Painting a Life

David McCullough was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on July 7, 1933. He received a bachelor's degree in English literature from Yale University in 1955. After graduation, he moved to New York City and worked as a trainee at Sports Illustrated. He later worked as a writer and editor for the United States Information Agency, in Washington, D.C., including a position at American Heritage.

His first book, The Johnstown Flood, was published in 1968. His other books include 1776, Brave Companions, The Great Bridge, and The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris. He received the Pulitzer Prize twice for Truman and John Adams and the National Book Award twice for The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal and Mornings on Horseback. He also won two Francis Parkman Prizes, the Los Angeles Times Book Award, and New York Public Library's Literary Lion Award. Two of his books, Truman and John Adams, have been adapted into a television movie and mini-series, respectively, by HBO. In December 2006, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He also made the New York Times Best Seller List in 2015 with his book The Wright Brothers, and in 2017 with The American Spirit: Who We Are and What We Stand For.

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