âOne of the best books on the American presidency to appear in recent yearsâ (The Wall Street Journal) and based on a decade of research and reportingâa delightful new window into the public and private lives Americaâs presidents as authors.
Most Americans are familiar with Abraham Lincolnâs famous words in the Gettysburg Address and the Emancipation Proclamation. Yet few can name the work that helped him win the presidency: his published collection of speeches entitled Political Debates between Hon. Abraham Lincoln and Hon. Stephen A. Douglas. Lincoln labored in secret to get his book ready for the 1860 election, tracking down newspaper transcripts, editing them carefully for fairness, and hunting for a printer who would meet his specifications. Political Debates sold fifty thousand copiesâthe rough equivalent of half a million books in todayâs marketâand it reveals something about Lincolnâs presidential ambitions. But it also reveals something about his heart and mind. When voters asked about his beliefs, Lincoln liked to point them to his book.
In Craig Fehrmanâs âoriginal, illuminating, and entertainingâ (Jon Meacham) work of history, the story of Americaâs presidents and their books opens a rich new window into presidential biography. From volumes lost to historyâCalvin Coolidgeâs Autobiography, which was one of the most widely discussed titles of 1929âto ones we know and loveâBarack Obamaâs Dreams from My Father, which was very nearly never publishedâFehrman unearths countless insights about the presidents through their literary works.
Presidential books have made an enormous impact on American history, catapulting their authors to the national stage and even turning key elections. Beginning with Thomas Jeffersonâs Notes on the State of Virginia, the first presidential book to influence a campaign, and John Adamsâs Autobiography, the first score-settling presidential memoir, Author in Chief draws on newly uncovered informationâincluding never-before-published letters from Andrew Jackson, John F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reaganâto cast fresh light on the private drives and self-doubts that fueled our nationâs leaders.
We see Teddy Roosevelt as a vulnerable first-time author, struggling to write the book that would become a classic of American history. We see Reagan painstakingly revising Whereâs the Rest of Me?, and Donald Trump negotiating the deal for The Art of the Deal, the volume that made him synonymous with business savvy. Alongside each of these authors, we also glimpse the everyday Americans who read them.
âIf youâre a history buff, a presidential trivia aficionado, or just a lover of American literary history, this book will transfix you, inform you, and surprise youâ (The Seattle Review of Books).