English majors study literature written in English. Focus is put on long and short fiction, poetry, and sometimes plays and essays. However, I don’t recall ever having been assigned a biography other than autobiographical slave narratives like My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass, and The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African. Written by Himself. I always found that these glimpses into the lives of real people were fascinating in a way that pure fiction was not. Even today, I love to read books and watch movies that are based on real events.

The Wolves at the Door is the engrossing story of Virginia Hall, a American woman who served as an Allied spy in France during the entirety of the Nazi occupation. Despite having a wooden leg (codenamed 'Cuthbert'), being only about 30 years old, and being of the fairer sex, this incredible woman commanded hundreds of men over five years, first as an agent for the British SOE and then as an agent for the newly created American OSS. She acted as a radio operator, a saboteur, a safe house operator, an interpreter, and a vital piece of the resistance puzzle. Her biography is filled with stories of close calls, daring jail breaks, and silent strength. I looked forward to reading more of it each night. Her story would make a great movie.

As someone who minored in history, I find myself wondering why history students are also deprived of biographies. They put a human, personal face on the places and dates we must memorize. They bring history alive.

I certainly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in WWII stories, in women’s studies, in espionage, or in the country of France. Despite having already known a fair bit about the European theatre of WWII, I learned many interesting (and disturbing) things about the particular struggles of the French people during the occupation and the years leading up to it.

So tell me—what biographies have you read that have stuck with you? Why were they so powerful?