Revered as a general and trusted as America's first elected leader, George Washington is considered a great many things in the contemporary imagination, but an intellectual is not one of them. In correcting this longstanding misconception, The Books in George Washington's Life offers a stimulating literary biography that traces the effects of a life spent in self-improvement.

Kevin J. Hayes, Emeritus Professor at the University of Central Oklahoma, now lives and writes in Toledo, Ohio. He is the author of several books including The Road to Monticello: The Life and Mind of Thomas Jefferson (Oxford, 2008) and A Journey through American Literature (Oxford, 2012). He is the recipient of the Virginia Library History Award presented by the Library of Virginia and the Virginia Center for the Book. He is also the recipient of research fellowships from the Boston Athenaeum, the Library Company of Philadelphia, the Lilly Library, the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies, and the Virginia Historical Society.

• Preface


• 1. Meditations and Contemplations


• 2. Every Boy His Own Teacher


• 3. Exemplars


• 4. Travel Writing


• 5. The Journal of Major George Washington


• 6. A Memorial Containing a Summary View of Facts


• 7. Home and Garden


• 8. George Washington, Bibliographer


• 9. The Education of John Parke Custis


• 10. Revolutionary Pamphlets


• 11. Common Sense and Independence


• 12. A Green Baize Bookcase


• 13. Planning for Retirement


• 14. Haven of History


• 15. The Slave, the Quaker, and the Panopticon


• 16. Politics and the Picaresque


• 17. Presidential Patronage and the Development of American Literature


• 18. Official Letters to the Honorable American Congress


• 19. Farewell Address


• 20. Home at Last


• Sources


• Index