Audiobook Review: Author in Chief: The Untold Story of Our Presidents and the Books They Wrote by Craig Fehrman

Author in Chief: The Untold Story of Our Presidents and the Books They Wrote
by Craig Fehrman (Compact Disc 973.09 Feh)

I had read a pre-publication review of Author in Chief, and it sounded fascinating, so I placed it on hold as soon as it showed up in the libraries’ online catalog.

Author Craig Fehrman does not try to do an exhaustive exploration of every book ever written by every ex-U.S. President — that’s been done before, and would tend to make for rather dry reading, considering some of the laborious books they created. Instead, he focuses on the Presidents who produced truly noteworthy works of non-fiction, and looks at what the writing process was for each author (or ghost writer, in many cases), and what the impact of each book was — if the book was written before their election, did it serve as a useful campaign tool? If it was written afterwards, was it a look back at their time in office as a “legacy” volume, or was it more honest and personally reflective? Therefore, not every President is featured. This tome is broken up into ranges of time, from the works of the Founding Fathers at the front, to the period from Truman to Obama at the back — the last section is titled “Truman to Trump”, but there is very little about Trump’s literary contributions, other than his ghost-written The Art of the Deal.

A great deal of time is spent on Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, Calvin Coolidge, Harry Truman, Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama. Fehrman makes many of their works sound absolutely fascinating, particularly Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia, Lincoln’s compiled debate speeches against Douglas, Calvin Coolidge’s autobiography and Obama’s Dreams of My Father.

I learned a great deal while listening to this as a Book-on-CD, and narrator Fred Sanders really brings the subject matter to life. I was particularly impressed by the contributions of Nebraskans to significant portions of our Presidential literary history. Nebraska authors Bess Streeter Aldrich and Willa Cather are both mentioned — Aldrich was an inspiration to one person being profiled, and Cather was the ghost writer of a non-presidential “autobiography” that greatly influenced another presidential biography. And Lincoln High School’s own Theodore “Ted” Sorensen, chief speechwriter and counselor for John F. Kennedy, is clearly identified as the author of Profiles in Courage, for which Kennedy accepted a Pulitzer Prize, as well as much of JFK’s other supposed literary output.

Author in Chief: The Untold Story of Our Presidents and the Books They Wrote is an engaging volume about United States history, and the world of publishing. Definitely worth taking the time, even if it is a very large book. I hope you, too, will find yourself fascinated by what you learn! It was interesting that the 13-disc audiobook was really only 11 discs long — most of the last two discs were extensive appendices!

[ publisher’s official Author in Chief web site ] | [ official Craig Fehrman web site ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library – Public Service

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