Mark I. West is a professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where he has taught since 1984. He is the author or editor of over twenty books, including Theodore Roosevelt on Books and Reading (2023) and Theodore Roosevelt and His Library at Sagamore Hill (2022).

Frye Gaillard, former writer in residence at the University of South Alabama, is a journalist-historian who has written more than 30 books. His award-winning titles include A Hard Rain: America in the 1960s (an NPR best book of 2018); Cradle of Freedom: Alabama and the Movement that Changed America; and Prophet from Plains: Jimmy Carter and His Legacy.