# Help me read a biography of every US President **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 8, 2004, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-read-a-biography-of-every-us-president/263689 "2004-09-08T22:33:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2004, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-read-a-biography-of-every-us-president/263689/1 "2004-09-08T22:33:42Z")
I’m going to try to read a biography of every US President. I’ve read McCullough’s John Adams and Harry Truman books as well as Bill Clinton’s My Life. So, any suggestions as to good books on the various presidents? I am going to skip George W. Bush for now as he is still in office and I don’t think a defenitive biography can be written until he is out of office. I am also going to try to stick to biographies which focus heavily on the person’s role as president and how their life influenced their actions as president. So, I’m not looking for books which concentrate exclusively on Grant the General or Taft the Justice as much as books which focus on their presidency. Also, preferably books which try to not simply be an indictment of a particular controversial president. I have the advantage of living in Ohio and the [Columbus Public Library](http://www.cml.lib.oh.us/) seems to have at least some books on the minor presidents. I’m not even going to try to go in order so recommend away! ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2004, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-read-a-biography-of-every-us-president/263689/2 "2004-09-09T00:46:03Z")
There’s a thread on Grant’s Memoirs which conveys mixed reviews as to their quality – but I tend to trust Mark Twain’s judgment, so I’ll recommend that. The Sandberg Lincoln biography is pretty much definitive, though it is a multi-volume set. Wilson was also a notable writer, and probably left some autobiographical material – memoirs or such – though how well it treats his Presidency is questionable, since he was in very poor health from the last year of his presidency until he died not quite two years later. There’s a wealth of material focusing on FDR, but nothing that stands out to me. (Lash, the best writer of the lot, deals largely with Eleanor, a personal friend, and Franklin as he related to her – an important aspect of the man, but hardly the stuff of comprehensive biography.) Schlesinger’s books on Kennedy tend to be overly adulatory, but are written from the perspective of a close associate, and valuable for that reason. Hoover may turn out to be the toughest of the lot – everything I’ve ever seen on him is either focused on the good work he did prior to his Presidency or with a strongly negative view of his Presidency. (His economic policies would have worked if he were facing the Panic of '73 or '93 or '07, where he was demonstrably more liberal and pro-active than the incumbents those years – he simply misjudged the severity of the Great Depression, and then refused to change his views as things got worse.) A balanced treatment of Hoover is something I’d love to read, but don’t think exists. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2004, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-read-a-biography-of-every-us-president/263689/3 "2004-09-09T01:32:33Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > I’m going to try to read a biography of every US President. Even nobodies like John Tyler and Grover Cleveland? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2004, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-read-a-biography-of-every-us-president/263689/4 "2004-09-09T03:40:20Z")
Actually there’s been two good recent biographies of Cleveland; _Grover Cleveland: A Study in Character_ by Alyn Brodsky and _An Honest President: The Life and Presidencies of Grover Cleveland_ by H. P. Jeffers. You might also want to check out the American Presidents series which was edited by Arthur Schlesinger. It was a collected series of biographies of all the presidents. Each volume was written by a different author. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2004, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-read-a-biography-of-every-us-president/263689/5 "2004-09-09T03:54:11Z")
_The Presidency of Franklin Pierce_ by Larry Gara is probably your best bet. There was a small press run of a newer bio of Pierce, but it was only being sold at his birthplace in New Hampshire I believe.] You can also look for _The Life of Franklin Pierce_ which was written in 1852 by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Yeah, that Hawthorne. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2004, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-read-a-biography-of-every-us-president/263689/6 "2004-09-09T04:31:13Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > Wilson was also a notable writer, and probably left some autobiographical material – memoirs or such – though how well it treats his Presidency is questionable, since he was in very poor health from the last year of his presidency until he died not quite two years later. I found a book called _Woodrow Wilson’s Own Story_ by Woodrow Wilson in the library catalog and placed it on reserve. The library’s web site have any much information except that it is a first edition but published 1952? Should be interesting. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2004, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-read-a-biography-of-every-us-president/263689/7 "2004-09-09T04:53:09Z")
> [@BobT](#): > > You can also look for _The Life of Franklin Pierce_ which was written in 1852 by Nathaniel Hawthorne. > > Yeah, that Hawthorne. Interestingly enough, I found Hawthorne’s work on this web [site](http://www.eldritchpress.org/nh/lfp.html) ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2004, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-read-a-biography-of-every-us-president/263689/8 "2004-09-09T05:08:40Z")
Presumably the copyright on Hawthorne’s works have expired … The 1952 Wilson book says that it was “selected and edited by Daniel Day.” ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2004, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-read-a-biography-of-every-us-president/263689/9 "2004-09-09T05:57:45Z")
I quite enjoyed _Woodrow Wilson and the Politics of Morality_ by John Morton Blum. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2004, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-read-a-biography-of-every-us-president/263689/10 "2004-09-09T13:56:12Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > I found a book called _Woodrow Wilson’s Own Story_ by Woodrow Wilson in the library catalog and placed it on reserve. The library’s web site have any much information except that it is a first edition but published 1952? Should be interesting. “Ghostwritten” – one way or the other! 😃 Seriously, probably the first edition from that house, which reissued it in '52. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2004, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-read-a-biography-of-every-us-president/263689/11 "2004-09-09T15:17:06Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > The Sandberg Lincoln biography is pretty much definitive, though it is a multi-volume set. Many would say that the best modern biography on Lincoln is the one by David Herbert Donald. ---
**Author:** ![Caricci](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@Caricci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caricci)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2004, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-read-a-biography-of-every-us-president/263689/12 "2004-09-09T17:06:35Z")
Which Harrison is the one that caught cold and died about a month after taking office? William Henry or Benjiman. Anyway, do you think there’s a biography out there on that guy? ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2004, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-read-a-biography-of-every-us-president/263689/13 "2004-09-09T18:49:12Z")
_George Washington_ Volumes I-VI by Douglas Southall Freeman, and Volume VII, by John Alexander Carroll and Mary Wells Ashworth. _Andrew Jackson_ by Marquis James. _Grant: A Biography_ by William McFeely. _Grover Cleveland_ by Allan Nevins. _The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt_ by Edmund Morris. _The Taft Story_ by William S. White. _Woodrow Wilson, American Prophet_ by Arthur Walworth. _Eleanor and Franklin_ by Joseph P. Lash. _A Thousand Days_, about John F. Kennedy, by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. All of these won the Pulitzer Prize for biography. You’ve already read the McCullough biographies of Truman and Adams, which would also be on this list. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2004, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-read-a-biography-of-every-us-president/263689/14 "2004-09-09T18:54:38Z")
> [@Caricci](#): > > Which Harrison is the one that caught cold and died about a month after taking office? William Henry or Benjiman. Anyway, do you think there’s a biography out there on that guy? William Henry was the 30-day president – but he was a war hero (“Tippecanoe and Tyler Too”) and had held other offices before being elected. Benjamin, his grandson, was the filling in the Grover Cleveland sandwich. ---
**Author:** ![ccwaterback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2004, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-read-a-biography-of-every-us-president/263689/15 "2004-09-10T00:01:57Z")
This may be a “cliff’s notes” of Presidents, but at least you can riffle though it to see which Presidents you find most interesting. [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0517183536/qid=1094774261/sr=ka-1/ref=pd\_ka\_1/103-8113496-5478211](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0517183536/qid=1094774261/sr=ka-1/ref=pd_ka_1/103-8113496-5478211) ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2004, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-read-a-biography-of-every-us-president/263689/16 "2004-09-10T00:39:21Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > I found a book called _Woodrow Wilson’s Own Story_ by Woodrow Wilson in the library catalog and placed it on reserve. The library’s web site have any much information except that it is a first edition but published 1952? Should be interesting. The Wilson [bibliography](http://www.americanpresident.org/history/woodrowwilson/biography/resources/Articles/wilsonselectedbibliography.article.shtml)on [this site](http://www.americanpresident.org/) (which looks useful in general for your project) describes it thus: > [@](#): > > Wilson, Woodrow. _Woodrow Wilson’s Own Story_. Edited by Donald Day. Boston: Little, Brown, 1952. A compilation of Wilson quotations and writings arranged chronologically so as to tell his life story in his own words. So not an autobiography in the conventional sense. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2004, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-read-a-biography-of-every-us-president/263689/17 "2004-09-10T01:14:02Z")
You might read \*They also Ran \* by Irving Stone. Short biographies of the losers.