Many presidents of the United States have written autobiographies about their presidencies and/or (some periods of) their life before their time in office. Some 19th-century U.S. presidents who wrote autobiographies are James Buchanan and Ulysses S. Grant, though Grant's autobiography is about his time as general during the U.S. Civil War and not about his presidency. Presidential memoir has proved to be a lasting and popular genre — every president who survived to the end of their term from Calvin Coolidge to Barack Obama has published one after leaving office, and more recent entries have earned their authors tens of millions of dollars in royalties. In addition to ensuring financial security, presidential autobiographies are also written to defend or rehabilitate presidential legacies.
List of autobiographies
Covering the period of their presidency
- Note: Only publication information for the first edition is given.
Not covering the period of their presidency
Published diaries and papers
See also
- List of memoirs by first ladies of the United States
- List of American political memoirs
Notes
Further reading
- Trex, Ethan (September 9, 2010), "A Brief History of Presidential Memoirs", mental floss
- Robinson, Joshua (November 8, 2010), "A Brief History of the Presidential Memoir", The Daily Beast
External links
Free-access presidential autobiographical works
- Thomas Jefferson's autobiography
- Martin Van Buren's autobiography
- James Buchanan's autobiography
- Ulysses S. Grant's autobiography
- Theodore Roosevelt's autobiography
- Calvin Coolidge's autobiography
- Herbert Hoover's autobiography
