LEWISTON – Author and historian David McCullough will be one of four speakers at the Bates College graduation on May 28.

The keynoters are AIDS researcher David Ho, Shakespearean scholar Marjorie Garber, and choreographer Mark Morris. All four will be given honorary degrees.

McCullough, who lives in Massachusetts, is the writer of acclaimed, best-selling history books and has been called “a master of the art of narrative history.” His ability to infuse accounts of the American past with his enthusiasm for storytelling has made him “the people’s historian,” according to The New York Times.

McCullough has won the Pulitzer Price for his recent book, “John Adams,” and for “Truman,” biographies of the nation’s second and 33rd president. His most recent book, “1776,” is an account of the pivotal year in the Revolutionary War.

In an interview on his Web page, McCullough talked about his John Adams book. The fact that John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died on the same day – July 4, 1826 – is “almost impossible to believe,” he said. He decided to write about Adams, but was initially concerned it would be difficult to keep Jefferson from upstaging Adams. A year-and-a-half into the project, he realized that Adams was “a more fully developed, three-dimensional, warm-blooded, and compelling character than Jefferson,” McCullough said.

A gifted speaker, he has lectured all over the country, including the White House, and abroad.

Garber is described by the New York Times as “one of the most powerful woman in the academic world.” She is the author of four books on Shakespeare, including her most recent, “Shakespeare After All.”

Ho is considered preeminent in the battle against HIV/AIDS. In 1995 his work was key to unlocking the secrets of HIV replication, and the subsequent development of the so-called drug cocktails. That drug therapy is credited with reducing AIDS deaths in the United States and Europe.

Morris, born in Seattle, first danced professionally at 11 and first choreographed professional at 14. By 1986 he was nationally known, featured on an hour-long public television special. He co-founded the White Oak Dance Project with Mikhail Baryshnikov. In 2001 he opened the Mark Morris Dance Center in Brooklyn to provide community outreach and educational programs.

An estimated 400 Bates seniors are expected to graduate on May 28.