Before Abraham Lincoln wrote the Gettysburg Address, his book Political Debates was a surprise bestseller, propelling him into the limelight. Yet his literary triumph is not as unique as it may sound; here Craig Fehrman surveys the overlapping spheres of publication and the presidency, including Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia (the first presidential book to influence a campaign) and John Adams's Autobiography (the first score-settling retirement memoir). Here too are well known books like Barack Obama's Dreams from My Father and Donald Trump's Art of the Deal, alongside unpublished letters from Andrew Jackson, John F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan.