"For more than 200 years, the Library of Congress has served as our national library. Since its establishment in 1800, thirteen men have served as the institution's head librarian. Sadly, little is known about most of them. The Librarians of Congress is the first book to contain biographies of all these men. Introduced by a brief history of the Library of Congress, the book then presents short biographies of each of the thirteen librarians of Congress, beginning with John J. Beckley and ending with James H. Billington. Each biography is accompanied by a photograph"

Includes index.

Introduction : a Brief history of the Library of Congress -- John James Beckley : Jefferson's first librarian -- Patrick Magruder : the unfortunate librarian -- The librarian of letters : George Watterston -- The Jacksonian librarian : John Silva Meehan -- The Civil War era librarian : John Gould Stephenson -- The transformational librarian : Ainsworth Rand Spofford -- The journalist librarian : John Russell Young -- The modern librarian : George Herbert Putnam -- The literary librarian : Archibald MacLeish -- The diplomatic librarian : Luther Harris Evans -- The administrative librarian : Lawrence Quincy Mumford -- The scholar librarian : Daniel Joseph Boorstin -- The Russian studies scholar librarian : .James Hadley Billington.