July 2025: US Presidents

One member's unintentionally assembled
collection of signed presidential books

Getting an early start on the Fourth of July festivities, the July 2025 meeting paid respect to US Presidents.  Nonfiction books by and about US presidents, the presidency, and related issues were shown.  Several works of fiction with US presidents as central characters were also shown.

The nonfiction books are organized here in the order of the subject's presidency, and the works of fiction are listed in order of publication.

 

Nonfiction

The Life of George Washington

Marshall, John.  The Life of George Washington, Commander in Chief of the American Forces, During the War which Established the Independence of His Country, and First President of the United States.  Philadelphia: C. P. Wayne, 1804.  Five volumes in the original full leather including the map atlas with the maps folded to match the size of the five volumes.  First edition of the first major biography of George Washington by the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

Monticello in Measured Drawings

Beiswanger, William L.  Monticello in Measured Drawings.  Charlottesville, VA: The Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, 1998.  Monticello was the home of Thomas Jefferson in Virginia.  This volume offers a set of elevations, sections and details of the house (line drawings) as it was actually built for Jefferson.  Monticello was begun in 1768, when Jefferson was 25 years old, and he continued to alter it until his death in 1826, at the age of 83.  William Beiswanger, the Director of Restoration at Monticello, provides architectural commentary on the drawings in the book.  This copy is signed by Beiswanger on the half title page.

Handwritten Autobiography for The Chicago Press and Tribune:
Abraham Lincoln, June 1860

Lincoln, Abraham.  Handwritten Autobiography for The Chicago Press and Tribune: Abraham Lincoln, June 1860.  Norwalk, CT: Easton Press and the Library of Congress, 1995.  This is a facsimile of Lincoln's autobiography, handwritten for the Chicago newspaper during his presidential campaign.  The original document is housed in the Library of Congress Rare Book and Special Collections Division and is reproduced here in its entirety for the first time.  The 16-page facsimile is housed in a moiré silk tri-fold portfolio within a full leather clamshell box.

 

Our National Government

Logan, Mrs. John A. (Mary Simmerson Cunningham Logan).  Our National Government, or Life and Scenes in Our National Capital.  Minneapolis, MN: H. L. Baldwin Company, 1908.  In this portrait of American government, the wife of a former US senator includes a section with a collection of "sketches of the presidents and their wives and of all the famous women who have reigned in the White House from Washington's to Taft's administration."  She also includes a chapter on Washington's Mount Vernon home and his daily life and fatal illness in December 1799.

Mr. President

Hillman, William.  Mr. President: The First Publication from the Personal Diaries, Private Letters, Papers and Revealing Interviews of Harry S. Truman, Thirty-Second President of the United States of America.  New York: Farrar, Straus and Young, 1952.  Pictures by Alfred Wagg.  Hillman, a journalist and news commentator, edited Mr. President from Truman's papers and archives; he later assisted Truman with Memoirs (1955-56) and Mr. Citizen (1960).  This copy is warmly inscribed by Harry Truman during a Testimonial Dinner on September 20, 1958.

Ike and Dick

Frank, Jeffrey.  Ike and Dick: Portrait of a Strange Political Marriage.  New York: Simon & Schuster, 2013.  First edition.  Jeffrey Frank, the senior editor of The New Yorker magazine and deputy editor of The Washington Post Outlook section, argues the political "mating" of Eisenhower and Nixon was one of the strangest and most fateful in American political history.  Frank explains why Eisenhower, ill during the late 1960s, supported Nixon in part because he was greatly influenced by his grandson David's courtship of Nixon's daughter.  This copy is inscribed by the author on the title page.

The Imperial Presidency

Schlesinger, Jr., Arthur M.  The Imperial Presidency.  Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1973.  First edition.  Schlesinger provides a history and analysis of the gradual expansion of the executive powers of the presidency, especially those of war powers, from those created by the Constitution to those given over from Congress up through the Nixon administration.  Schlesinger highlights the growing abuses of executive power by presidents and offers remedies to return authority to Congress while maintaining a strong executive branch.

Turning Point

Carter, Jimmy.  Turning Point: A Candidate, A State, and a Nation Come of Age.  New York: Times Books, 1992.  First edition.  In this memoir, Carter recounts his first campaign for public office in 1962 and his entrance into the political arena.  He also discusses the political climate of the time and how the Civil Rights Movement and other social concerns shaped his vision of how people of faith could join forces to right the wrongs of American society.  This copy is inscribed by President Carter on the first blank preliminary page.

Keeping Faith

Carter, Jimmy.  Keeping Faith.  New York: Bantam Books, 1982.  Drawn from the 5,000-page diary Carter kept during his presidency, Keeping Faith is his candid evaluation of the accomplishments and disappointments of his time in the White House.  The memoir reiterates his sustaining resolve of "keeping faith" in Americans in the hope they would regain belief in themselves (a theme echoed from his other memoir, Turning Points [above]).  This copy is number 1029 of a limited-edition of 2500 slip-cased, leather-bound copies.

The Nobel Prize Lecture

Carter, Jimmy.  The Nobel Peace Prize Lecture.  New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002.  Carter’s remarks upon receiving the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize.  President Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development."  This copy is signed by President Carter on the title page.

Speaking My Mind

Reagan, Ronald.  Speaking My Mind: Selected Speeches.  New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989.  First edition, first printing bound in full Morocco leather, limited to 5000 copies, numbered, and signed by the former president.  Selected by Reagan himself, this collection of speeches reflects his political philosophy and the triumphs, challenges, and tragedies of his years in office.

My Life

Clinton, Bill (William Jefferson).  My Life.  New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004.  Clinton's autobiography, published three years after leaving the White House, is an exhaustive chronological account of his life from his childhood through his presidency.  This copy is number 1400 in a limited-edition of 1500 slip-cased, signed copies.

Portraits of Courage

Bush, George W.  Portraits of Courage: A Commander in Chief’s Tribute to America’s Warriors.  New York: Crown Publishers, 2017.  Portraits of Courage is a collection of oil painting by the former president and stories about the military veterans depicted in his artwork.  This copy is one of an unnumbered, signed, limited, slip-cased edition of 2000 copies.

Shade

Souza, Pete.  Shade: A Tale of Two Presidents.  New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2018.  Souza, the official photographer of both presidents Reagan and Obama, released Shade a year after Trump's inauguration.  Souza uses photographs he took to juxtapose the Obama and Trump administrations.

Fiction

Frost/Nixon

Morgan, Peter.  Frost/Nixon.  London: Faber & Faber, 2006.  First trade (non-acting) edition.  Morgan dramatizes the controversial series of interviews by British journalist David Frost with former US president Richard Nixon in 1977.  Frost's interviews drew out Nixon's now-famous reply, "Well, when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal," as well as Nixon's stunning admission that he participated in a cover-up and "let the American people down."

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Grahame-Smith, Seth.  Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Killer.  New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2010.  Grahame-Smith's fiction is a mash-up novel—a genre-bending combination of biography, horror, and action—in which the historic Abraham Lincoln has a secret identity as a hunter of evil vampires.

The Jefferson Key

Berry, Steve.  The Jefferson Key.  New York: Ballantine Books, 2011.  This work of political fiction speculates that the four presidents who have been assassinated—each murder seemingly unrelated and separated by time—may have all been killed for the same reason: a clause in the US Constitution, in Article 1, Section 8.  This copy is signed by the author on the title page.

The Lincoln Myth

Berry, Steve.  The Lincoln Myth.  New York: Ballantine Books, 2014.  In this work of historical and political fiction, a secret passed down from president to president presents Abraham Lincoln with a conundrum.  This copy is signed by the author on the title page.