Throughout the history of American fiction, many authors have featured fictionalized versions of actual U.S. Presidents in their novels and short stories. The following is a list of prominent novels featuring actual Presidents and their families in fictional tales. The Presidents and their First Ladies about whom Lincoln City Libraries owns adult fiction books are listed here in order of their terms of office.
George Washington [1789-1797]
Christian Cameron — Washington and Caesar
Mary Higgins Clark — Aspire to the Heavens [a.k.a. Mount Vernon Love Story]
Howard Fast — The Unvanquished
David Garland — Valley Forge
Newt Gingrich — To Try Men’s Souls
Zane Grey — George Washington, Frontiersman
Katherine Kurtz — Two Crowns for America
William Martin — Citizen Washington
Nancy Moser — Washington’s Lady
Irving Stone — Those Who Love
Ron Burns — Enslaved: A Mystery
Max Byrd — Jefferson
Barbara Chase-Riboud — The President’s Daughter
Barbara Chase-Riboud — Sally Hemings
Roberta Grimes — My Thomas
Jane Langton — Murder at Monticello
William Safire — Scandalmonger
Connie Briscoe — A Long Way From Home
David Nevin — Eagle’s Cry
David Nevin — Treason
Dorothy Clarke Wilson — Queen Dolley: The Life and Times of Dolley Madison
Max Byrd — Jackson
Alfred L. Crabb — Home to the Hermitage
Eric Flint — The Rivers of War
Noel Gerson — Old Hickory
David Nevin — Eagle’s Cry
Irving Stone — The President’s Lady
Paul I. Wellman — Magnificent Destiny
Noel Gerson — The Slender Reed
John Updike — Memories of the Ford Administration
Seth Grahame-Smith – Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter
Benjamin King — A Bullet for Lincoln
Christopher Leppek — The Surrogate Assassin
Thomas Mallon — Henry and Clara
Helen Topping Miller — Christmas for Tad
Honore Morrow — Great Captain: The Lincoln Trilogy
David Robertson — Booth
William Safire — Freedom
Richard Slotkin — Abe
Philip Van Doren Stern — The Man Who Killed Lincoln
Irving Stone — Love is Eternal
Gore Vidal — Lincoln
Connie Willis — Lincoln’s Dreams
Noel Gerson — The Yankee From Tennessee
Max Byrd — Grant
Newt Gingrich — Grant Comes East
Newt Gingrich — Never Call Retreat
Ted Jones — Grant’s War
Ann Parker — Iron Ties
Richard Parry — That Fateful Lightning
Jeff Shaara — The Last Full Measure
Robert Skimin — Ulysses
Lawrence Alexander — Speak Softly: A Theodore Roosevelt Mystery
Matt Braun — Dakota
Brian Garfield — Manifest Destiny
Noel Gerson — TR
Martin Blinder — Fluke
Glen David Gold — Carter Beats the Devil
John Derbyshire — Seeing Calvin Coolidge in a Dream
Ellen Feldman — Lucy
Rhoda Lerman — Eleanor — The Sands of Sakkara
David Poyer — The Only Thing to Fear
Elliott Roosevelt — New Deal For Death
Elliott Roosevelt — The President’s Man
Thomas Mallon — Dewey Defeats Truman
Don DeLillo — Libra
Don DeLillo — The Names
Stephen Frey — The Legacy
William Harrington — Columbo: The Grassy Knoll
Homer H. Hickam — The Ambassador’s Son
Robert Mayer — I, JFK
Mel McKinney — Where There’s Smoke
Jed Mercurio — American Adulterer
David Poyer — The Only Thing to Fear
Mario Puzo — The Fourth K
Marly Swick — Paper Wings
Robert Tannenbaum — Corruption of Blood
D.M. Thomas — Flying in to Love
John Ehrlichman — The China Card
Homer H. Hickam — The Ambassador’s Son
Jonathan Lowy — Elvis and Nixon
John Updike — Memories of the Ford Administration
Peter Delacorte — Time on My Hands
Lydia Millet — George Bush, Dark Prince of Love
Joe Eszterhas — American Rhapsody
R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. and “Anonymous” — The Impeachment of William Jefferson Clinton: A Political Docu-Drama
These adult fiction books do not have actual U.S. Presidents as the main subject, but rather feature fictional Presidents.
[anonymous] — Primary ColorsMany more novels about the U.S. Civil War and World War II feature Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Delano Roosevelt prominently. You can see lists of these by doing a subject search under either United States — History — 1861-1865 (Civil War) — Fiction or World War — 1939-1945 — Fiction.
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Printed List February 2000 bwc | Updated and expanded for the Web February 2004 sdc / Last updated and expanded November 2016 sdc