The Making of the President, 1960
The Making of the President, 1960, written by Theodore White and published by Atheneum Publishers in 1961, analyzes the 1960 election in which John F. Kennedy was elected President of the United States. The book won the 1962 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction  and was the first in a series of books analyzing American Presidential elections. (The others are The Making of the President, 1964 (1965), The Making of the President, 1968 (1969), and The Making of the President, 1972 (1973).)
The Making of the President, 1960, was a huge success when the book came out in 1961. It stayed on the best-seller list for more than forty weeks. The book, written in a novelistic style, traces the 1960 campaign from the primaries (in which John F. Kennedy faced Hubert Humphrey and Senator Stuart Symington) to the conclusion of the general election contest against Richard Nixon.
The book had quite an impact on politics and its image. Critics and journalists who had read it were subjected to a shift in their way to describe everyday politics. As said by White in the book itself, it showed a leader under the pressures of circumstances. It reported a presidential battle in a different angle. This literary-journalistic book brought a dramatic point of view on the world of politics and its strategies, victories and defeats. White even noted all intonations and postures of the 1960 politicians. A chapter was also devoted on detailing the reasons behind Americans' way to vote and their way to live.
David L. Wolper produced a film version of The Making of the President, 1960 which was finished shortly before President Kennedy's November 1963 assassination but released without revision.
- White, Theodore Harold (1961). The Making of the President, 1960. Atheneum Publishers. pp. 400 Pages.
- "Pulitzer Prize Winners: General Non-Fiction" (web). pulitzer.org. Retrieved 2008-02-28.
- H.White, H. (1961) The Making of the President, 1960. Atheneum Publishers. ISBN 0-689-70600-6, ISBN 978-0-689-70600-4.
- Barber, J.D. (1992). The Pulse of Politics. Transaction Publishers. ISBN 1-56000-589-0, ISBN 978-1-56000-589-6.