. (Revised Edition)
$600.00
The Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Poets, Philosophers, Statesmen, Divines, Painters, Architects, Physicians, and Lawyers, Since the Revival of Art; With their Biographies, Arranged in Chronological Order, 4 volumes. (Revised Edition)
The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge
[MALKIN, Arthur Thomas.] The Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Poets, Philosophers, Statesmen, Divines, Painters, Architects, Physicians,...
House of Bondage (First UK Edition)
$300.00
House of Bondage (First UK Edition)
Ernest Cole
COLE, Ernest (photographs); text with Thomas Flaherty; introduction by Joseph Lelyveld. House of Bondage: A...
Travels in Arabia Deserta, 2 volumes (New and Definitive Edition, Second Impression)
$350.00
Travels in Arabia Deserta, 2 volumes (New and Definitive Edition, Second Impression)
Charles M. Doughty
DOUGHTY, Charles M. Travels in Arabia Deserta. With an Introduction by T.E. Lawrence. London: Jonathan...
The Letters, 6 volumes (First Edition)
$1,200.00
The Letters, 6 volumes (First Edition)
Vincent Van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) wrote, over the last eighteen years of his life, more than...
Nouvelle Galerie de Femmes Celebres (First Edition, French)
$250.00
Nouvelle Galerie de Femmes Celebres (First Edition, French)
Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve
A beautiful historical work on famous French women. Each chapter is devoted to a different...
Assemblage, Environments & Happenings (First Edition)
$400.00
Assemblage, Environments & Happenings (First Edition)
Allan Kaprow
A rare first edition of Kaprow's collection of "Happenings", his term for a contemporary form...
Picasso, The Sculptures (First Edition)
$200.00
Picasso, The Sculptures (First Edition)
Werner Spies [Pablo Picasso]
First Limited Edition. Stuttgart: Hatje Cantz, 2000. Large 4to. Original publisher's cloth in original unclipped...
The Life and Work of Sydney Long (First Deluxe Edition)
$280.00
The Life and Work of Sydney Long (First Deluxe Edition)
Joanna Mendelssohn
Sydney Long (1871–1955) occupies a singular position in the history of Australian art: he was...
A Tramp Abroad (First Edition, Second State)
$750.00
A Tramp Abroad (First Edition, Second State)
Mark Twain
Twain's return to travel writing after The Innocents Abroad, a bestselling account of a European...