Here’s every U.S. president and their preferred read.
Here’s every U.S. president and their preferred read.
Here’s every U.S. president and their preferred read.
Served: 1829-1837Book: The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver GoldsmithA president doesn’t earn the nickname “Old Hickory” by being well read. Jackson, most would agree, wasn't exactly a scholar. Some have argued that criticism of Jackson’s non-literary attributes were a bit unfair and somewhat unfounded. Yet the common claim is that the only non-secular book that he’d read was the Victorian melodrama The Vicar of Wakefield. The truth of such a claim is doubtful, but it appears that Jackson really did hold the book in high regard.
Here’s every U.S. president and their preferred read.
Served: 1901-1909Book: Influence of Sea Power Upon History by Alfred Thayer MahanTeddy Roosevelt found himself something of a kindred spirit when Alfred Mahan published his cornerstone of naval history in 1890. Roosevelt was in New York at the time, working on the Civil Service commission, but that didn’t stop him from writing to Mahan and beginning a relationship that would last for years, which became especially useful when Roosevelt was appointed assistant secretary of The Navy years later, and became the president who launched "The Great White Fleet" after that.
Served: 1897-1901Book: Collected poems by Lord ByronWilliam McKinley was the last president who was also a veteran of the Civil War. As a boy growing up in Ohio, he developed an affinity for romantic poets like Longfellow, Whittier, and Byron. In fact, McKinley reportedly brought a book of Bryon’s poems with him on his way to fight in the war. Of course, as one biographer explained he had to give up the Byron in exchange “for the more pertinent pages of Hardee’s Tactics — a military manual.”
Here’s every U.S. president and their preferred read.
Here’s every U.S. president and their preferred read.
Here’s every U.S. president and their preferred read.
Here’s every U.S. president and their preferred read.
Here’s every U.S. president and their preferred read.
Here’s every U.S. president and their preferred read.
Here’s every U.S. president and their preferred read.
Here’s every U.S. president and their preferred read.
Here’s every U.S. president and their preferred read.
The 44th President of the United States will be a guest of honor and keynote speaker at the Global Summit in Seville, Spain.
Served: 1981-1989Book: The Hunt for Red October by Tom ClancyNo novelist and president have ever been linked quite like Tom Clancy and Ronald Reagan. Clancy wrote his first novel, The Hunt for Red October, while working as an insurance agent. It was the first novel published by the U.S. Naval Institute Press and was given to Reagan as a gift. The president then mentioned the book in a press conference, calling it “"unputdownable." The praise helped launch Clancy’s career and led to a decades-long association between the two, with Clancy’s style often described as being a product of the Reagan era.
Served: 1881-1885Book: Something by Charles Dickens or William Makepeace ThackerayChester A. Arthur was a relative unknown thrust into the presidency, but his dedication to reform earned him public gratitude by the time he retired at the end of his term, due to poor health. In summing up his career, one journalist wrote, “No man ever entered the Presidency so profoundly and widely distrusted as Chester Alan Arthur, and no one ever retired... more generally respected, alike by political friend and foe." Arthur’s biographers don’t mention any specific book or novel that he loved but one does mention that he enjoyed reading either Dickens or Thackeray in his off time, while another cites him frequently quoting both.
Served: January 20, 1961 – November 22, 1963Book: From Russia with Love by Ian FlemmingThe pairing of James Bond and John Kennedy really isn’t that shocking, since both were icons of the early 60s. But the connection goes deeper that. He’d gotten into the Bond series after a friend had given him a copy of Casino Royale while recovering from back problems. The last film that Kennedy ever saw was a private screening at the White House of the film version of From Russia with Love, shortly leaving for Dallas.
