The President's Library: Books That Shaped Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, FDR and Others

This unusual and unique presentation explores books that shaped some of the most powerful men ever to sit in the Oval Office. We will discuss  George Washington’s obsession with a play about a Roman freedom fighter, how Thomas Jefferson came to have the largest personal library in America, what drew Abraham Lincoln to Shakespeare so obsessively, which poet FDR memorized as a child and read throughout his life, and even JFK’s favorite “spy” novelist!

Joseph Luzzi is a Literature Professor at Bard College, and was previously a Visiting Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, where he received the Scaglione Prize for his teaching. Professor Luzzi previously taught at Yale University, where he was awarded a Yale College Teaching Prize.