List of autobiographies by presidents of the United States
Many presidents of the United States have written autobiographies about their presidencies and/or (some periods of) their life before their time in office. Some 19th-century U.S. presidents who wrote autobiographies are James Buchanan and Ulysses S. Grant, though Grant's autobiography is about his time as General during the U.S. Civil War and not about his presidency. Presidential memoir has proved to be a lasting and popular genre--every president since Calvin Coolidge has published one after leaving office, and more recent entries have earned their authors tens of millions of dollars in royalties.[1]
Autobiographies covering the period of their presidency
- Note: Only publication information for the first edition is given.
Title | President | Publisher | Date | ISBN |
---|---|---|---|---|
The Autobiography of Martin Van Buren | Martin Van Buren | U.S. Government Printing Office | 1920 | |
Posthumously compiled and edited from Van Buren's manuscript materials by John C. Fitzpatrick. | ||||
Mr. Buchanan's Administration on the Eve of Rebellion | James Buchanan | D. Appleton and Company | 1866 | |
Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography | Theodore Roosevelt | Macmillan | 1913 | |
The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge | Calvin Coolidge | Cosmopolitan Book Corporation | 1929 | |
Previously published serially in the periodical Cosmopolitan. | ||||
The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover | Herbert Hoover | Macmillan | 1951 | |
Published in three volumes: Volume 1: Years of Adventure 1874-1920; Volume 2: The Cabinet and the Presidency 1920-1933; Volume 3: The Great Depression 1929-1941. | ||||
Memoirs: Year of Decisions | Harry S. Truman | Doubleday | 1955 | |
Memoirs: Years of Trial and Hope | Harry S. Truman | Doubleday | 1956 | |
The Autobiography of Harry S Truman | Harry S. Truman | Colorado Associated University Press | 1980 | ISBN 978-0-870-81090-9 |
Posthumously compiled and edited from Truman's manuscript materials by historian Robert Ferrell. | ||||
White House Years: Mandate for Change | Dwight D. Eisenhower | Doubleday | 1963 | |
White House Years: Waging Peace | Dwight D. Eisenhower | Doubleday | 1965 | |
At Ease: Stories I Tell to Friends | Dwight D. Eisenhower | Doubleday | 1969 | ISBN 978-0-915-99204-1 |
The Vantage Point: Perspectives of the Presidency 1963-1969 | Lyndon B. Johnson | Holt, Rinehart and Winston | 1971 | ISBN 978-0-030-84492-8 |
RN - The Memoirs of Richard Nixon | Richard Nixon | Grosset & Dunlap | 1978 | ISBN 978-0-448-14374-3 |
In the Arena: A Memoir of Victory, Defeat, and Renewal | Richard Nixon | Simon & Schuster | 1990 | ISBN 978-0-671-70096-6 |
A Time to Heal | Gerald Ford | Harper & Row | 1979 | ISBN 978-0-060-11297-4 |
Keeping Faith: Memoirs of a President | Jimmy Carter | Bantam Books | 1982 | ISBN 978-0-553-05023-3 |
A Full Life: Reflections at 90 | Jimmy Carter | Simon & Schuster | 2015 | ISBN 978-1-501-11563-9 |
An American Life | Ronald Reagan | Simon & Schuster | 1990 | ISBN 978-1-451-62839-5 |
A World Transformed | George H. W. Bush | Knopf Publishing Group | 1998 | ISBN 978-0-679-43248-7 |
My Life | Bill Clinton | Knopf Publishing Group | 2004 | ISBN 978-0-375-41457-2 |
Decision Points | George W. Bush | Crown Publishers | 2010 | ISBN 978-0-307-59061-9 |
A Promised Land | Barack Obama | Crown Publishers | 2020 | ISBN 978-1-524-76316-9 |
Autobiographies not covering the period of their presidency
Published diaries and papers
Title | President | Editor | Publisher | Date | ISBN |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
The Diary of James K. Polk | James K. Polk | ||||
The Diary of James A. Garfield | James A. Garfield | ||||
The Eisenhower Diaries | Dwight D. Eisenhower | Robert Ferrell | W W Norton & Co Inc | 1976 | ISBN 978-0-393-33180-6 |
Prelude to Leadership: The European Diary of John F. Kennedy: Summer 1945 | John F. Kennedy | Regnery Publishing | 1995 | ISBN 978-0-89526-459-6 | |
The Letters of John F. Kennedy | John F. Kennedy | Martin W. Sandler | Bloomsbury Press | 2013 | ISBN 978-1-60819-271-7 |
Richard Nixon: Speeches, Writings, Documents | Richard Nixon | Rick Perlstein | Princeton University Press | 2010 | ISBN 978-1-4008-3568-3 |
White House Diary | Jimmy Carter | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 2010 | ISBN 978-0-374-28099-4 | |
The Reagan Diaries | Ronald Reagan | Douglas Brinkley | Harper Collins | 2007 | ISBN 978-0-06-087600-5 |
All the Best | George H. W. Bush | Scribner | 1999 | ISBN 978-0-684-83958-5 |
See also
- List of autobiographies by First Ladies of the United States
- List of American political memoirs
Notes
- "Americas | Clintons' earnings exceed $100m". BBC News. 2008-04-05. Retrieved 2013-04-08.
Further reading
- Trex, Ethan (September 9, 2010), "A Brief History of Presidential Memoirs", mental floss
- Robinson, Joshua (November 8, 2010), "A Brief History of the Presidential Memoir", The Daily Beast
External links
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