Hello.
The Library of Congress catalog lists 3756 books under the category,
"Presidents--United States--Biography."
Of those biographies, 327 are about Abraham Lincoln, making him the
leader. Benjamin Harrison brings up the rear with 10.
I used the Library of Congress catalog's guided search feature:
http://catalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?DB=local&PAGE=First
I did a "subject all" search for each president along with:
united states presidents biography (subject authorized)
Note that for the Adams & Bush father-son presidencies, it's
necessary to restrict each search to the president's appropriate year
of birth so as to avoid duplication.
Here are the results:
George Washington: 265
John Adams (1735-1826): 80
Thomas Jefferson: 150
James Madison: 45
James Monroe: 24
John Quincy Adams (1767-1848): 51
Andrew Jackson: 56
Martin Van Buren: 18
William Henry Harrison: 16
John Tyler: 15
James K. Polk: 19
Zachary Taylor: 15
Millard Fillmore: 12
Franklin Pierce: 12
James Buchanan: 11
Abraham Lincoln: 327
Andrew Johnson: 17
Ulysses S. Grant: 64
Rutherford B. Hayes: 20
James A. Garfield: 22
Chester A. Arthur: 16
Grover Cleveland: 13
Benjamin Harrison: 10
William McKinley: 16
Theodore Roosevelt: 121
William H. Taft: 20
Woodrow Wilson: 74
Warren G. Harding: 19
Calvin Coolidge: 27
Herbert Hoover: 38
Franklin Delano Roosevelt: 140
Harry Truman: 84
Dwight D. Eisenhower: 88
John F. Kennedy: 162
Lyndon B. Johnson: 67
Richard M. Nixon: 85
Gerald R. Ford: 20
Jimmy Carter: 98
Ronald Reagan: 114
George H.W. Bush (1924- ): 51
Bill Clinton: 123
George W. Bush (1946- ): 60
It's important to note that the Library of Congress does not own every
book published, so there are some books not covered by this list.
Also, the LOC's classification system is somewhat inconsistent, so
there may even be a few presidential biographies that the LOC owns
that aren't covered by this list. On the whole, though, the LOC has
the best collection in the country by far, so the results here
undoubtedly provide a more than representative of the total
presidential biographies published.
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search strategy:
library of congress catalog
I hope this helps. If you have any questions, please let me know. Thanks. |
