“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 ). "One of the best books on the American presidency to appear in recent years. . . . Delightfully instructive.” —Thomas Mallon, The Wall Street Journal “Joyfully engrossing . . . Juicy controversies and conversation-starters are the consistently found treats of Author in Chief , regardless of where you find yourself on the political spectrum. And the implication throughout—that books are vitally important to the nation’s soul—will surely appeal to red and blue state readers alike.” —Steve Donoghue, Christian Science Monitor “A breezy, anecdote-rich account of the memoirs and autobiographies that have helped candidates running for office . . . Most presidents’ books have aimed to entertain, and that might also be said of Author in Chief . But Fehrman has done his homework. His bibliographical essays are impressively thorough, particularly on works on the study of writing, publishing and reading. His readers will learn a lot.” — The Washington Post “Credit to Craig Fehrman for the compendiousness, readability, and general exuberance of his Author in Chief .” —James Parker, The Atlantic “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.” —Paul Constant, The Seattle Review of Books “Fehrman examines the writing by every United States president, situating each within his historical context—and revealing vanities, insecurities, and intrigues along the way. Taking us on a journey from a bygone era when books were peddled on the back of a wagon rolling through the undeveloped countryside, to the modern rise of the eight-figure blockbuster book deal, Fehrman reveals that presidents and their words are as subject to history as they are shapers of it.” —Andrew Heisel, The Yale Review “Fehrman offers a decade of painstaking research boiled down into a supremely engaging narrative about presidents and their relationship to reading and writing.” —Rebecca Rego Barry, Fine Books Magazine “Fehrman discovered that one of the best ways to understand a nation’s history is to read the books their leaders penned. . . . Author in