My sketchbooks: a catalog
As my sketchbooks have piled up, it’s harder and harder for me to find the doodles I’m looking for. In an effort to make my life easier, here’s a catalog of the books doodled in each. This my reference only, so you needn’t read this post.
Since this is not for you, I don’t need to mention that if you want to see books sorted by president, you can see my bibliography. Or that if you want to know more about my project, maybe check out my origin story instead. Again, this is just a boring list so if I were to wonder, not hypothetically, which sketchbook my whale doodles are in… I don’t need to lug my stash of sketchbooks until I find it. I can just search on this page for “Unfamiliar Fishes” and boom! The whale doodles are in sketchbook #7!
— 1 —
Truman, by David McCullough
The Remarkable Education of John Quincy Adams, by Phyllis Lee Levin
A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety, by Jimmy Carter
FDR: A Biography, by Ted Morgan
The Memoirs of Richard Nixon, by Richard Nixon
Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan, by Edmund Morris
James Madison: The American Presidents Series: The 4th President, 1809-1817, by Garry Wills
The Unexpected President: The Life and Times of Chester A. Arthur, by Scott S. Greenberger
Woodrow Wilson: A Biography, by John Milton Cooper, Jr.
— 2 —
Woodrow Wilson: A Biography, by John Milton Cooper, Jr. (continued)
Time and Chance: Gerald Ford’s Appointment with History, by James Cannon
Coolidge, by Amity Shlaes
The American Presidents Series: The 23rd President, 1889-1893, by Charles W. Calhoun
Herbert Hoover: A Life, by Glen Jeansonne
President McKinley: Architect of the American Century, by Robert W. Merry
The Case Against Sugar, by Gary Taubes
— 3 —
William Henry Harrison: The American Presidents Series: The 9th President, 1841, by Gail Collins
William Howard Taft: An Intimate History, by Judith Icke Anderson
The American Presidents Series: The 29th President, 1921-1923, by John W. Dean
The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation’s Call to Greatness, by Harlow Giles Unger
Martin Van Buren: The American Presidents Series: The 8th President, 1837-1841, by Ted Widmer
The Remarkable Millard Fillmore: The Unbelievable Life of a Forgotten President, by George Pendle
🦄Despite the fact that Fillmore is riding on a unicorn on the cover, I didn’t realize this was misfiled at the library. It’s an untrue account of a bunch of things that couldn’t possibly be true, but were in fact, true. Read it alongside the book below, for comparison.
Millard Fillmore: The American Presidents Series: The 13th President, 1850-1853, by Paul Finkelman
Grover Cleveland: A Study of Character, by Alyn Brodsky
— 4 —
Grover Cleveland: A Study of Character, by Alyn Brodsky (continued)
You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington, by Alexis Coe
Decision Points, by George W. Bush
Rutherford B. Hayes: Warrior and President, by Ari Hoogenboom
Franklin Pierce: The American Presidents Series: The 14th President, 1853-1857, by Michael F. Holt
Andrew Johnson: The American Presidents Series: The 17th President, 1865-1869, by Annette Gordon-Reed
Bosom Friends: The Intimate World of James Buchanan and William Rufus King, by Thomas J. Balcerski
— 5 —
Bosom Friends: The Intimate World of James Buchanan and William Rufus King, by Thomas J. Balcerski (continued)
Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President, by Candice Millard
The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey, by Candice Millard
Zachary Taylor: Soldier, Planter, Statesman of the Old Southwest, by K. Jack Bauer
Joe Biden: The Life, the Run, and What Matters Now, by Evan Osnos
Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose, by Joe Biden
John Quincy Adams: A Public Life, a Private Life, by Paul C. Nagel
Bob’s Folly: Fulton,Livingston and the Steamboat, by Travis M. Bowman
— 6 —
The Daughters of Yalta: The Churchills, Roosevelts, and Harrimans: A Story of Love and War, by Catherine Grace Katz
Grant’s Tomb: The Epic Death of Ulysses S. Grant and the Making of an American Pantheon, by Louis L. Picone
The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz, by Erik Larson
Clean: The New Science of Skin and the Beauty of Doing Less, by James Hamblin
🧼🫧Seven presidents showed up when I was trying to take a break!
Bag Man: The Wild Crimes, Audacious Cover-Up, and Spectacular Downfall of a Brazen Crook in the White House, by Rachel Maddow and Michael Yarvitz
Harry Truman’s Excellent Adventure: The True Story of a Great American Road Trip, by Matthew Algeo
All the Shah’s Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror, by Stephen Kinzer
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, by Edmund Morris
I had some beefs with this one.
Mobituaries: Great Lives Worth Reliving, by Mo Rocca
The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution, by Dr. Lindsay M. Chervinsky
— 7 —
The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution, by Dr. Lindsay M. Chervinsky (continued)
Travels with George: In Search of Washington and His Legacy, by Nathaniel Philbrick
The President Is Dead! The Extraordinary Stories of Presidential Deaths, Final Days, Burials, and Beyond, by Louis L. Picone
First Women: The Grace and Power of America's Modern First Ladies, by Kate Andersen Brower
Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America, by Nancy MacLean
American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, by Joseph J. Ellis
Heirs of the Founders: Henry Clay, John Calhoun and Daniel Webster, the Second Generation of American Giants, by H. W. Brands
A Man of Iron: The Turbulent Life and Improbable Presidency of Grover Cleveland, by Troy Senik
Unfamiliar Fishes, by Sarah Vowell
— 8 —
Unfamiliar Fishes, by Sarah Vowell (continued)
Roosevelt Sweeps Nation: FDR’s 1936 Landslide and the Triumph of the Liberal Ideal, by David Pietrusza
The Humanity Archive: Recovering the Soul of Black History from a Whitewashed American Myth, by Jermaine Fowler
Presidential Grave Hunter: One Kid’s Quest to Visit the Tombs of Every President and Vice President, by Kurt Deion
America Redux: Visual Stories from Our Dynamic History, by Ariel Aberg-Riger
The Last of the President’s Men, by Bob Woodward
— 9 —
The Last of the President’s Men, by Bob Woodward (continued)
The First Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill George Washington, by Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch
The First Lady of World War II: Eleanor Roosevelt’s Daring Journey to the Frontlines and Back, by Shannon McKenna Schmidt
— 10 —
The First Lady of World War II: Eleanor Roosevelt’s Daring Journey to the Frontlines and Back, by Shannon McKenna Schmidt (continued)
When Harry Met Pablo: Truman, Picasso, and the Cold War Politics of Modern Art, by Matthew Algeo
Becoming Queen Victoria: The Unexpected Rise of Britain’s Greatest Monarch, by Kate Williams
Same Bed Different Dreams: A Novel, by Ed Park
Gallop Toward the Sun: Tecumseh and William Henry Harrison's Struggle for the Destiny of a Nation, by Peter Stark
— 11 —
Gallop Toward the Sun: Tecumseh and William Henry Harrison's Struggle for the Destiny of a Nation, by Peter Stark
An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s, by Doris Kearns Goodwin
The Vice President’s Black Wife: The Untold Life of Julia Chinn, by Amrita Chakrabarti Myers
The Truths We Hold: An American Journey, by Kamala Harris
— 12 —
The Truths We Hold: An American Journey, by Kamala Harris (continued)
Carnegie’s Maid, by Marie Benedict
1920: The Year of the Six Presidents, by David Pietrusza
Black Americans, Civil Rights, and the Roosevelts, 1932-1962, by Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum
— 13 —
Black Americans, Civil Rights, and the Roosevelts, 1932-1962, by Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum (continued)
Unnecessary postscripts:
The more I learned, the more things became interesting, the more I doodled.
Plus, the sketchbook paper seemed to have gotten thinner, so I could no longer use the entire page without it bleeding through. (Made for easier scanning and more favorable dimensions for the videos flipping through my sketchbooks. But an annoying change and waste of paper nevertheless.)
