# List of autobiographies by presidents of the United States

Many presidents of the United States have written autobiographies about their presidencies and/or (some periods of) their life before their time in office. Some 19th-century U.S. presidents who wrote autobiographies are James Buchanan and Ulysses S. Grant, though Grant's autobiography is about his time as general during the U.S. Civil War and not about his presidency. Presidential memoir has proved to be a lasting and popular genre — every president who survived to the end of their term from Calvin Coolidge to Barack Obama has published one after leaving office, and more recent entries have earned their authors tens of millions of dollars in royalties.

## List of autobiographies
### Covering the period of their presidency

    Note: Only publication information for the first edition is given.
| Title | President | Publisher | Date | ISBN | Notes |
| The Autobiography of Martin Van Buren | Martin Van Buren | U.S. Government Printing Office | 1920 | | Posthumously compiled and edited from Van Buren's manuscript materials by John C. Fitzpatrick. Volume II |
| Mr. Buchanan's Administration on the Eve of Rebellion | James Buchanan | D. Appleton and Company | 1866 | | Link |
| Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography | Theodore Roosevelt | Macmillan | 1913 | | Link |
| The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge | Calvin Coolidge | Cosmopolitan Book Corporation. Previously published serially in the periodical Cosmopolitan | 1929 | | Link |
| The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover | Herbert Hoover | Macmillan | 1951 | | Published in three volumes: Volume 1: Years of Adventure 1874-1920; Volume 2: The Cabinet and the Presidency 1920-1933; Volume 3: The Great Depression 1929-1941. |
| Memoirs: Year of Decisions | Harry S. Truman | Doubleday | 1955 | | |
| Memoirs: Years of Trial and Hope | Harry S. Truman | Doubleday | 1956 | | |
| The Autobiography of Harry S Truman | Harry S. Truman | Colorado Associated University Press | 1980 | ISBN 978-0-870-81090-9 | Posthumously compiled and edited from Truman's manuscript materials by historian Robert Ferrell. |
| White House Years: Mandate for Change | Dwight D. Eisenhower | Doubleday | 1963 | | |
| White House Years: Waging Peace | Dwight D. Eisenhower | Doubleday | 1965 | | |
| At Ease: Stories I Tell to Friends | Dwight D. Eisenhower | Doubleday | 1969 | ISBN 978-0-915-99204-1 | |
| The Vantage Point: Perspectives of the Presidency 1963-1969 | Lyndon B. Johnson | Holt, Rinehart and Winston | 1971 | ISBN 978-0-030-84492-8 | |
| RN - The Memoirs of Richard Nixon | Richard Nixon | Grosset & Dunlap | 1978 | ISBN 978-0-448-14374-3 | |
| In the Arena: A Memoir of Victory, Defeat, and Renewal | Richard Nixon | Simon & Schuster | 1990 | ISBN 978-0-671-70096-6 | |
| A Time to Heal | Gerald Ford | Harper & Row | 1979 | ISBN 978-0-060-11297-4 | |
| Keeping Faith: Memoirs of a President | Jimmy Carter | Bantam Books | 1982 | ISBN 978-0-553-05023-3 | |
| A Full Life: Reflections at 90 | Jimmy Carter | Simon & Schuster | 2015 | ISBN 978-1-501-11563-9 | |
| An American Life | Ronald Reagan | Simon & Schuster | 1990 | ISBN 978-1-451-62839-5 | |
| A World Transformed | George H. W. Bush | Knopf Publishing Group | 1998 | ISBN 978-0-679-43248-7 | |
| My Life | Bill Clinton | Knopf Publishing Group | 2004 | ISBN 978-0-375-41457-2 | |
| Decision Points | George W. Bush | Crown Publishers | 2010 | ISBN 978-0-307-59061-9 | |
| A Promised Land | Barack Obama | Crown Publishers | 2020 | ISBN 978-1-524-76316-9 | |

### Not covering the period of their presidency

| Title | President | Publisher | Date | ISBN |
| The Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson | Thomas Jefferson | | 1821 | |
| Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant | Ulysses S. Grant | Charles L. Webster & Company | 1885–86 | |
| The Rough Riders | Theodore Roosevelt | Charles Scribner's Sons | 1899 | |
| Mr. Citizen | Harry S. Truman | Independence Press | 1960 | ISBN 978-0830900954 |
| Crusade in Europe | Dwight D. Eisenhower | Doubleday | 1948 | ISBN 978-0-8018-5668-6 |
| Six Crises | Richard Nixon | Doubleday | 1962 | ISBN 978-0-385-00125-0 |
| Where's the Rest of Me? | Ronald Reagan | Duell, Sloan and Pearce | 1965 | ISBN 978-0-918294-16-6 |
| Why Not the Best?: The First Fifty Years | Jimmy Carter | Broadman Press | 1975 | ISBN 978-0-8054-5582-3 |
| Turning Point: A Candidate, a State, and a Nation Come of Age | Jimmy Carter | Three Rivers Press | 1993 | ISBN 978-0-8129-2299-8 |
| An Hour Before Daylight: Memories of a Rural Boyhood | Jimmy Carter | Simon & Schuster | 2001 | ISBN 978-0-7432-1199-4 |
| Looking Forward | George H. W. Bush | Doubleday | 1987 | ISBN 978-0-385-14181-9 |
| A Charge to Keep | George W. Bush | William Morrow & Company | 1999 | ISBN 978-0-688-17441-5 |
| Dreams from My Father | Barack Obama | Times Books | 1995 | ISBN 978-1-4000-8277-3 |
| The Audacity of Hope | Barack Obama | Crown/Three Rivers Press | 2006 | ISBN 978-0-307-23769-9 |
| Trump: The Art of the Deal | Donald Trump | Random House | 1987 | ISBN 978-0-446-35325-0 |
| Trump: Surviving at the Top | Donald Trump | Random House | 1990 | ISBN 978-0-394-57597-1 |
| Trump: The Art of the Comeback | Donald Trump | Times Books | 1997 | ISBN 978-0812929645 |
| Promises to Keep | Joe Biden | Random House | 2007 | ISBN 978-1-4000-6536-3 |
| Promise Me, Dad | Joe Biden | Flatiron Books | 2017 | ISBN 978-1250171672 |

## Published diaries and papers

| Title | President | Editor | Publisher | Date | ISBN |
| The Diary of James K. Polk | James K. Polk | | | | |
| The Diary of James A. Garfield | James A. Garfield | | | | |
| The Eisenhower Diaries | Dwight D. Eisenhower | Robert Ferrell | W W Norton & Co Inc | 1976 | ISBN 978-0-393-33180-6 |
| Prelude to Leadership: The European Diary of John F. Kennedy: Summer 1945 | John F. Kennedy | | Regnery Publishing | 1995 | ISBN 978-0-89526-459-6 |
| The Letters of John F. Kennedy | John F. Kennedy | Martin W. Sandler | Bloomsbury Press | 2013 | ISBN 978-1-60819-271-7 |
| Richard Nixon: Speeches, Writings, Documents | Richard Nixon | Rick Perlstein | Princeton University Press | 2010 | ISBN 978-1-4008-3568-3 |
| White House Diary | Jimmy Carter | | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 2010 | ISBN 978-0-374-28099-4 |
| The Reagan Diaries | Ronald Reagan | Douglas Brinkley | HarperCollins | 2007 | ISBN 978-0-06-087600-5 |
| All the Best | George H. W. Bush | | Scribner | 1999 | ISBN 978-0-684-83958-5 |