His reputation has declined since his death from advanced alcoholism, but Lingeman's hefty biography captures the full sweep of Lewis's career.

This vigorously written biography captures the graceful American balladeer in all the phases of his short life (he died at 44 of lung cancer), from teenage prodigy to dazzling jazz and pop music icon in the 1940's and 50's.

This vivid biography captures the woman (1626-89) who inherited a throne at 6, set off diplomatic incidents with her extravagance and frivolity, and gave up her crown at 27 to become a Catholic, wear men's clothing and make mischief throughout Europe.

"His biography captured his blunt, confrontational way of dealing with things," he said.

"For all its fictive excursions," Edmund Morris' biography captures "the contradictory man" he calls dad.

"I think I've come up with a very fresh picture," he said, adding that Dan Gilroy of Breakfast Club, who had introduced Madonna to the music world, had e-mailed him saying the biography had "really captured Madonna's spirit".

An evocative biography, posthumously published, that captures in Evans a private heartlessness belying the humanity of his photographs.

Moorehead's biography, drawing on a trove of previously unpublished correspondence, captures the rhythm of the radical contrasts in her subject's life.

This biography captures a character, and is cleareyed about its subject's many character flaws.