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Penguin Lives Books in Order
Below you'll find the complete list of Penguin Lives books in publication order. This is generally the recommended reading order for the series.
Reading order verified: March 2026
Quick Answer
What order should I read the Penguin Lives series? Start with "Abraham Lincoln" (1960) and follow publication order through all 32 books.
The complete Penguin Lives reading order is listed below in publication sequence.
Publication Order
Abraham Lincoln
1960
Mao Zedong: A Life (By: Jonathan D. Spence)
1999
Mozart: A Life (By: Peter Gay)
1999
Marcel Proust (By: Edmund White)
1999
Crazy Horse (By: Larry McMurtry)
1999
Saint Augustine (By: Garry Wills)
1999
James Joyce (By: Edna O'Brien)
1999
Rosa Parks (By: Douglas Brinkley)
2000
Virginia Woolf (By: Nigel Nicolson)
2000
Woodrow Wilson (By: Louis Auchincloss)
2000
Herman Melville (By: Elizabeth Hardwick)
2000
Leonardo da Vinci: A Life (By: Sherwin B. Nuland)
2000
Dante (By: R.W.B. Lewis)
2001
Jane Austen: A Life (By: Carol Shields)
2001
Buddha (By: Karen Armstrong)
2001
Simone Weil (By: Francine du Plessix Gray)
2001
Andy Warhol: A Biography (By: Wayne Koestenbaum)
2001
Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Life (By: Marshall Frady)
2001
Joseph Smith (By: Robert V. Remini)
2002
Winston Churchill: A Life (By: John Keegan)
2002
Pope John XXIII (By: Thomas Cahill)
2002
Charles Dickens (By: Jane Smiley)
2002
Elvis Presley (By: Bobbie Ann Mason)
2002
Saint Therese of Lisieux (By: Kathryn Harrison)
2003
Robert E. Lee (By: Roy Blount Jr.)
2003
Frank Lloyd Wright: A Life (By: Ada Louise Huxtable)
2004
George Herbert Walker Bush (By: Tom Wicker)
2004
Napoleon (By: Paul Johnson)
2006
Julia Child (By: Laura Shapiro)
2007
Joan of Arc (By: Mary Gordon)
2008
Martin Luther (By: Martin E. Marty)
2008
Branch Rickey: A Life (By: Jimmy Breslin)
2011
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