David McCullough

David Gaub McCullough
David McCullough speaking at Emory University in 2007
Born	(1933-07-07) July 7, 1933 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Occupation(s)	Historian, Author
Spouse	Rosalee Ingram McCullough

David Gaub McCullough (mə-kŭl'ə) (born July 7, 1933) is an American historian and bestselling author. A two-time winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, he is widely referred to as a "master of the art of narrative history." Among his most well-known books are The Path Between the Seas, Truman, John Adams, and his most recent volume, 1776 (a New York Times and Amazon bestseller). He is part of an emerging group of celebrity historians. He is also a familiar presence on public television — as the host of Smithsonian World and The American Experience, and as the narrator of many well-regarded, highly accessible documentaries.

Two of his Pulitzer-Prize winning biographies have been made into films by HBO. Truman was made into an Emmy-winning television movie starring Gary Sinise in 1995, and John Adams was made into a seven-part miniseries starring Paul Giamatti in 2008.

Biography

McCullough was educated at Shady Side Academy in his hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and then attended Yale University, where he received his bachelor's degree with honors in English literature in 1955. While at Yale, he became a member of Skull and Bones; as an undergraduate with a first interest in art, he often ate lunch with playwright and novelist Thornton Wilder, who inspired McCullough to become a writer.

After graduating from college, McCullough went to work as an editorial assistant at the newly-established Sports Illustrated magazine, in New York. During the Kennedy administration, he moved to Washington, D.C. to work for the United States Information Agency; he also began working as an editor and writer for the American Heritage Publishing Company. While working at American Heritage, McCullough began the research, in his spare time, for what became his first book, The Johnstown Flood, about the catastrophic Johnstown Flood of 1889, which took place not far from where he grew up in Pennsylvania.

Speaking of this period in his life, McCullough has said, "...what I did... was to serve a kind of apprenticeship in... different magazine jobs, primarily editing, writing. And after I'd done that for about 10 or 12 years, I felt that I had reached the point where I could attempt something on my own."

In addition to the two PBS programs he has hosted, McCullough has also been the narrator of numerous documentaries, including Ken Burns' Brooklyn Bridge, The Statue of Liberty, The Congress, and The Civil War as well as David Grubin's FDR, Abraham and Mary Lincoln: A House Divided, and Napoleon. He also narrated portions of the motion picture Seabiscuit.

McCullough served as president of the Society of American Historians from 1991 to 1998. He has been elected to both the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. As of April 2007, he has received 40 honorary degrees.

In October 2002, McCullough delivered the 13th annual T.H. White Lecture, sponsored by the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy. "While a great deal about our country has changed since September 11, everything hasn't, including our history — an inexhaustible source of strength," he said. "These are dangerous, uncertain times, but not the worst we've ever been through, by any means." McCullough taught at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York from 2003 to 2006.

In December 2006, McCullough was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In June 2007, as the featured speaker at the fiftieth anniversary opening of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum, McCullough spoke of the need to reform education and emphasize history more strongly in American schools. On September 11, 2007, McCullough received his first honorary high school diploma from Wellesley High School, where he also gave a speech, and where his son now teaches English. In 2008, he was named the Janet Weis Fellow in Contemporary Letters at Bucknell University and will be the commencement speaker at Boston College in May.

McCullough lives in West Tisbury, Massachusetts (Martha's Vineyard) with his wife Rosalee Ingram (Barnes) McCullough, whom he met at Yale. They have five children and 18 grandchildren.

Works

• The Johnstown Flood (1968)
• The Great Bridge (1972)
• The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal 1870—1914 (1977) National Book Award winner
• Mornings on Horseback (1981) National Book Award winner
• Brave Companions: Portraits in History (1992)
• Truman (1993) Pulitzer winner
• John Adams (2002) Pulitzer winner
• 1776 (2005)

External links

• Simon & Schuster's David McCullough main page
• Semi-official David McCullough website
• Transcripts and videos of interviews and speeches
• Ubben Lecture at DePauw University
• David McCullough at IMDb
• Review of speech - At the University of Houston