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Craig Shirley

Biography

Craig Shirley

Craig Shirley is the author of REAGAN RISING, RENDEZVOUS WITH DESTINY, REAGAN'S REVOLUTION, LAST ACT and the New York Times bestseller DECEMBER 1941. He is a regular commentator throughout the media and a contributor to national publications, and was hailed by the London Telegraph as “the best of the Reagan biographers.” He is the Visiting Reagan Scholar at Eureka College, Reagan’s alma mater, and lectures often at the Reagan Library and the Reagan Ranch. He and his wife, Zorine, divide their time between Ben Lomond, a 300-year-old Georgian manor house in Essex County, Virginia, and Trickle Down Point on the Rappahannock River in Lancaster, Virginia. They are the parents of four children: Matthew, Andrew, Taylor and Mitchell.

Craig Shirley

Books by Craig Shirley

Mary Ball Washington: The Untold Story of George Washington's Mother
by Craig Shirley - Biography, History, Nonfiction

Stubborn, aristocratic Mary Ball Washington was entrenched in the Old World ways of her ancestors, dismissing the American experiment even as her son led the successful rebellion against the crown. During his youth, ambitious George dove into the hard-scrabble work of a surveyor and rose through the ranks of the fledgling colonial army, even as his overprotective mother tried to discourage these efforts. While she passed down her strength and individuality to George, Mary also sought to protect him from the risks he needed to take to become a daring general and president. But it was this resistance itself that fanned the spark of George’s independence into a flame. The constant tug of war between the two throughout the early years helped define George’s character.