Audiobook15 hours
Author in Chief: The Untold Story of Our Presidents and the Books They Wrote
Written by Craig Fehrman
Narrated by Fred Sanders
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
()
About this audiobook
“One of the best books on the American presidency to appear in recent years” (The Wall Street Journal) and based on a decade of research and reporting—a delightful new window into the public and private lives America’s presidents as authors.
Most Americans are familiar with Abraham Lincoln’s 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 copies—the rough equivalent of half a million books in today’s market—and it reveals something about Lincoln’s 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 Fehrman’s “original, illuminating, and entertaining” (Jon Meacham) work of history, the story of America’s presidents and their books opens a rich new window into presidential biography. From volumes lost to history—Calvin Coolidge’s Autobiography, which was one of the most widely discussed titles of 1929—to ones we know and love—Barack Obama’s Dreams from My Father, which was very nearly never published—Fehrman 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 Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia, the first presidential book to influence a campaign, and John Adams’s Autobiography, the first score-settling presidential memoir, Author in Chief draws on newly uncovered information—including never-before-published letters from Andrew Jackson, John F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan—to cast fresh light on the private drives and self-doubts that fueled our nation’s 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 Where’s 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.
“If you’re a history buff, a presidential trivia aficionado, or just a lover of American literary history, this book will transfix you, inform you, and surprise you” (The Seattle Review of Books).
Most Americans are familiar with Abraham Lincoln’s 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 copies—the rough equivalent of half a million books in today’s market—and it reveals something about Lincoln’s 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 Fehrman’s “original, illuminating, and entertaining” (Jon Meacham) work of history, the story of America’s presidents and their books opens a rich new window into presidential biography. From volumes lost to history—Calvin Coolidge’s Autobiography, which was one of the most widely discussed titles of 1929—to ones we know and love—Barack Obama’s Dreams from My Father, which was very nearly never published—Fehrman 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 Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia, the first presidential book to influence a campaign, and John Adams’s Autobiography, the first score-settling presidential memoir, Author in Chief draws on newly uncovered information—including never-before-published letters from Andrew Jackson, John F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan—to cast fresh light on the private drives and self-doubts that fueled our nation’s 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 Where’s 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.
“If you’re a history buff, a presidential trivia aficionado, or just a lover of American literary history, this book will transfix you, inform you, and surprise you” (The Seattle Review of Books).
Author
Craig Fehrman
Craig Fehrman, a journalist and historian, spent more than a decade immersed in the presidents’ writings to produce his first book, Author in Chief, which was described by Thomas Mallon in The Wall Street Journal as “one of the best books on the American presidency to appear in recent years.” Fehrman lives in Indiana with his wife and children.
Related to Author in Chief
Related audiobooks
The Presidents Club: Inside the World's Most Exclusive Fraternity Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Making of the President 1960 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Age of Eisenhower: America and the World in the 1950s Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Last Republicans: Inside the Extraordinary Relationship Between George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On the Trail of Grant and Lee Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnder This Roof: The White House and the Presidency--21 Presidents, 21 Rooms, 21 Inside Stories Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5George H. W. Bush: The American Presidents Series: The 41st President, 1989-1993 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Team of Five: The Presidents Club in the Age of Trump Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Best Presidential Writing: From 1789 to the Present Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmerican Heritage History of the Presidents Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5James Monroe: A Republican Champion Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Franklin & Washington: The Founding Partnership Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Age of Reagan: A History, 1974-2008 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Adams vs. Jefferson: The Tumultuous Election of 1800 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ascent of George Washington: The Hidden Political Genius of an American Icon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Man of Iron: The Turbulent Life and Improbable Presidency of Grover Cleveland Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Abraham Lincoln and Civil War America: A Biography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lincoln on the Verge: Thirteen Days to Washington Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Martin Van Buren: A Captivating Guide to the Man Who Served as the Eighth President of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Henry Clay: The Man Who Would Be President Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Country of Vast Designs: James K. Polk, the Mexican War and the Conquest of the American Continent Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Good American Family: The Red Scare and My Father Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lincoln Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5William McKinley: The American Presidents Series: The 25th President, 1897-1901 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Accidental Presidents: Eight Men Who Changed America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/51960: LBJ vs. JFK vs. Nixon--The Epic Campaign That Forged Three Presidencies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wilson Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
American Government For You
The Democrat Party Hates America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The White House Plumbers: The Seven Weeks That Led to Watergate and Doomed Nixon's Presidency Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Romney: A Reckoning Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Enough Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5UFO: The Inside Story of the US Government's Search for Alien Life Here—and Out There Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Capitalist Punishment: How Wall Street Is Using Your Money to Create a Country You Didn't Vote For Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Trump Tapes: Bob Woodward's Twenty Interviews with President Donald Trump Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Courage to Be Free: Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Revival Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blood Money: Why the Powerful Turn a Blind Eye While China Kills Americans Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Rage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You Have the Right to Remain Innocent Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Profiles in Ignorance: How America's Politicians Got Dumb and Dumber Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5On Account of Race: The Supreme Court, White Supremacy, and the Ravaging of African American Voting Rights Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Marxism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My Own Words Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Life Sentence: The Brief and Tragic Career of Baltimore’s Deadliest Gang Leader Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fear: Trump in the White House Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Anti-Communist Manifesto Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leadership Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5To Make Men Free: A History of the Republican Party Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Unbroken Bonds of Battle: A Modern Warriors Book of Heroism, Patriotism, and Friendship Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Peril Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hatemonger: Stephen Miller, Donald Trump, and the White Nationalist Agenda Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Red-Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Settle for More Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why We're Polarized Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All the President's Men Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Author in Chief
Rating: 4.1875 out of 5 stars
4/5
16 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5So many new details about our presidents and those who influenced their leadership! Anytime I can read about the presidents is a win; however, I almost enjoyed reading about the “secondary lead” even more. This is a must read for anyone who loves America!