SLIDESHOW: Pulitzer Prize Author Gets Rock Star Treatment

Book signings in Framingham with sports stars, rock stars, and celebrities are nothing new in Framingham. In the past year, Shoppers World has seen lines for an Aerosmith guitarist, Bobby Orr, Rick Springfield, Pedro Martinez and more.

But Wednesday night, people started lining up at 3:30 p.m. to listen to and meet an 81-year-old grey-haired author who admits he enjoys research and spent a lot of his youth reading books.

Two-time Pulitzer Prize author David McCullough spoke at Barnes and Noble Booksellers in Shoppers World at 7 about his new book The Wright Brothers, which was published on May 5.

McCullough said like the brothers he grew up with books and enjoyed reading.

He said one of his favorite books as a child was The Little Engine That Could.

“In fact, most of my books are a variation on that theme,” he joked.

His love of reading created a career as an author, narrator of the celebrated Civil War series by Ken Burns, a historian, and a lecturer. McCullough was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States.

“I can’t believe I am meeting him,” said one woman, who said she arrived at the book store at 4 p.m. to get a front row seat.

More than 175 individuals packed into the back of the store to hear him speak and answer questions for about 30 minutes before he autographed copies of his newest books as well as his books on Presidents Harry Truman and John Adams, which he received the Pulitzer Prizes for biography/autobiography.

History is a focus of McCullough’s books. His book 1776, which he also signed for those who lined up to meet him, focuses on the founding year of the United States, its first President George Washington, his army, and the struggle for independence.

McCullough, who lives in Back Bay with his wife Rosalee, whom he met as a teenager, recently took abother trip to the Outer Bank, where the Wright Brothers changed history.