David Gaub McCullough (/məˈkʌlə/ mə-KUL-ə; July 7, 1933 – August 7, 2022) was an American popular historian, narrator, and author of American history. He was a two-time winner of both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize.
Born~Died Jul 7, 1933 ~ Aug 7, 2022Last edited Oct 15, 2026, 3:15 PM
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Born ~ Died
Jul 7, 1933 ~ Aug 7, 2022
Born
David Gaub McCullough, (1933-07-07)July 7, 1933, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
McCullough also narrated numerous documentaries, such as The Civil War by Ken Burns, as well as the 2003 film Seabiscuit, and he hosted the PBS television documentary series American Experience for twelve years.3 McCullough's two Pulitzer Prize–winning books— and —were adapted by into and , respectively.
This page is based on “David McCullough” from English Wikipedia, (r1375941413) CC BY-SA 4.0 used under the license. The original authors are listed in its page history.
David Gaub McCullough was born in the Point Breeze neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,4 to Ruth (née Rankin; 1899–1985) and Christian Hax McCullough (1899–1989) on July 7, 1933.5 He was of Scots-Irish, German, and English descent.67 He was educated at Linden Avenue Grade School and Shady Side Academy in Pittsburgh.23
One of four sons, McCullough had a "marvelous" childhood with a wide range of interests, including sports and drawing cartoons.8 McCullough's parents and his grandmother, who read to him often, introduced him to books at an early age.6 His parents often talked about history, a topic he said should be discussed more often.6 McCullough "loved school, every day";8 he contemplated many career choices, ranging from architect, actor, painter, writer, to lawyer, and considered attending medical school for a time.8
In 1951, McCullough began attending Yale University.9 He said that it was a "privilege" to study English at Yale because of faculty members such as John O'Hara, John Hersey, Robert Penn Warren, and Brendan Gill.103 McCullough occasionally ate lunch with the Pulitzer Prize–winning11 novelist and playwright Thornton Wilder.10 Wilder, said McCullough, taught him that a competent writer maintains "an air of freedom" in the storyline, so that a reader will not anticipate the outcome even if the book is non-fiction.123
While at Yale, he became a member of Skull and Bones, the secret society known for its powerful alumni.13 He served apprenticeships at Time and Life magazines, the United States Information Agency, and American Heritage magazine,10 where he enjoyed research. He said: "Once I discovered the endless fascination of doing the research and of doing the writing, I knew I had found what I wanted to do in my life."10 While attending Yale, McCullough studied Arts and earned his bachelor's degree in English with the intention of becoming a fiction writer or playwright.6 He graduated with honors in English literature in 1955.1415
Writing career
Early career
After graduation, McCullough moved to New York City, where Sports Illustrated hired him as a trainee in 1956.8 He later worked as an editor and writer for the United States Information Agency in Washington, D.C.4 After working for twelve years in editing and writing, including a position at American Heritage, McCullough "felt that [he] had reached the point where [he] could attempt something on [his] own."83
McCullough "had no anticipation that [he] was going to write history, but [he] stumbled upon a story that [he] thought was powerful, exciting, and very worth telling."8 While working at American Heritage, McCullough wrote in his spare time for three years.816The Johnstown Flood, a chronicle of one of the most severe flood disasters in American history, was published in 19688 to high praise by critics.17John Leonard of The New York Times said of McCullough, "We have no better social historian."17 Despite rough financial times,9 he decided to become a full-time writer, encouraged by his wife, Rosalee.8
People often ask me if I'm working on a book. That's not how I feel. I feel like I work in a book. It's like putting myself under a spell. And this spell, if you will, is so real to me that if I have to leave my work for a few days, I have to work myself back into the spell when I come back. It's almost like hypnosis.18
Gaining recognition
After the success of The Johnstown Flood, two new publishers offered him contracts, one to write about the Great Chicago Fire and another about the San Francisco earthquake.19Simon & Schuster, publisher of his first book, also offered McCullough a contract to write a second book.9 Trying not to become "Bad News McCullough",19 he decided to write about a subject showing "people were not always foolish and inept or irresponsible."19 He remembered the words of his Yale teacher: "[Thornton] Wilder said he got the idea for a book or a play when he wanted to learn about something. Then, he'd check to see if anybody had already done it, and if they hadn't, he'd do it."9 McCullough decided to write a history of the Brooklyn Bridge, which he had walked across many times.9 It was published in 1972.3
He also proposed, from a suggestion by his editor,6 a work about the Panama Canal; both were accepted by the publisher.9 Five years later, The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870–1914 was released, gaining McCullough widespread recognition.9 The book won the National Book Awardin History,20 the Samuel Eliot Morison Award,21 the Francis Parkman Prize,22 and the Cornelius Ryan Award.23 Later in 1977, McCullough travelled to the White House to advise Jimmy Carter and the United States Senate on the Torrijos-Carter Treaties, which would give Panama control of the Canal.21 Carter later said that the treaties, which were negotiated to transfer ownership of the Canal to Panama, would not have passed had it not been for the book.213
With his next book, McCullough published his second biography, Truman (1992) about the 33rd U.S. president, Harry S. Truman. The book won McCullough his first Pulitzer Prize, in the category of "Best Biography or Autobiography",31 and his second Francis Parkman Prize. Two years later, the book was adapted as Truman (1995), a television film by HBO, starring Gary Sinise as Truman.93
I think it's important to remember that these men are not perfect. If they were marble gods, what they did wouldn't be so admirable. The more we see the founders as humans the more we can understand them.
Working for the next seven years,33 McCullough published John Adams (2001), his third biography about a United States president. One of the fastest-selling non-fiction books in history,9 the book won McCullough's second Pulitzer Prize for "Best Biography or Autobiography" in 2002.31 He started it as a book about the American Founding Fathers and back-to-back presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, but dropped Jefferson to focus on Adams.32 HBO adapted it as a seven-part miniseries by the same name.34 Premiering in 2008, it starred Paul Giamatti in the title role.34 The DVD version of the miniseries includes the biographical documentary David McCullough: Painting with Words.35
McCullough's 1776 tells the story of the founding year of the United States, focusing on George Washington, the amateur Continental Army, and other struggles for independence.33 Because of McCullough's popularity, its initial printing was 1.25 million copies, many more than the average history book.2 Upon its release, the book was a number one best-seller in the United States.33 A miniseries adaptation of 1776 was rumored.36
McCullough considered writing a sequel to 1776.33 However, he signed a contract with Simon & Schuster to do a work about Americans in Paris between 1830 and 1900, The Greater Journey, which was published in 2011.3738 The book covers 19th-century Americans, including Mark Twain and Samuel Morse, who migrated to Paris and went on to achieve importance in culture or innovation. Other subjects include Benjamin Silliman, who had been Morse's science teacher at Yale, Elihu Washburne, the U.S. Ambassador to France during the Franco-Prussian War, and Elizabeth Blackwell, the first female doctor in the United States.39
McCullough's The Wright Brothers was published in 2015.40The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West followed in 2019, the story of the first European American settlers of the Northwest Territory, a vast American wilderness to which the Ohio River was the gateway.41
Personal life
In 1954, McCullough married Rosalee Barnes; the couple had first met as teenagers, and they remained together until her death on June 9, 2022.42 They had five children, nineteen grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.43 In 2016, the couple moved from the Back Bay of Boston to Hingham, Massachusetts; three of his five children also lived there as of 2017.4445 He had a summer home in Camden, Maine.4647 McCullough's interests included sports, history, and visual art, including watercolor and portrait painting.48
His son David Jr., an English teacher at Wellesley High School in the Boston suburbs, achieved sudden fame in 2012, when he gave a commencement speech in which he repeatedly told graduating students that they were "not special"; his speech went viral on YouTube.5051 Another son, Bill, is married to the daughter of the former governor of Florida Bob Graham.52 McCullough's grandson David McCullough III is the founder of the American Exchange Project.53
A registered independent, McCullough typically avoided publicly commenting on contemporary political issues. When asked to do so, he would repeatedly say, "My specialty is dead politicians." During the 2016 U.S. presidential election season, he broke with his custom to criticize Donald Trump, whom he called "a monstrous clown with a monstrous ego."543
After a period of failing health, McCullough died at his home in Hingham on August 7, 2022, at the age of 89, two months after his wife's death.55
In 1995, McCullough received the Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award. The Helmerich Award is presented annually by the Tulsa Library Trust.66
McCullough was referred to as a "master of the art of narrative history."67The New York TimescriticJohn Leonard wrote that McCullough was "incapable of writing a page of bad prose."24 His works have been published in ten languages, over nine million copies have been printed,6 and all of his books are still in print.1
In 2017, McCullough was inducted into the DC Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR) and received the National Society SAR Good Citizenship Award.73
"David McCullough". National Book Awards Acceptance Speeches. National Book Foundation. Archived from the original on April 15, 2008. Retrieved April 24, 2008. ↩
"Biography". Thorton Wilder Society. Archived from the original on June 21, 2012. Retrieved April 22, 2008. ↩
Bolduc, Brian (June 18, 2001). "Don't Know Much about History". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on December 16, 2019. Retrieved June 18, 2011. ↩
"Johnstown Flood: Reviews and Praise". ElectricEggplant. Archived from the original on August 14, 2007. Retrieved April 23, 2008.. The bestselling author Erik Larson has written that The Johnstown Flood was a book that changed his life. He found it full of "suspense, drama, class conflict, dire goings-on." Larson decided to write in the same genre, what he calls "narrative nonfiction," and thought McCullough's book "a Baedeker for how to go about it. I analyzed his source notes and outlined the story chapter by chapter, to try to divine just how he did it. And suddenly I had my compass. The result was Isaac's Storm." AARP Magazine, April/May 2015,10. ↩↩2
"Distinguished Contribution to American Letters". National Book Foundation. Archived from the original on March 10, 2011. Retrieved March 12, 2012. With acceptance speech by McCullough and ex-post introduction by one of his publishers. ↩
U.S. Capitol Historical Society (December 11, 2015). "David McCullough to Receive 2016 Freedom Award". USCHS 2016 Freedom Award: David McCullough. U.S. Capitol Historical Society. Archived from the original on August 7, 2016. Retrieved May 31, 2016. ↩
McCullough also narrated numerous documentaries, such as The Civil War by Ken Burns, as well as the 2003 film Seabiscuit, and he hosted the PBS television documentary series for twelve years. McCullough's two Pulitzer Prize–winning books— and —were adapted by into and , respectively.
David Gaub McCullough was born in the Point Breeze neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,4 to Ruth (née Rankin; 1899–1985) and Christian Hax McCullough (1899–1989) on July 7, 1933.5 He was of Scots-Irish, German, and English descent.67 He was educated at Linden Avenue Grade School and Shady Side Academy in Pittsburgh.23
One of four sons, McCullough had a "marvelous" childhood with a wide range of interests, including sports and drawing cartoons.8 McCullough's parents and his grandmother, who read to him often, introduced him to books at an early age.6 His parents often talked about history, a topic he said should be discussed more often.6 McCullough "loved school, every day";8 he contemplated many career choices, ranging from architect, actor, painter, writer, to lawyer, and considered attending medical school for a time.8
In 1951, McCullough began attending Yale University.9 He said that it was a "privilege" to study English at Yale because of faculty members such as John O'Hara, John Hersey, Robert Penn Warren, and Brendan Gill.103 McCullough occasionally ate lunch with the Pulitzer Prize–winning11 novelist and playwright Thornton Wilder.10 Wilder, said McCullough, taught him that a competent writer maintains "an air of freedom" in the storyline, so that a reader will not anticipate the outcome even if the book is non-fiction.123
While at Yale, he became a member of Skull and Bones, the secret society known for its powerful alumni.13 He served apprenticeships at Time and Life magazines, the United States Information Agency, and American Heritage magazine,10 where he enjoyed research. He said: "Once I discovered the endless fascination of doing the research and of doing the writing, I knew I had found what I wanted to do in my life."10 While attending Yale, McCullough studied Arts and earned his bachelor's degree in English with the intention of becoming a fiction writer or playwright.6 He graduated with honors in English literature in 1955.1415
Writing career
Early career
After graduation, McCullough moved to New York City, where Sports Illustrated hired him as a trainee in 1956.8 He later worked as an editor and writer for the United States Information Agency in Washington, D.C.4 After working for twelve years in editing and writing, including a position at American Heritage, McCullough "felt that [he] had reached the point where [he] could attempt something on [his] own."83
McCullough "had no anticipation that [he] was going to write history, but [he] stumbled upon a story that [he] thought was powerful, exciting, and very worth telling."8 While working at American Heritage, McCullough wrote in his spare time for three years.816The Johnstown Flood, a chronicle of one of the most severe flood disasters in American history, was published in 19688 to high praise by critics.17John Leonard of The New York Times said of McCullough, "We have no better social historian."17 Despite rough financial times,9 he decided to become a full-time writer, encouraged by his wife, Rosalee.8
People often ask me if I'm working on a book. That's not how I feel. I feel like I work in a book. It's like putting myself under a spell. And this spell, if you will, is so real to me that if I have to leave my work for a few days, I have to work myself back into the spell when I come back. It's almost like hypnosis.18
Gaining recognition
After the success of The Johnstown Flood, two new publishers offered him contracts, one to write about the Great Chicago Fire and another about the San Francisco earthquake.19Simon & Schuster, publisher of his first book, also offered McCullough a contract to write a second book.9 Trying not to become "Bad News McCullough",19 he decided to write about a subject showing "people were not always foolish and inept or irresponsible."19 He remembered the words of his Yale teacher: "[Thornton] Wilder said he got the idea for a book or a play when he wanted to learn about something. Then, he'd check to see if anybody had already done it, and if they hadn't, he'd do it."9 McCullough decided to write a history of the Brooklyn Bridge, which he had walked across many times.9 It was published in 1972.3
He also proposed, from a suggestion by his editor,6 a work about the Panama Canal; both were accepted by the publisher.9 Five years later, The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870–1914 was released, gaining McCullough widespread recognition.9 The book won the National Book Awardin History,20 the Samuel Eliot Morison Award,21 the Francis Parkman Prize,22 and the Cornelius Ryan Award.23 Later in 1977, McCullough travelled to the White House to advise Jimmy Carter and the United States Senate on the Torrijos-Carter Treaties, which would give Panama control of the Canal.21 Carter later said that the treaties, which were negotiated to transfer ownership of the Canal to Panama, would not have passed had it not been for the book.213
With his next book, McCullough published his second biography, Truman (1992) about the 33rd U.S. president, Harry S. Truman. The book won McCullough his first Pulitzer Prize, in the category of "Best Biography or Autobiography",31 and his second Francis Parkman Prize. Two years later, the book was adapted as Truman (1995), a television film by HBO, starring Gary Sinise as Truman.93
I think it's important to remember that these men are not perfect. If they were marble gods, what they did wouldn't be so admirable. The more we see the founders as humans the more we can understand them.
Working for the next seven years,33 McCullough published John Adams (2001), his third biography about a United States president. One of the fastest-selling non-fiction books in history,9 the book won McCullough's second Pulitzer Prize for "Best Biography or Autobiography" in 2002.31 He started it as a book about the American Founding Fathers and back-to-back presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, but dropped Jefferson to focus on Adams.32 HBO adapted it as a seven-part miniseries by the same name.34 Premiering in 2008, it starred Paul Giamatti in the title role.34 The DVD version of the miniseries includes the biographical documentary David McCullough: Painting with Words.35
McCullough's 1776 tells the story of the founding year of the United States, focusing on George Washington, the amateur Continental Army, and other struggles for independence.33 Because of McCullough's popularity, its initial printing was 1.25 million copies, many more than the average history book.2 Upon its release, the book was a number one best-seller in the United States.33 A miniseries adaptation of 1776 was rumored.36
McCullough considered writing a sequel to 1776.33 However, he signed a contract with Simon & Schuster to do a work about Americans in Paris between 1830 and 1900, The Greater Journey, which was published in 2011.3738 The book covers 19th-century Americans, including Mark Twain and Samuel Morse, who migrated to Paris and went on to achieve importance in culture or innovation. Other subjects include Benjamin Silliman, who had been Morse's science teacher at Yale, Elihu Washburne, the U.S. Ambassador to France during the Franco-Prussian War, and Elizabeth Blackwell, the first female doctor in the United States.39
McCullough's The Wright Brothers was published in 2015.40The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West followed in 2019, the story of the first European American settlers of the Northwest Territory, a vast American wilderness to which the Ohio River was the gateway.41
Personal life
In 1954, McCullough married Rosalee Barnes; the couple had first met as teenagers, and they remained together until her death on June 9, 2022.42 They had five children, nineteen grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.43 In 2016, the couple moved from the Back Bay of Boston to Hingham, Massachusetts; three of his five children also lived there as of 2017.4445 He had a summer home in Camden, Maine.4647 McCullough's interests included sports, history, and visual art, including watercolor and portrait painting.48
His son David Jr., an English teacher at Wellesley High School in the Boston suburbs, achieved sudden fame in 2012, when he gave a commencement speech in which he repeatedly told graduating students that they were "not special"; his speech went viral on YouTube.5051 Another son, Bill, is married to the daughter of the former governor of Florida Bob Graham.52 McCullough's grandson David McCullough III is the founder of the American Exchange Project.53
A registered independent, McCullough typically avoided publicly commenting on contemporary political issues. When asked to do so, he would repeatedly say, "My specialty is dead politicians." During the 2016 U.S. presidential election season, he broke with his custom to criticize Donald Trump, whom he called "a monstrous clown with a monstrous ego."543
After a period of failing health, McCullough died at his home in Hingham on August 7, 2022, at the age of 89, two months after his wife's death.55
In 1995, McCullough received the Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award. The Helmerich Award is presented annually by the Tulsa Library Trust.66
McCullough was referred to as a "master of the art of narrative history."67The New York TimescriticJohn Leonard wrote that McCullough was "incapable of writing a page of bad prose."24 His works have been published in ten languages, over nine million copies have been printed,6 and all of his books are still in print.1
In 2017, McCullough was inducted into the DC Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR) and received the National Society SAR Good Citizenship Award.73
"David McCullough". National Book Awards Acceptance Speeches. National Book Foundation. Archived from the original on April 15, 2008. Retrieved April 24, 2008. ↩
"Biography". Thorton Wilder Society. Archived from the original on June 21, 2012. Retrieved April 22, 2008. ↩
Bolduc, Brian (June 18, 2001). "Don't Know Much about History". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on December 16, 2019. Retrieved June 18, 2011. ↩
"Johnstown Flood: Reviews and Praise". ElectricEggplant. Archived from the original on August 14, 2007. Retrieved April 23, 2008.. The bestselling author Erik Larson has written that The Johnstown Flood was a book that changed his life. He found it full of "suspense, drama, class conflict, dire goings-on." Larson decided to write in the same genre, what he calls "narrative nonfiction," and thought McCullough's book "a Baedeker for how to go about it. I analyzed his source notes and outlined the story chapter by chapter, to try to divine just how he did it. And suddenly I had my compass. The result was Isaac's Storm." AARP Magazine, April/May 2015,10. ↩↩2
"Distinguished Contribution to American Letters". National Book Foundation. Archived from the original on March 10, 2011. Retrieved March 12, 2012. With acceptance speech by McCullough and ex-post introduction by one of his publishers. ↩
U.S. Capitol Historical Society (December 11, 2015). "David McCullough to Receive 2016 Freedom Award". USCHS 2016 Freedom Award: David McCullough. U.S. Capitol Historical Society. Archived from the original on August 7, 2016. Retrieved May 31, 2016. ↩