Founded in 1949, American Heritage magazine quickly established itself as the leading voice of American history. Edited by Pulitzer Prize-winner Bruce Catton, it published distinguished writing by authors such as Stephen Ambrose, Daniel Boorstin, Henry Steele Commanger, Malcolm Cowley, John Dos Passos, John F. Kennedy, William Manchester, Samuel Eliot Morrison, J.H. Plumb, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., Barbara Tuchman, and many others.
By the mid 1960s, the company employed approximately 300 people, with American Heritage as a flagship for the direct marketing of history books. Late in the decade, they published this 12-volume series called The American Heritage Book of the Presidents and Famous Americans. Each volume introduces 2 or more U.S. Presidents and major events of their presidencies (the 12th ends with Lyndon B. Johnson) and includes brief bios of 7-25 famous Americans. These attractive hardbound books present young readers with most of the important figures in United States history, all of them engagingly written and full of beautiful color illustrations ranging from photographs to oil paintings. Because there's so much information, and most entries are divided into digestible sections, these make excellent flip-through books for free time or a rainy day.
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