The best biography of George Washington yet Ron Chernow's extraordinary new book paints the first president as a man in a struggle to contain his emotions. By Max Byrd.

Alexis Coe’s biography of Washington — the first by a woman in 40 years — is called “You Never Forget Your First.” But have we?

On Dec. 14, 1799, an ominous, fog-like gloom hung over Mount Vernon. Sixty-seven-year-old George Washington was dying. The ex-president, his doctors believed, was suffering from “quinsy” (a ...

A Biography of George Washington By Alexis Coe Read by Brittany Pressley 6 hours, 40 minutes. Penguin Audio. ... Best Romance Books of 2025: Looking for a swoony, feel-good read?

George Washington’s corpse was scarcely a month in its grave when an enterprising minister from Maryland named Mason Locke Weems made a pitch to a Philadelphia publisher. “I’ve got something ...

And, because it’s a biography, George Washington remains at the center. For Smithsonian magazine, I sat down to talk at length about Washington, Washington biographies, and where You Never ...