Overview

""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.

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9781567925425

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Reviews

Praise for The House Tells the Story: Homes of the American Presidents Gorgeous paintings and lucid historical commentary converge brilliantly in this collection of illustrated letters from watercolorist Van Doren (An Artist in Venice) to his collaborator, historian and Pulitzer-winning author David McCullough. Van Doren visited 15 presidential homes over three years, painting the residences and gaining insight into the former presidents' private lives through their personal effects. His handwritten, anecdotal narrative wraps around colorful watercolor sketches on stationery. A trained architect, Van Doren speaks knowingly of scale, harmony, and proportion. Franklin Roosevelt's Hyde Park home is the first entry, and Van Doren emphasizes its accommodations for F.D.R.'s wheelchair, iconic convertible, and beloved dog, Fala. The much-visited Mount Vernon and Monticello are also included, with Van Doren noting his admiration for Thomas Jefferson as a sort of American Leonardo da Vinci. He notes that Bess and Harry Truman's white gingerbread Victorian still has wallpaper stains from the president using the wall to lift himself up from his chair; their favorite books are also on display. Warm, accessible, and harmonious, this book marries history with art for a uniquely American vision. -Publishers Weekly, starred review Every page...contains one or more charming and evocative watercolor pictures of the houses, furniture, vistas, and historical incidents...[it] is an utter delight, as it opens windows into the history of this country by showing how some of this country's makers and shapers lived. -John Steele Gordon, Wall Street Journal

Author Information

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.

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