This is from Slideyfoot, and I'm saving it here for my own future reference. Source.
You have a number of options. For a full length biographical type book, there is just a handful: earliest one is The Gracie Way, which I think is now out of print. Interesting book with some beautiful photos, but it does have the drawback of being very biased (understandably, as Peligro is a friend of the family).
If you can read Portuguese, then that opens up a lot more, but I'm assuming like most of us that isn't an option. Although fortunately one of the most significant books, a biography of Carlos Gracie, has now been translated into English. Again it's biased, but not as much as The Gracie Way, and it is willing to be critical of both Helio and Carlos.
That book was also summarised and analysed over at Global Training Report. Not quite a translation, and it means it is being filtered through somebody else's perspective, but still a brilliant contribution to BJJ history available in English.
Much of the previous material on Global Training Report (he has loads of fascinating articles and interviews about his time training in Brazil, Japan etc over the last couple of decades) was taken down by the author, Roberto Pedreira (not sure if that is his real name or a pseudonym). That’s because he has since expanded it into into a BJJ history book, 'Jiu Jitsu in the South Zone: 1997-2008'. He's now better known for his two volume history of BJJ, 'Choque', which a third volume on the way. It's very dry, but lots of interesting stuff in there.
With The Back On The Ground has a far better narrative flow and also covers BJJ history, though it isn't as extensive on notes and references. Certainly more readable, but I like them both (I don't mind something more academic, especially as Choque has been very useful when I'm researching the history articles I write for Jiu Jitsu Style magazine).
Matt Phillips is due to come out with a big book on BJJ’s early history too, which should be cool. That’s still a good few years off, but you can hear him present his argument on a few threads around the internet, especially a huge one on Sherdog talking about Choque.
There is more history and biography in other books, but not full length. E.g., John Danaher has a long historical section in Mastering Jujitsu, updated from an earlier version in BJJ: Theory and Technique. John Will talks at length about the early years of BJJ in his autobiographical 'Rogue Black Belt' trilogy, but those have to be ordered from Australia and unfortunately don't contain much in the way of dates or a bibliography. A fascinating read nonetheless, as Will is a pioneer, having begun his BJJ training in the '80s.
The introductions to various Victory Belt releases (eg., 'X-Guard', 'Guerrilla Jiu Jitsu' etc) have some interesting bit of biography too, although it probably isn't worth buying the books if you are ONLY interested in that. There is a growing genre of BJJ travelogues though, like The Cauliflower Chronicles and BJJ Globetrotter. I prefer the latter as I found the first one a bit immature (especially regarding women), but then the author (who posts on this subreddit) was 20/21 when he wrote it, so that's not too surprising (and he went on to found Artechoke Media, which has produced some excellent stuff, like Aesopian's book on the crucifix). He's also done an updated version with annotations, IIRC, which I haven't read.
I can recommend Mark Johnson’s Jiu Jitsu on the Brain, and he also has a collection of articles he’s called Borrowing the Master’s Bicycle. I'd also suggest taking a look through the archive of Black Belt Magazine, which is online at Google Books: I did a spreadsheet (naturally) of them a while ago - here
Some MMA biographies contain further details, like the biographies ghost written for Big John McCarthy and BJ Penn. There are snippets of BJJ in judo and MMA general history books too, which are worth a look: Clyde Gentry's No Holds Barred, Jonathan Snowden's Total MMA and Mark Law's The Pyjama Game (released as Falling Hard in the US, IIRC).
Or for something a bit different, Gene LeBell's 2004 autobiography The Godfather of Grappling is cool. Grappling rather than BJJ (though BJJ does pop up a few times), but entertaining. It's basically a book length collection of anecdotes, from his judo, pro-wrestling, film, stunt etc careers. He's had an incredible life, and he's still relevant today (popping up in Ronda Rousey's corner, for example, who he has known since she was a baby).
Or something again that's different, Flowing with the Go by Elena Stowell. It's about how training jiu jitsu helped her get through the sudden death of her daughter, so there's a lot of powerful emotional material in there. Lots of discussion of grief, as you would expect given the genesis of the book.
I've got some book reviews which may or may not help, here. I've also attempted to compile some of what I've read about BJJ history, here, though that needs updating.
You have a number of options. For a full length biographical type book, there is just a handful: earliest one is The Gracie Way, which I think is now out of print. Interesting book with some beautiful photos, but it does have the drawback of being very biased (understandably, as Peligro is a friend of the family).
If you can read Portuguese, then that opens up a lot more, but I'm assuming like most of us that isn't an option. Although fortunately one of the most significant books, a biography of Carlos Gracie, has now been translated into English. Again it's biased, but not as much as The Gracie Way, and it is willing to be critical of both Helio and Carlos.
That book was also summarised and analysed over at Global Training Report. Not quite a translation, and it means it is being filtered through somebody else's perspective, but still a brilliant contribution to BJJ history available in English.
Much of the previous material on Global Training Report (he has loads of fascinating articles and interviews about his time training in Brazil, Japan etc over the last couple of decades) was taken down by the author, Roberto Pedreira (not sure if that is his real name or a pseudonym). That’s because he has since expanded it into into a BJJ history book, 'Jiu Jitsu in the South Zone: 1997-2008'. He's now better known for his two volume history of BJJ, 'Choque', which a third volume on the way. It's very dry, but lots of interesting stuff in there.
With The Back On The Ground has a far better narrative flow and also covers BJJ history, though it isn't as extensive on notes and references. Certainly more readable, but I like them both (I don't mind something more academic, especially as Choque has been very useful when I'm researching the history articles I write for Jiu Jitsu Style magazine).
Matt Phillips is due to come out with a big book on BJJ’s early history too, which should be cool. That’s still a good few years off, but you can hear him present his argument on a few threads around the internet, especially a huge one on Sherdog talking about Choque.
There is more history and biography in other books, but not full length. E.g., John Danaher has a long historical section in Mastering Jujitsu, updated from an earlier version in BJJ: Theory and Technique. John Will talks at length about the early years of BJJ in his autobiographical 'Rogue Black Belt' trilogy, but those have to be ordered from Australia and unfortunately don't contain much in the way of dates or a bibliography. A fascinating read nonetheless, as Will is a pioneer, having begun his BJJ training in the '80s.
The introductions to various Victory Belt releases (eg., 'X-Guard', 'Guerrilla Jiu Jitsu' etc) have some interesting bit of biography too, although it probably isn't worth buying the books if you are ONLY interested in that. There is a growing genre of BJJ travelogues though, like The Cauliflower Chronicles and BJJ Globetrotter. I prefer the latter as I found the first one a bit immature (especially regarding women), but then the author (who posts on this subreddit) was 20/21 when he wrote it, so that's not too surprising (and he went on to found Artechoke Media, which has produced some excellent stuff, like Aesopian's book on the crucifix). He's also done an updated version with annotations, IIRC, which I haven't read.
I can recommend Mark Johnson’s Jiu Jitsu on the Brain, and he also has a collection of articles he’s called Borrowing the Master’s Bicycle. I'd also suggest taking a look through the archive of Black Belt Magazine, which is online at Google Books: I did a spreadsheet (naturally) of them a while ago - here
Some MMA biographies contain further details, like the biographies ghost written for Big John McCarthy and BJ Penn. There are snippets of BJJ in judo and MMA general history books too, which are worth a look: Clyde Gentry's No Holds Barred, Jonathan Snowden's Total MMA and Mark Law's The Pyjama Game (released as Falling Hard in the US, IIRC).
Or for something a bit different, Gene LeBell's 2004 autobiography The Godfather of Grappling is cool. Grappling rather than BJJ (though BJJ does pop up a few times), but entertaining. It's basically a book length collection of anecdotes, from his judo, pro-wrestling, film, stunt etc careers. He's had an incredible life, and he's still relevant today (popping up in Ronda Rousey's corner, for example, who he has known since she was a baby).
Or something again that's different, Flowing with the Go by Elena Stowell. It's about how training jiu jitsu helped her get through the sudden death of her daughter, so there's a lot of powerful emotional material in there. Lots of discussion of grief, as you would expect given the genesis of the book.
I've got some book reviews which may or may not help, here. I've also attempted to compile some of what I've read about BJJ history, here, though that needs updating.
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