Try these from the Monticello book shop;
http://www.monticelloshop.org/book-store-jefferson-biographies.html
One way to learn about the President’s is to tour thier homes. Monticello is just breathtaking in nature.
Astonishing wealth of material on Johnson. I look forward to reading it.
davidmich
Which one??
As an interesting note, ever here of the “Kennedy-Lincoln coincidences”?
David Herbert Donald’s biography of Lincoln is considered the standard for laymen. Joseph Ellis has a good bio on Washington.
I concur. None of the “Founding” books I’ve read attempt to make the reader understand the times like Ellis does.
Which were simply made as a spoof of idiotic urban legends by Martin Gardner, who was appalled to see them enter the culture.
The literature on presidential biographies is too large for a lifetime. I’d second Wendell’s suggestion of the American Presidents series as the place to start. They are uniformly good to excellent, short, easy-to-read, and will provide context for you to go further.
A few random other selections from my shelves:
I have read American Sphinx, Joseph Ellis’s bio of Jefferson, and it’s important for giving both sides of Jefferson, a man who can be the greatest hero and the greatest villain on alternate Sundays.
William Herndon, Lincoln’s law partner, wrote a Life of Lincoln that is historically somewhat suspect but unmatchable for contemporary flavor.
In a similar vein is* Plain Speaking: an Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman by Merle Miller*, which has also been questioned but is 400 pages of stuff you’d like to quote.
I’ve read many of the books already listed. Generally speaking, you should read all - not just the presidential biographies - the books of Flexner, Ellis, Morris, and McCullough (his big fat endless biographies are the books of his I like least). Also generally speaking, you should never read multi-volume biographies because by the end you will hate the person that ate up your life.
Since this is about books, let’s move it to Cafe Society.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Speaking of the other Johnson, there’s Andrew Johnson. Johnson was probably the worst of the presidents, one whose actions poisoned American politics ever since. The semi-heroic story of his impeachment has made him far more sympathetic than he deserves to be.
The one caveat I’d add about Sphinx is that it’s not a good book to start with if one wants to learn about Jefferson because it picks a few parts of Jefferson’s life and expounds on them. It’s an important second book, though, because–as you said–it wipes away some of the facade of Jefferson’s morality.
Second these, the first one won a Pulitzer and is amazing reading. American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House also won a Pulitzer and got great reviews, but I haven’t gotten around to reading the copy I got for Christmas yet.
Thanks for all the feedback. Personally, I enjoy multi-volume biographies. I look forward to more of your suggestions. My preference is for balanced (as much as possible) biographies with as wide a scope (political, social,cultural,economic, scientific) as possible. Multi-volume biographies often encompass such a scope.
davidmich
I found Douglas Brinkley’s book on Jimmy Carter at a used book store in the late 90’s. It’s good and covers his life up until about 1994. Out of print but used copies are easily bought at Amazon.
Carl Sandburg’s definitive six volume set on Lincoln. I’ve only read one of the volumes. Spending a year of my life reading/studying one President is just too much for me.
Good biographies take on difficult, sensitive issues, and that’s what I look forward to in a biography. Woodrow Wilson is another president I’d like to know more about. He’s controversial, as was Roosevelt. I look forward to your suggestions on Wilson.
davidmich
I must be one of the few people who didn’t like that book. I thought it spent way too much time on a near-sex scandal (I forget now what it was) and stopped reading it. If “People” magazine ever put out a Presidential series it’ll be the first one.
It’s not definitive. Most historians consider it laughable. Sandburg’s Lincoln within History is an attempt to explain why it caught the public’s attention, but still retains a critical view of the book:
Well, I’m glad that I never read all six volumes. 
Sandburg wasn’t a researcher or historian. He was primarily a poet.
I’ve been very leery of reading any bios on contemporary Presidents because the subject matter is still so political. I mentioned Douglas Brinkley’s book on Jimmy Carter because it focused on him rebuilding his life after a disappointing one term presidency. Brinkley is a history professor at Rice University but even that book isn’t entirely neutral. He lived through the time period that he’s writing about.
The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant still stands as the best autobiographical writing by a president - though that book mainly covers his Civil War career. Obama’s memoir may stand the test of time too, but it is mostly on his early life.
I’d say that if you want a Jackson biography, you should go with Robert Remini’s three volume Jackson bio. Remini also wrote a biography of Martin Van Buren, “Martin Van Buren and the Making of the Democratic Party”, as well as one of John Quincy Adams.
For a Reagan biography, even though it was controversial at the time, largely because of some narrative techniques he used, you could do worse than Morris’s “Dutch”.