National Biographers’ Day is celebrated annually on the day that Samuel Johnson met his biographer, James Boswell, in 1763.

I have somehow never read Boswell, but I have pretty much always loved biographies. The school library at my grade school had an extensive collection of the Bobbs Merrill Childhood of Famous Americans series, and I read pretty much all of them—Jane Addams, Harry Houdini, Zeb Pike, it was a motley crew. My mom gave me her old set of Britannica Bookshelf: Great Lives for Young Americans, and I learned about a whole other crowd: Queen Elizabeth, Horace Mann, Walter Reed. An outlier from either series was a book I especially adored about Sarah Siddons.

I still prefer stories of people to stories of events. Lucky for me, my husband writes stories of events framed by the lives of people; it makes editing more enjoyable.

To my way of thinking, all the best histories are really biographies. War, politics, crime, romance—all stories about people. What made that person do that thing in that situation? Where did this person come from?

One of the liveliest biographers out there is Abbott Kahler, formerly Karen Abbott. Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy is a great book; I highly recommend it. Four biographies in one.

The hubs is a big fan of David McCullough. But he says his favorite is Andrew Roberts (and his biography of Churchill is brilliant four big thumbs up in this house for that one).

Candice Millard is another favorite, although I had a hard time eating when I was reading her book about Garfield. Lots of gore in that one.

Who’s your favorite biographer?