George Washington: A Resource Guide

Selected Bibliography

Finding Books by and about George Washington

The Library of Congress online catalog contains more than a hundred subject headings for books related to George Washington. To find works on any of these topics, select Basic Search, and enter the words Washington, George into the search box; then choose the Subject Browse option. You will get the list of Washington-related subject headings. Click on any heading to see a list of titles that have that subject heading; and click on any of the titles to access the book's bibliographic record.

From among the thousands of Washington-related titles in the Library of Congress collections, the bibliography below highlights the most significant editions of works by Washington and a limited selection of biographies and other works particularly useful to general and younger readers.

Selected Works by Washington

Abbot, W.W., et al. , eds. The Papers of George Washington. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia.

The Diaries of George Washington. 6 vols. 1976-79.
LC Call Number: E312.8 1976 [Catalog Record]

Colonial Series. 10 vols. 1983-95.
LC Call Number: E312.72 1983 [Catalog Record]

Revolutionary War Series. Vols. 1- . 1985- .
LC Call Number: E312.72 1985 [Catalog Record]

Confederation Series. 6 vols. 1992-97.
LC Call Number: E312.72 1992 [Catalog Record]

Presidential Series. Vols. 1- . 1987- .
LC Call Number: E312.72 1987 [Catalog Record]

Retirement Series. 4 vols. 1998-99.
LC Call Number: E312.72 1998 [Catalog Record]

Fitzpatrick, John C., ed. The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745-1799; Prepared Under the Direction of the United States George Washington Bicentennial Commission and Published by Authority of Congress, 39 volumes. Washington D.C.: U.S. Govt. Print. Office, 1931-44.
LC Call Number: E312.7 1931 [Catalog Record]

Rhodehame, John H., ed. George Washington: Writings. New York: Library of America, 1997.
LC call number: E312.72 1997 [Catalog Record]

Twohig, Dorothy, ed. George Washington's Diaries: An Abridgment. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1999.
LC Call Number: E312.8 1999 [Catalog Record]

Selected Biographies of Washington

Alden, John R. George Washington: A Biography. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University, 1984.
LC Call Number: E312 .A58 1984 [Catalog Record]

Ellis, Joseph J. His Excellency: George Washington. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004.
LC Call Number: E312 .E245 2004 [Catalog Record]

Flexner, James Thomas. George Washington. 4 vol. Boston: Little, Brown, 1965-1972.
LC Call Number: E312.2 .F6 (v. 1); E312.25 .F69 (v. 2); E312.29 .F55 (v. 3); E312.29 .F56 (v. 4) [Catalog Record: vol. 1; vol. 2; vol. 3; vol. 4]

Flexner, James Thomas. Washington: The Indispensable Man. Boston: Little, Brown. 1974.
LC Call Number: E312 .F556 [Catalog Record]

Freeman, Douglas Southall. George Washington: A Biography. 7 volumes. New York: Scribner, 1948-57.
LC Call Number: E312 .F82 [Catalog Record]

Randall, Willard Sterne. George Washington: A Life. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1997.
LC Call Number: E312 .R196 1997 [Catalog Record]

Selected Works on Facets of Washington’s Life

Achenbach, Joel. The Grand Idea: George Washington's Potomac and the Race to the West. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004.
LC Call Number: F187.P8 A23 2004 [Catalog Record]

Cunliffe, Marcus. George Washington, Man and Monument. Boston: Little, Brown, 1958.
LC Call Number: E312 .C88 [Catalog Record]

Dalzell, Robert F., Jr., and Lee Brown Dalzell. George Washington's Mount Vernon: At Home in Revolutionary America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
LC Call Number: E312.5 .D24 1998 [Catalog Record]

Fischer, David Hackett. Washington's Crossing. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
LC Call Number: E263.P4 F575 2004 [Catalog Record]

Gilbert, Felix. To the Farewell Address: Ideas of Early American Foreign Policy. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1961.
LC Call Number: E310.7 .G5 [Catalog Record]

Henriques, Peter R. Realistic Visionary: A Portrait of George Washington. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2006.
LC Call Number: E312 .H54 2006 [Catalog Record]

Higginbotham, Don. George Washington and the American Military Tradition. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1985.
LC Call Number: E312.17 .H63 1985 [Catalog Record]

Leibiger, Stuart Eric. Founding Friendship: George Washington, James Madison, and the Creation of the American Republic. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1999.
LC Call Number: E312.29 .L45 1999 [Catalog Record]

Longmore, Paul K. The Invention of George Washington. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1988.
LC Call Number: E312.17 .L84 1988 [Catalog Record]

McDonald, Forrest. The Presidency of George Washington. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1974.
LC Call Number: E311 .M12 [Catalog Record]

Morgan, Edmund S. The Genius of George Washington. New York: Norton, 1980.
LC Call Number: E312.63 .M839 1980 [Catalog Record]

Smith, Richard Norton. Patriarch: George Washington and the New American Nation. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1993.
LC Call Number: E312.29 .S65 1993 [Catalog Record]

Wiencek, Henry. An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003.
LC Call Number: E312.17 .W6 2003 [Catalog Record]

Bibliographies

Guidas, John T, and Marilyn K. Parr, comps. The Presidents of the United States: The First Twenty Years. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1993.
LC Call Number: Z1239 .P74 1993 E310 [Catalog Record]

Sayler, James, comp. Presidents of the United States--Their Written Measure: A Bibliography. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1996.
LC Call Number: Z1249.P7 S29 1996 [Catalog Record]

Younger Readers

Adler, David A. George Washington: An Illustrated Biography. New York: Holiday House, 2004.
LC Call Number: E312.66 .A39 2004 [Catalog Record]