A short life of the author
Garry Wills (born 1934 in Atlanta) is one of the most prolific and intellectually ambitious American historians of the past half-century. A former seminarian, classics scholar, and National Review contributor who broke with the conservative movement over Vietnam, he has written with equal authority on the Founding Fathers, Catholic theology, and contemporary American politics.
Major Works
Nixon Agonistes: The Crisis of the Self-Made Man (1970) — a brilliant, unconventional analysis of Nixon and the American political culture that produced him.
Inventing America: Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence (1978) — a controversial reinterpretation arguing that Jefferson drew more on Scottish moral philosophy than on Locke.
Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America (1992, Simon & Schuster) — his Pulitzer Prize-winning study of how Lincoln used the Gettysburg Address to redefine the Constitution’s meaning around the principle of equality. The book is a masterclass in close reading and intellectual history.
Papal Sin (2000) and Why I Am a Catholic (2002) — critical examinations of the Catholic Church’s institutional failings and Wills’s own continuing attachment to the faith.
Collecting Wills
Lincoln at Gettysburg (1992, Simon & Schuster) first editions are readily available at $20–$60. Nixon Agonistes (1970, Houghton Mifflin) is more collectible — first editions in fine condition bring $50–$150. Signed copies of both are available. Wills’s enormous output means that a complete first-edition collection would be a substantial undertaking.