Bi Writers Association

Guide to Bi Fiction

Recommended Bisexual Biographies
Alphabetized by Subject's Last Name

All of the biographies in our bookstore discuss the bisexuality of their subject and are worth reading. Below is a list of biographies that have a high degree of bisexual content. If you want to delve into the world of bisexual biographies, this is a good place to start.

Until we have all the bi biographies up in our bookstore, you can search the Famous Bisexuals in History list for additional biographies. Each person listed has a source verifying their bisexuality, many of which are books. See parentheses in individual listings. If you have read a bisexual biography we should add to our list, let us know.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

  1. Tallulah Bankhead – actress (bio by David Bret)
    Tallulah Bankhead: A Scandalous Life
    by David Bret, Robson Books, June 1998
    There are also newer, probably better ones that I haven't read yet. This one is a lot of fun, very gossipy and therefore mentions bisexuality many times.


  2. Cecil Beaton – photographer/set & costume designer (bio by Hugo Vickers)
    Cecil Beaton
    by Hugo Vickers, Phoenix Press, 2002
    Gay in college, had relationship with Greta Garbo in middle age.


  3. William S. Burroughs – beat writer (out, see autobio Naked Lunch)
    Naked Lunch
    by William S. Burroughs


  4. Montgomery Clift – actor (bio by Patricia Bosworth)
    Montgomery Clift: A Biography
    by Patricia Bosworth


  5. James Dean – actor (bio by Donald Spoto)
    Rebel: The Life and Legend of James Dean
    by Donald Spoto, Harper Collins, 1996


  6. Farley Granger – actor (out, autobio Include Me Out, 2007)
    Include Me Out: My Life from Goldwyn to Broadway
    by Farley Granger and Robert Calhoun, 2007


  7. Cary Grant – actor (bio by Higham and Mosely)
    Cary Grant: The Lonely Heart
    by Roy Moseley and Charles Higham


  8. William Haines – silent film star/interior designer (bio by William J. Mann) Wisecracker: The Life and Times of William Haines, Hollywood's First Openly Gay Star
    Only a little bisexuality, as he was about 90% gay, but an amazing story and refutes the notion that no man in a relationship with another man ever runs off to have sex with a woman.


  9. Tab Hunter – actor
    Tab Hunter Confidential: The Making of a Movie Star
    by Tab Hunter and Eddie Muller
    (“I HATE LABELS” are the first words of his 2005 autobio in which he came out as “gay” (he lives with life partner Allan Glaser) but describes being passionately in love with co-star Etchika Choureau, while simultaneously secretly dating bisexual actor Anthony Perkins. He wanted to marry Etchika but couldn’t picture himself being heterosexually monogamous and chickened out. Also dated Joan Cohn, widow of Columbia Pictures mogul, Harry Cohen. These two women were different from the women he dated as beards, like friend Debbie Reynolds.


  10. Janis Joplin – singer
    Going Down with Janis
    by Peggy Caserta
    Lover Peggy Caserta's memoir of their affair.


  11. Frida Kahlo – Mexican artist (bio by Hayden Herrera)
    Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo
    by Hayden Herrera, Oct 1, 2002
    There is not as much bisexuality in here as there should be and no names of female lovers, but Frida Kahlo is the epitome of a bisexual woman and her bisexual spirit shines through in the text. A flawed character but juicy and interesting.


  12. Anthony Perkins – actor (out, bio by Charles Winecoff)
    Anthony Perkins: Split Image
    by Charles Winecoff


  13. Eleanor Roosevelt – First Lady/wife of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, writer (bio by Blanche Wiesen Cook, affair with reporter Lorena Hickok)
    Eleanor Roosevelt, Vol. 1: 1884-1933
    by Blanche Wiesen Cook, Aug 2000
    Eleanor Roosevelt : Volume 2 , The Defining Years, 1933-1938
    by Blanche Wiesen Cook, Jun 5, 2000


  14. Vita Sackville-West – writer (bio by Nigel Nicolson, her son, which includes her diary of her affair w/Violet Trefusis)
    Portrait of a Marriage: Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson
    by Nigel Nicolson


  15. Tommy Tune - dancer/choreographer/actor (autobio Footnotes)
    Footnotes: A Memoir
    by Tommy Tune


  16. Gore Vidal – writer, actor (memoir Palimpsest)
    Palimpsest: A Memoir
    by Gore Vidal, Sept. 1, 1996

Multi-Bios

  1. The Girls
    by Diane McLellan, Feb 28, 2004
    Describes the Sapphic early Hollywood scene with Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Mercedes de Acosta, Salka Viertel, Allah Nazimova, Tallulah Bankhead, Eva Le Galienne, Dorothy Arzner, Natacha Rambova, etc.


  2. The Sewing Circle: Sappho's Leading Ladies
    by Axel Madsen, Feb. 2, 2002
    Similar to The Girls.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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