Natalie S. Bober has written some of my favorite biographies. My Mom and I both love her biographies of Abigail Adams and of Thomas Jefferson. At the library recently, I found her biography, Marc Chagall, Painter of Dreams, and as I read it, I looked up photographs of the works mentioned in the book. What a lovely way to get to know this great artist!

Natalie Bober on writing biographies:

Great people inspire others to find the greatness within themselves. It is for this reason that I write biographies. There is an urgent need today for role models relevant to the teenage reader. By sharing fine examples of heroes and heroines they might wish to emulate, biographers can provide for those young readers uncertain of their place in society a beacon of light, an anchor in a rough sea. They can dramatize for them the possibilities for human choice, and help them to better understand their own lives. Young people must be helped to recognize that people the world over are basically the same. Indeed, the greatness of our subjects is brought home to our readers when they feel them to be more human — more like themselves. Regardless of time or place, people’s needs, desires, and emotions are alike. We must help our readers to see the universals implicit in all lives: that all great people were once young, with the same fears, doubts, and concerns that young people have today. They achieved. But they achieved by faith in themselves, persistence, and hard work.