Quick. Think of someone who has met every president from Harry Truman to George W. Bush. This man was also a friend to many of them. He prayed with and often counseled them.

Only the venerable Billy Graham could possibly come to mind.

While there are plenty of great books about Graham and his nearly 60–year ministry, The Preacher and the Presidents: Billy Graham in the White House by TIME magazine staffers Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy, focuses exclusively on the evangelist’s relationship with America’s last 11 chief executives.

The authors use TIME’s archives and new interviews with the 89–year–old Graham to craft a fascinating read.

For example, in this hyper–partisan age, it’s hard to believe the esteem in which both major political parties held Graham. Democrat Lyndon Johnson invited Graham to stay at the White House the last few nights of his presidency, and he stayed for a few more nights after Republican Richard Nixon was inaugurated.

In 1950, Truman didn’t know what to think when the young, flamboyant Graham showed up at the White House and asked if he could pray with the President.

President Dwight Eisenhower and Graham were close, but some say they used each other. Graham’s response was that he didn’t mind being used if he could also present the Gospel to the president.

Graham was extremely close to Eisenhower’s vice president, Nixon, and subtly supported his campaign in 1960.

Democrat John F. Kennedy, who won the election, met with Graham nine days before Kennedy’s inauguration. The Roman Catholic president–elect asked the Protestant Graham about the end times and Christ’s Second Coming.

Graham was very close to Kennedy’s successor, Johnson, and Graham, who usually stayed out of politics, threw his support behind anti–poverty legislation.

But it was Graham’s close relationship with Johnson’s successor, Nixon, that nearly ruined his ministry when Nixon resigned amid impeachment proceedings for the Watergate corruption scandal.

Nixon’s successor, Gerald Ford, distanced himself from his predecessor but did talk to Graham by phone to pray with him.

The writers suggest that Jimmy Carter, an evangelical Christian who had announced during the 1976 campaign that he was “born again,” didn’t need Graham as much as some of the other presidents did.

Graham and Ronald Reagan, both staunch anti–communists, were interested in reaching the Soviet bloc for Christ.

A longtime friend of George H. W. Bush, Graham spent the first night of the 1991 Gulf War at the White House. He also was a regular visitor to the Bush family compound in Maine, where he challenged eldest son George W. Bush spiritually during a long walk on the beach. Bush says that conversation helped change his life.

Bill Clinton had gone to a Graham crusade as a youngster in Arkansas. Years later, Clinton took his wife, Hillary, to hear the preacher. Graham offered spiritual advice to the President during his impeachment and also counseled Hillary on forgiving her husband’s infidelity.

The authors do a great job of explaining how Graham walked a proverbial tightrope between the earthly and heavenly kingdoms.