As of 2019, there have been 44 different men serve as President of the United States. If you’re wondering why that number seems to be off by one, remember that Grover Cleveland served twice and was the 22nd & 24th President of the United States.
But as Abigal Adams wrote to John when he was the Continental Congress, “Remember the ladies!” Heeding her words we’ve collected a list of books about first ladies.
Did you know there have been 46 different First Ladies?
Both John Tyler and Woodrow Wilson’s wives died during their term and remarried while in office.
If you prefer podcasts we dedicated a month to First Ladies and have an episode on Michelle Obama, Harriet Lane, Edith Wilson, Florence Harding, and Martha Washington.
Here is a list not only for you to read and devour but we could also use these books for the library! Donation info.
Don’t forget to use Smile.Amazon.com with Gal’s Guide as your supporting charity!
1st First Lady: Martha Washington: An American Life by Patricia Brady
2nd First Lady: Dearest Friend: A Life of Abigail Adams by Lynne Withey (Bonus Book Option) Abigail Adams: Witness to a Revolution by Natalie S. Bober
3rd First Lady: Sally of Monticello: Founding Mother by N. M. Ledgin
4th First Lady: Queen Dolley: The Life and Times of Dolley Madison by Dorothy Clarke Wilson
5th First Lady: Elizabeth Kortright Monroe Pamphlet – 1987 by James E Wootton
6th First Lady: Louisa: The Extraordinary Life of Mrs. Adams by Louisa Thomas (Bonus Book Option) Louisa Catherine: The Other Mrs. Adams by Margery M. Heffron
10th First Lady: And Tyler Too A Biography Of John And Julia Gardiner Tyler by Robert Seager
11th First Lady: Lady First: The World of First Lady Sarah Polk by Amy S. Greenberg (Bonus Book Option) Sarah Childress Polk: A Biography of the Remarkable First Lady by John R., M.D. Bumgarner
14th First Lady: Jane Means Appleton Pierce: U.S. First Lady (1853-1857): Her Family, Life and Times by Ann Covell
15th First Lady*: Harriet Lane, First Lady of the White House by Mary Virginia Shelley *James Buchanan was a bachelor when he took office so his niece, Harriet Lane acted as the 15th First Lady.
16th First Lady: Mrs. Lincoln: A Life by Catherine Clinton (Bonus Book Option) Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckly: The Remarkable Story of the Friendship Between a First Lady and a Former Slave by Jennifer Fleischner
17th First Lady: First Lady: Eliza Johnson in Perspective (The Presidential Wives Series) by Jean Choate
18th First Lady: The Personal Memoirs of Julia Dent Grant (Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant) by Julia Dent Grant
19th First Lady: First Lady: The Life of Lucy Webb Hayes by Emily Apt Geer
20th First Lady: Lucretia (Volume in the Presidential Wives Series) by John Shaw (Bonus Book Option) Crete and James: Personal Letters of Lucretia and James Garfield by John Shaw
23rd First Lady: Caroline Lavinia Scott Harrison (Presidential Wives) by Anne Chieko Moore
24th First Lady: Rose Elizabeth Cleveland: First Lady and Literary Scholar by Sirpa Salenius (Bonus Book Option) The Bride of the White House: The Wedding of Grover Cleveland & Frances Folsom by Francis Howard Williams
25th First Lady: Ida McKinley: The Turn-of-the-Century First Lady Through War, Assassination, and Secret Disability by Carl Sferrazza Anthony
26th First Lady: Edith Kermit Roosevelt: Portrait of a First Lady (Modern Library) by Sylvia Jukes Morris
27th First Lady: Nellie Taft: The Unconventional First Lady of the Ragtime Era Paperback by Carl Sferrazza Anthony
28th First Lady 1913-1914: The priceless gift: The love letters of Woodrow Wilson and Ellen Axson Wilson by Woodrow Wilson
28th First Lady 1915-1921: Madam President: The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson by William Hazelgrove (Bonus Book Option) My Memoir by Edith Bolling Wilson
29th First Lady: Florence Harding: The First Lady, the Jazz Age, and the Death of America’s Most Scandalous President by Carl Sferrazza Anthony (Bonus Book Option) First Lady Florence Harding: Behind the Tragedy and Controversy (Modern First Ladies) by Katherine A. S. Sibley
31th First Lady: Lou Henry Hoover: Activist First Lady (Modern First Ladies) by Nancy Beck Young
32nd First Lady: The Firebrand and the First Lady: Portrait of a Friendship: Pauli Murray, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Struggle for Social Justice by Patricia Bell-Scott (Bonus Book Option) Mother and Daughter: The Letters of Eleanor and Anna Roosevelt by Bernard Asbell
34th First Lady: Mamie Doud Eisenhower: The General’s First Lady (Modern First Ladies) by Marilyn Irvin Holt (Bonus Book Option) Mrs. Ike: Memories and Reflections on the Life of Mamie Eisenhower by Susan Eisenhower
35th First Lady: Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis: The Untold Story by Barbara Leaming (Bonus Book Option) JACKIE KENNEDY ONASSIS: A Jackie Kennedy Biography by Katy Holborn
36th First Lady: Lady Bird Johnson: Our Environmental First Lady by Lewis L. Gould
37th First Lady: First Lady from Plains: Rosalynn Carter by Rosalynn Carter
38th First Lady: Elizabeth Bloomer Ford (Encyclopedia of First Ladies) by Dan Santow
40th First Lady: My Turn: The Memoirs of Nancy Reagan by Nancy Reagan
41st First Lady: Barbara Pierce Bush (Encyclopedia of First Ladies) by Judith E. Greenberg (Bonus Book Option) Barbara Bush: A Memoir by Barbara Bush
42nd First Lady: Hard Choices: A Memoir By Hillary Rodham Clinton
43rd First Lady: Spoken from the Heart by Laura Bush
44th First Lady: Becoming by Michelle Obama
45th First Lady: Melania Trump: Model and First Lady (Leading Women) by Bethany Bryan
On the Subject of First Ladies
- First Mothers: The Women Who Shaped the Presidents by Bonnie Angelo
- First Women: The Grace and Power of America’s Modern First Ladies by Kate Andersen Brower
- First Ladies: Presidential Historians on the Lives of 45 Iconic American Women by Susan Swain
- First Ladies and American Women: In Politics and at Home by Jill Abraham Hummer
- First Ladies of the Republic: Martha Washington, Abigail Adams, Dolley Madison, and the Creation of an Iconic American Role by Jeanne E. Abrams
- The First Ladies by Margaret Brown Klapthor
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