The House Tells the Story: Homes of the American Presidents

"An utter delight...it opens windows into the history of this country by showing how some of this country's makers and shapers lived."--Wall Street Journal.

From Teddy Roosevelt's estate, Sagamore Hill, on Long Island to Harry Truman's humble home in Independence, Missouri, here are the homes--inside and out--of 15 American presidents through an artist's eyes. Adam Van Doren has a deep appreciation for architecture and the ways people shape their environments. About Mount Vernon: "Subtler touches, like the cupola, the faux rustication, and the red roof are all evidence of Washington's refined sense of how to transform an ordinary farmhouse into a stately manor." At Franklin Roosevelt's Hyde Park home, Van Doren emphasizes its accommodations for F.D.R.'s wheelchair. From Monticello in Virginia to Wheatland, the Pennsylvania home of James Buchanan, to Prairie Chapel Ranch in Crawford, Texas - plus the White House, where all but the first president lived - Van Doren records each home's style and heritage. All giving the reader a fresh look at America's presidents and their lives and times.

Adam Van Doren received a Master's in architecture from Columbia University and has been a Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome. He teaches at Yale University and has exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., among other institutions. His work is included in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The Wadsworth Atheneum, and The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

David McCullough is a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize as well as the National Book Award, and has received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award. An avid reader and traveler, as well as a devoted painter, he has maintained a lifelong interest in art and architecture.