Suggested Reading

Garfield by Allan Peskin

Title: Garfield: A Biography
Author: Allan Peskin
Publisher: Kent State University Press, 1976
ISBN: 0873382102, 9780873382106
Length: 716 pages

Allan Peskin is Professor Emeritus of History at Cleveland State University. His biography Garfield remains the preeminent work on the subject.

 

Title: Dark Horse: The Surprise Election and Political Murder of President James A. Garfield
Author: Kenneth Ackerman
Pubisher: Kenneth Ackerman, 2012
ISBN: 1619450100, 9781619450103

Sheds light on the politics of the time. Well researched. Interesting read.

 

Title: Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President
Author: Candice Millard
Publisher: Random House, Inc. 2011
ISBN: 0385526261, 9780385526265
Length: 339 pages

National Bestseller. Great deal of focus on Garfield's assassination and medical care.

 

Title: The Road to Respectability: James A. Garfield and His World, 1844-1852
Author: Hendrik Booraem
Publisher: Bucknell University Press, 1988
Original from: The University of Michigan
ISBN: 0838751350, 9780838751350
Length: 301 pages

Insightful account of Garfield's early life. The culture and society of Ohio's Western Reserve at the start of industrialization is vividly recreated.
OUT OF PRINT

 

Title: The Garfield Orbit
Authors: Margaret Leech, Harry James Brown
Edition: Illustrated
Publisher: Harper and Row, 1978
Original From: the Unoversity of Michigan
ISBN: 0060125519, 9780060125516
Length: 369 pages

Focus on Garfield's personal life and his relationships revealing his complex and sometimes contradictory character.
OUT OF PRINT

 

Title: The Diary of James A. Garfield- Four Volume Set
Author: James Abram Garfield, Harry James Brown, Frederick D. Williams
Editors: Harry James Brown, Frederick D. Williams
Publisher: Michigan State University Press, 1994
Original from: the University of Michigan

James A. Garfield kept a diary from the age of sixteen up until the time of the assassination with some gaps
OUT OF PRINT

 

Title: Crete and James: Personal Letters of Lucretia and James Garfield
Author: John Shaw
Editor: John Shaw
Publisher: Michigan State University Press, 1994
Original from: the University of Michigan
ISBN: 0870133381, 9780870133381
Length: 397 pages

Selected letters chronicle the couple's relationship.
OUT OF PRINT

 

Title: The Wild Life of the Army: Civil War Letters of James A. Garfield
Authors: James Abram Garfield, Frederick D. Williams
Editor: Frederick D. Williams
Publisher Michigan State University Press, 1964
Original from: Pennsylvania State University
Length: 325 pages

The 20th President's wartime thoughts and activities while serving in the western Union Armies from 1861-63.
OUT OF PRINT

 

Title: James A. Garfield: The American Presidents Series: The 20th President, 1881
Volume 20 of The American Presidents
Author: Ira Rutkow
Edition: Illustrated
Publisher: Macmillan, 2006
ISBN: 080506950X, 9780805069501
Length: 181 pages

Focus on assassination and medical care
OUT OF PRINT

 

Title: The Life and Letters of James Abram Garfield Two Volume Set
Author: Theodore Clarke Smith
Publisher: Yale University Press, 1925
Length: 1283 pages

First authorized biography of the 20th President.
OUT OF PRINT