The Personal Library of George Washington

The Personal Library of George Washington

I decided that I wanted to do a series on the personal libraries of successful people because I thought they would give me insights into the shaping of a mind. As you already know, this website is about invisible mentoring, which is learning from unique leaders by observing and imaging their wisdom and good traits. That also means consuming the books that they consumed and doing that requires knowing what books they had in their personal libraries. I figured that a good place to start was with successful people who are well known.

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Now, having said that, have you ever had an idea that you believed was easy to execute that did not turn out that way? Doing a series on the personal libraries of successful people is a good idea, but not very easy to execute. I found a website, Library Thing that includes legacy libraries, but the way that it is structured does not adequately satisfy my needs. For instance, I wrote a post on the personal library of Carl Sandburg, however on his page on the Library Thing website, there are over 10,000 books listed. This is not helpful to me for what I am trying to do because I do not have the time to scroll through and read the titles of over 10,000 books. They have an algorithm that randomly selects seven books, but to me that simply is not enough for someone who is trying to get a sense of the books that a successful person reads.

Through a series of searches, I discovered the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington. George Washington was the first president of the United States so this was an excellent find. In several articles, there was a reference, “Mount Vernon currently owns 103 volumes, representing 62 of the approximately 1,200 titles that were owned by Washington,” which made me think that if I could list the 62 titles, that would be good enough for my blog post. By reading through the articles, and spending time on the Fred W. Smith National Library website, I was able to list 10 of those books. But that was not good enough for me so I decided to call the library, and I got exactly what I needed.

62 of the Books in the Personal Library of George Washington

1. Acts passed at a Congress of the United States of America, begun and held at the city Wednesday the fourth of March, in the year M, DCC, LXXXIX (1790) and of the independence the thirteenth. Being the acts passed at the first.
2. The Adventures Of Gil Blas Of Santillane: A New Translation, By The Author Of Roderick Random … by Alain-René Le Sage
3. The Adventures Of Telemachus, The Son Of Ulysses (1784). From the French of Salignac de La Mothe­Fenelon by John Hawkesworth
4. American Biography: Or, an Historical Account of Those Persons Who Have Been Distinguished in America, as Adventurers, Statesmen, Philosophers, Divines, Warriors, Authors, and Other Remarkable Characters .. (Paperback) – Common by Jeremy Belknap
5. The American museum or repository of ancient and modern fugitive pieces, prose and poetical by Matthew Carey
6. An analytick treatise of conick sections, and their use for resolving of equations in determinate and indeterminate problems. Being the posthumous … de L'Hospital, … Made English by E. Stone. Marquis de L'Hospital
7. The beauties of Sterne; including all his pathetic tales, & most distinguished observations on life. Selected for the heart of sensibility. The third edition, with considerable additions. by Laurence Sterne
8. The beauties of Swift: or, the favorite offspring of wit & genius. by Jonathan Swift
9. The beauties of the late Revd. Dr. Isaac Watts; … To which is added the life of the author. by Isaac Watts
10. The Bee, or Literary Intelligencer by James Anderson
11. The Botanical magazine; or Flower­garden displayed: in which the most ornamental foreign plants, cultivated in the open ground, the green­house, and the store, are accurately represented in their natural colours.
12. Cadmus, or, A treatise on the elements of written language: illustrating, by a philosophical division of speech, the power of each character, thereby mutually fixing the orthography and orthoepy : with an essay on the mode of teaching the surd or deaf, and consequently dumb, to speak (1793)
13. A charge, delivered at St. Peter's Church, in Salem: to the Most Antient and Honorable Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons, upon the festival of St. John, the Evangelist, December 27th, 5780 by Joseph Hiller
14. A charge, delivered at Trinity Church in Boston, December 27, 1780. Being the anniversary of St. John the Evangelist; to the most worshipful Grand Lodge of antient free and accepted Masons, for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts by Keith Israel
15. The Diary of the Late George Bubb Dodington, Baron of Melcombe Regis: From March 8, 1749, to February 6, 1761; With an Appendix, Containing Some … From His Lordship's Original Manuscripts.
16. Discourses relating to the evidences of revealed religion, delivered in the Church of the Universalists, at Philadelphia, 1796, and published at the request of many of the hearers by Joseph Priestley
17. El Imgenioso Hildago Don Quixote de la Manche by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
18. The elements and practice of rigging and seamanship Illustrated with engravings by David Steel
19. Encyclopaedia; or, A dictionary of arts, sciences, and miscellaneous literature; constructed on a plan, by which the different sciences and arts are digested into the form of distinct treatises of systems by Thomas Dobson, Colin MacFarquhar, and George Gleig
20. An enquiry into the principles of taxation, chiefly applicable to articles of immediate Consumption by Andrew Hamilton
21. Essays and Notes on Husbandry and Rural Affairs by John Beale Bordley
22. An eulogium of the brave men who have fallen in the contest with Great Britain: delivered on Monday, July 5, 1779 by HH Brackenridge
23. The Expedition of Humphry Clinker (Oxford World's Classics) by Tobias George Smollett
24. Experiments on the red and quill Peruvian bark; with observations on its history, mode of operation, anduses by Ralph Irving
25. General view of the agriculture of the county of Lancaster: with observations on the means of its improvement; drawn up for the consideration of the Board of Agriculture and Internal Improvement, from the communications of Mr. John Holt and the additional remarks of several respectable gentlemen and farmers in the county
26. The gleaner. A miscellaneous production by Judith Sargent Murray
27. Gospel news, divided into eleven sections. Peace and Joy: Being a Brief Attempt to consider the Evidences of Evidences of the Truth of the Gospel, in which we have the witness of Peace with God, through Jesus Christ, drawn from the Old and New­Testaments by Shippie Townsend
28. Histoire de Gil Blas de Santillane by Alain René Le Sage
29. The History and Adventures of the Renowned Don Quixote. Translated from the Spanish of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra by T. Smollett, M.D.
30. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Penguin Classics) by Edward Gibbon
31. A history of the earth and animated nature by Oliver Goldsmith
32. The jilts: or, Female Fortune Hunters (The jilts: or, female fortune-hunters. … Volume 1 of 3, The jilts: or, female fortune-hunters. … Volume 2 of 3, The jilts: or, female fortune-hunters. … Volume 3 of 3)
33. Le jardinier solitaire the solitary or Carthusian gard'ner, being dialogues between a gentleman and a gard'ner. Containing the method to make and cultivate all sorts of gardens; Written in French by Francis Gentil
34. Letters written by the late Right Honourable Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield, to his son, Philip Stanhope, … Published by Mrs. Eugenia Stanhope
35. Letters, being the whole of the correspondence between the Honorable John Jay, and Mr. Lewis Littlpage; a young man whom Mr. Jay, when in Spain, patronized and took into his family
36. Lexicon technicum magnum, or An universal English dictionary of arts and sciences by John Harris
37. Lily's rules construed: where unto are added Tho. Robinson's Heteroclites the Latinsyntaxis, also there are added the rules for the genders of nouns and preterperfect tenses and supines of verbs, in English alone by William Lily
38. Loose hints upon education : chiefly concerning the culture of the heart by Lord Henry Home Kames
39. The lyric works of Horace, translated into English verse: to which are added, a number of original poems. By a native of America. [Two lines of Latin quotation]. translated by John Parke
40. A map of the most inhabited part of New England containing the provinces of Massachusetts Bay and New Hampshire, with the colonies of Konektikut and Rhode Island by Thomas Jefferys
41. Maredant’s antiscorbutic drops: a caution to the public in general, but more particularly to merchants, captains of ships, and those concerning trade to the East or West Indies, etc. by John Norton
42. A new and complete dictionary of arts and sciences comprehending all the branches of useful knowledge, … Illustrated with above three hundred copper­plates, … The whole extracted from the best authors in all languages by Society of Gentlemen
43. A new system of modern geography: or, A geographical, historical, and commercial grammar; and present state of the several nations of the world …including Atlas
44. An oration delivered at Watertown, March 5, 1776. To commemorate the bloody massacre at Boston: perpetrated March 5, 1770. By Peter Thacher, A.M. [Seven lines in Latin from Phaedrus] by Peter Thacher
45. An oration delivered July 4, 1786: at the request of the inhabitants of the town of Boston, in celebration of the anniversary of American independence. by Jonathan Loring Austin
46. An oration, delivered March 6, 1780. At the request of the inhabitants of the town of Boston; to commemorate the bloody tragedy of the fifth of March, … Mason, Jun. [Sixteen lines from Thompson]. by Jonathan Mason
47. An oration, which might have been delivered to the students in anatomy, on the late rupture between the two schools in this city Francis Hopkinson
48. An oration: delivered before a lodge of Free and Accepted Masons: in the church at Providence, Rhode Island, on Monday twenty-eighth of December, 1778
49. The poems of Ossian, the son of Fingal by James Macpherson and Hugh Blair (Editor)
50. Poems, chiefly in the Scottish dialect by Robert Burns
51. Principles of Navigation
52. The private life of Lewis XV In which are contained the principal events, remarkable occurrences, and anecdotes, of his reign. Translated from the French by J. O. Justamond
53. The Sentimental and masonic magazine
54. A short introduction to grammar compiled and set forth for the bringing up of all those that intend to attain to the knowledge of the Latin tongue. by William Lily
55. Stephens's Philadelphia directory for 1796, or, Alphabetical arrangement: containing the names, occupations, and places of abode of the citizens : with a register of the executive, legislative, and judicial magistrates of the United States by Thomas Stephens
56. The Tea-Table Miscellany, Or, a Collection of Choice Songs, Scots and English by Allan Ramsay
57. Travels in North America in the years 1780, 1781 and 1782; 2 vol by François Jean Chastellux
58. Travels into Norway, Denmark, and Russia, in the years 1788, 1789, 1790, and 1791 by John Swinton
59. Travels, in various parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, during a series of thirty years and upwards. By John MacDonald, … by John Macdonald
60. A view of society and manners in France, Switzerland, and Germany: with anecdotes relating to some eminent characters by John Moore
61. Voyages de M. le marquis de Chastellux dans l'Amérique Septentrionale: dans les années 1780, 1781, & 1782 by François Jean Chastellux
62. The works of the right reverend father in God, Thomas Wilson, D.D., Lord Bishop of Sodor and Man

When I reviewed the list of books above, what struck me most, is the diversity in the kinds of books that George Washington read – politics, biographies, essays, speeches, diaries, correspondence, travel and exploration, economics, science, history, geography, religion and more. And that is consistent with what I discovered when I interviewed successful people for my book, Tales of People Who Get It, and other research I have conducted since my book was published. Many of these books may be difficult to access and you may not interested in reading some of the books in Washington’s library. Another option for you is to read books that are similar, so you could read a book about the best speeches of all times, and biographies, letters and diaries of accomplished and notable people. The most important thing is to pay attention to the types of books that George Washington read.

It is worth noting that the books listed above are not all of the books that George Washington had in his personal library, but the ones that the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington owns. If you want a complete listing of the books, you can find them on Washington’s page on the Library Thing website.

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Author Bio: Avil Beckford, an expert interviewer, entrepreneur and published author is passionate about books and professional development, and that's why she founded The Invisible Mentor and the Virtual Literary World Tour to give you your ideal mentors virtually in the palm of your hands by offering book reviews and book summaries, biographies of wise people and interviews of successful people. Connect with me on Facebook and Twitter.

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