David McCullough

David McCullough was encouraged by the success of his first book, The Johnstown Flood, but he was still faced with a difficult decision, to trade a steady and satisfying job for the insecurities of life as a full-time writer with a growing family to support. With his wife's encouragement, he took the plunge and has never looked back.

Today he is a best-selling author, and one of America's most distinguished historians. He has received not one but two Pulitzer Prizes, for John Adams and for Truman, both biographies of Presidents of the United States.

He has also won two National Book Awards, for The Path Between the Sees: The Creation of the Panama Canal, and Mornings on Horseback, the story of young Theodore Roosevelt's struggle to manhood. His voice has long been familiar to public television audiences as the narrator of The Civil War and The Great Bridge (adapted from his own book on the building of the Brooklyn Bridge); his words have brought history to life for millions.

David McCullough spoke to the Academy students at the 1989 Achievement Summit in San Francisco about his career.