Candice Millard Books In Order

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Candice Millard is a bestselling author of biographical and historical fiction works most of which have gone on to become “Washington Post” and “New York Times” bestsellers.

The author is a former contributing writer and editor at “National Geographic” and the author of “Destiny of the Republic” and “The River of Doubt.”

Millard made her debut when she published the award-winning work “The River of Doubt,” which followed the life and times of Theodore Roosevelt over several decades.

Some of the prestigious awards she has won over the years include the William Rockhill Nelson award, a Book Sense Pick, and a Great New Writers’ Selection from Barnes and Noble.

Her novels have also been a Best Book of the Year by the likes of “The Kansas City Star,” “The New York Times,” “Christian Science Monitor,” “The Washington Post,” and “The San Francisco Chronicle.”
Candice has made a name for herself by making history accessible to a wide variety of audiences. She usually draws from tons of research and her passion for history to write her novels and give animated lectures on important figures and events in history.

Candice Millard grew up in Ohio in a small blue-collar town. Living there she did not know anyone that was a writer and hence she never knew that she could become a career fiction author.

Nonetheless, Millard had always been a voracious reader and she used to spend a lot of time reading books at her house and in the library. Still, she knew that she was interested in a career that had something to do with reading and books.
In this regard, she had a dream of one day working for the “National Geographic” magazine for the longest time. She would achieve that dream when she was in her late twenties.

Earlier on, she had gone to college where she earned two English literature degrees even though what she was really interested in was history. She believes it was the combination of her passion for history and her English degree that made it possible for her to be offered the job at the “National Geographic” magazine.

Candice worked for the magazine for half a dozen years and would become their point person for anything to do with biography and history stories about people. This is what she had always been interested in. She would then move to Kansas after she got married and this is when she began writing novels.

Millard has said that she has always been intrigued by biographies. In fact, what she loved when she was employed at “National Geographic” was looking for human history story ideas rather than natural history.

As such, when began having ideas for her debut novel, she instantly knew she did not want to write about something but rather about someone. What she was looking for was not a subject but a story within someone’s life.

She has said that her love for biographies has been shaped by the works of several biographies whose works she loves to read. Some of her favorite biographers include Andrew Roberts, Barbara Tuchman, Antony Beevor, David McCullough, and Stacy Schiff among many others.

Candice Millard’s “Destiny of the Republic,” tells the story of James A. Garfield that has to be one of the most remarkable people to ever become an American president. He had been born very poor but would go on to become a wunderkind scholar, a hero of the Civil War, and an admired and popular reformist congressman.

After nomination for the presidency against his will, he would then fight a massive battle with the corruption of Washington only to be shot down by a deranged office seeker. However, he does not die of his wounds and the drama of what happened next tells an intriguing story of the turmoil the nation had to deal with.

Having just emerged from a Civil War, the assassin’s strike threatened to unravel all the good that had been wrought. In Washington, there is a bitter struggle for the nation’s future and for power. The president was treated with shockingly archaic treatments that only worsened his condition.

Meanwhile, Alex Graham Bell worked feverishly trying to invent some device that would locate the bullet. Epic in scope and meticulously researched, it is a high-velocity narrative with a human and very intimate focus that is a classic historical narrative.

Candice Millard’s novel “The River of Doubt” is a penetrating biographical portrait and a brilliant adventure narrative. It tells of the harrowing exploration of one of the most dangerous rivers in the world by American president Theodore Roosevelt.
The river in question is an uncharted black river that feeds the Amazon as it meanders through some of the most treacherous forests in the world. In its shadows lurk Indians carrying poisoned arrows, in the waters are piranhas, while boulder-strewn rapids often make for dangerous boiling cauldrons.

The story is all about Roosevelt who following his defeat in the Presidential election of 1912 decided to take on one of the most challenging quests he could find. Descend down the River of Doubt across some rapids chocked sections alongside Candido Mariano da Silva Rondon the world-famous explorer and Kermit his son.

Along the way, they faced all manner of challenges from Indian attacks, losing their canoes, murder in their own ranks, drowning disease, and starvation.
It is a brilliant historical fiction work that brings to life the extraordinary events of that famous quest on one of the most dangerous rivers in the world.

“Hero of the Empire” by Candice Millard tells the story of Winston Churchill. Aged only 24, he had become convinced that he was destined to become the prime minister of England, even at a time when he lost his maiden campaign for a parliamentary position.
He was convinced that he needed to do some spectacular things on the battlefield if he were to achieve his goal. He had deliberately placed himself in dangerous situations as an officer in the British army in Sudan and India.
He would also work as a journalist writing about the Cuban insurgency against Spanish colonialism, but he was yet to achieve fame and glory.

In 1899, just two works after arriving in South Africa the troop he was in charge of was ambushed and he was taken as a prisoner. Never one to give up, he managed to escape in a daring move and traversed through dangerous enemy territory for hundreds of miles with a few slabs of chocolate and his wits to depend on.

He would then go back to South Africa and liberate the men who had been captured alongside him.