When Thomas Jefferson wrote Notes on the State of Virginia in 1785, he had no idea that he would be the Founding Father of a trend. US Presidents have written over 150 books since that time, creating an entire genre of presidential literature. The Presidents’ Pen offers easy-to-read synopses of the writings of sixteen chief executives and how their works impacted their lives and legacies. Presidential researcher Jeffrey Margolis investigates the back-stories of many of these books; He poses the question as to where the president attended college had in impact on their writing skills. Although being a good writer is not a requirement to be President of the United States, the five chief executives who were Harvard alums, possessed excellent writing skills that were evidenced in their works.

The writings of Theodore Roosevelt (Harvard, class of 1880) are most notable, not just because he was the most prolific of the presidential writers, but because his first major work, The Naval War of 1812, became... READ MORE