Biographies of Madison range from the sweeping and detailed six-volume Life of James Madison by Irving Brant (Indianapolis, 1941-61) to the brief but excellent study by Jack Rakove, James Madison and the Creation of the American Republic (Glenview, Ill., 1990).

The best one-volume biography is by Ralph Ketcham, James Madison: A Biography (1971; reprint, Charlottesville, Va., 1990).

Robert A. Rutland's James Madison: The Founding Father (New York, 1987) is a short and very readable work.