Like many of you, I’m fascinated by American history. I also happen to love great biographies.

In 2008 I began assembling a collection of the best biographies I could find covering a wide range of politicians, entertainers, explorers, military leaders and entrepreneurs.

But I soon realized there was one area where my interest in American history and love of great biographies intersected perfectly: presidential biographies.

So I shifted my focus and tried to identify the very best biography of each president. For a few presidents it was difficult to find even one good biography. But in most cases it seemed impossible to narrow the field to just one. So instead of limiting myself to a single biography per president I decided to collect as many great biographies on each as I could find.

By 2012 my collection grew to about 125 biographies and I decided it was time to embark on a special mission: to read and review every one of these books with the goal of finding the single best biography for each president.

I started with nine biographies of George Washington and have worked through the presidents in order. With your suggestions and a steady stream of great new biographies, my list has grown to 240 presidential biographies. As of mid-2017, I’m nearly 80% of the way through my expanded list.

***December 2013 – It’s hard to believe it has been a year! Here is my One-Year Anniversary Post (Part 1) and my One-Year Anniversary Post (Part 2).

***December 2014 – It has now been two years! Here is my Two-Year Anniversary Post.

***December 2015 – Three years!  Here is my Three-Year Anniversary Post.

***December 2016 – Still going strong! Here’s the Four-Year Anniversary Post.

***December 2017 – Wow…This is the Five-Year Anniversary Post!

***Presidents’ Day 2019 – The “I’m Finally Finished!” Post