David McCullough

Biography

David McCullough, author of the bestseller 1776,  is twice winner of the National Book Award and twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize.  He has been called a “master of the art of narrative history.”  His books have been praised for their exceptional narrative sweep, their scholarship and insight into American life, and for their literary distinction.  

His latest book, 1776, has been called “brilliant,” “lucid,” “gripping,” “a masterwork,” “a classic,” and has been a continuing national triumph from the time of publication last June when it came on the New York Times bestseller list at number one.  Mr. McCullough’s previous work, John Adams, remains one of the most critically acclaimed and widely read American biographies of all time.  To date more than two million copies have been sold. 

Gordon Wood, writing in the New York Review of Books, said of John Adams, “McCullough’s special gift as an artist is his ability to recreate past human beings in all their fullness and all their humanity.”

In the words of the citation accompanying his honorary degree from Yale, “As an historian, he paints with words, giving us pictures of the American people that live, breath, and above all, confront the fundamental issues of courage, achievement, and moral character.”

Marie Arana, writing in the Washington Post, has said, “McCullough is one of our most gifted writers.”

His other books include The Johnstown Flood, The Great Bridge, The Path between the Seas, Mornings on Horseback, Brave Companions, and Truman.  As may be said of few writers, none of his books has ever been out of print.

David McCullough is as well twice winner of the prestigious Francis Parkman Prize.  For his work overall he has been honored by the National Book Foundation Distinguished Contribution to American Letters Award, the National Humanities Medal, and the New York Public Library's Literary Lion Award. He is past president of the Society of American Historians.  He has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.  He has received 38 honorary degrees.

In a crowded, productive career, he has been an editor, essayist, teacher, lecturer, and familiar presence on public television -- as host of Smithsonian World, The American Experience, and narrator of numerous documentaries including The Civil War.  His is also the narrator’s voice in Seabiscuit.

A gifted speaker, Mr. McCullough has lectured in all parts of the country and abroad, as well as at the White House.  He is also one of the few private citizens to speak before a joint session of Congress.

Born in Pittsburgh, Mr. McCullough was educated there and at Yale, where he was graduated with honors in English literature.  He is an avid reader, traveler, and has enjoyed a lifelong interest in art and architecture.  He is as well a landscape painter.  Mr. McCullough and his wife Rosalee Barnes McCullough have five children