Just in time for President’s Day…a new book! Written by Journalist & Historian Craig Fehrman from Bloomington. It’s his first book, titled “AUTHOR IN CHIEF – The Untold Story of our President’s and the Books They Write“. It’s received tremendous reviews. The Wall Street Journal says “One of the best books on the American presidency to appear in recent years.” The books getting lots of attention, so we were lucky to catch him for a few minutes on the First Day just hours before he began his book tour.
It took about 10 years for him to write. A lot of that time spent doing research, travel, and going through thousands of documents.
The 1st President to write a memoir was John Adams, and most Presidents have written books. Craig says “Not all of them have written good books”. In my book, I’ve written about all of them, but what I focus on are the best stories.”
Fehrman says many of our President’s memoirs were written by ghostwriters, “To me that doesn’t equal a bad book.” “Most of the writing of JFK’s PROFILES IN COURAGE was written by Ted Sorensen. Craig says “Sorensen denied his role because he was loyal to Kennedy, but that put Sorenson in an impossible situation. Kennedy had worked hard to make himself look like an author, even won the Pulitzer Prize, that at that point Sorenson couldn’t play up his work because that would make Kennedy look like a liar.”
What’s Presidential Memoir should we read today? “Calvin Coolidge autobiography, Ronald Reagan’s “Where’s the Rest of Me”…Abe Lincoln’s book on his debates. Great books by President’s that will give you a new prospective on America’s history”.
AUTHOR IN CHIEF – THE UNTOLD STORY OF OUR PRESIDENT’S AND THE BOOKS THEY WRITE is available everywhere or you can go to www.craigfehrman.com.
