Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair ’s memoir , A Journey , is spark off all sort of picketing and dissent around the U.K. , so we reckon it might be a good time to take a face at a few presidential memoirs from this side of the pond . Here are a few thing you might not have known about former presidents ’ literary end product .
Best Choice of (Possible) Ghostwriter
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He still had entree to that heavy presidential cash moo-cow , the memoir , though . Mark Twain approached Grant about publishing the warfare hero ’s memoirs with a plum good deal that would give Grant 75 % of the profits as royalties . Cash - strapped Grant had little choice but to accept Twain ’s offering , and the Civil War - focusedPersonal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Granthit stores in 1885 .
Grant ’s memoirs were an instant runaway bang . Twain ’s company made the cagy selection of apply former Union soldiers in full uniform as salesmen , and the book became one of the best marketer of the nineteenth century . Today , the Holy Writ is considered by many to be the good presidential memoir ever written , but there ’s some disputation over who in reality did the bulk of the piece of writing . duad always exact that he had only made slight edits to Grant ’s text , but the prose was so strong that many suspected Twain himself had ghostwritten the book .
Sadly , Grant did n’t get to see the success of his book ; he conk out shortly after its completion . But his widow woman Julia banked over $ 400,000 in royalty from the memoir .
Worst Financial Windfall
While today ’s presidents are financially set for life sentence from publishing and consulting lance when they leave the Oval Office , just 57 years ago that was n’t the case .
When Harry Truman ’s full term stop in 1953 , he did n’t have any savings to address of , and he feel taking a incorporated job would cheapen the presidential term . His only income was a $ 112 - a - calendar month pension from his Clarence Day in the Army .
Truman decided that the serious manner to drum up some hard cash was to sell his memoirs , for which he got a $ 670,000 advance . By the meter he make up taxation and his assistants , though , Truman only netted a few grand on the two - volume work . Eventually his fiscal pass grew so dire that Congress passed the Former Presidents Act in 1958 to secure annual pensions of $ 25,000 to former United States President .
Best Use of Revisionist History
History has judged James Buchanan pretty gratingly ; most scholars rank him among the worst President of the United States we ’ve ever had . You lie with who was a bit more sympathetic in his appraisal of the failed Buchanan establishment , though ? James Buchanan . In 1866 Buchanan published the first - ever presidential memoir , the magnificently titledMr . Buchanan ’s Administration on the Eve of Rebellion .
In his Good Book , Buchanan endeavor to set the record directly about his presidency . By the time Buchanan ’s memoir came out , the Civil War had ended and Abraham Lincoln had become a interior icon , so Buchanan attempted to liken his own policies to Honest Abe ’s . Sure , Buchanan had match abolitionists and was considered to be a doughface — a Yankee with Southern sympathies — but in his mind , he was just like Lincoln and finger history would someday set the record straight . Unfortunately for Mr. Buchanan , it did n’t .
Most Honest Use of a Ghostwriter
Ronald Reagan was immediate with a wisecrack , and he put down one of his best one - lining at the release of his 1990 memoirAn American Life . Publisher Simon & Schuster held a press group discussion for the release of the book , which Reagan had purportedly pen “ with the editorial help of Robert Lindsey . " In trueness , it sounds like Lindsey may have receive only the flimsy help from Reagan . The Gipper joked at the press conference , “ I see it ’s a terrific Good Book ! One of these days I ’m going to read it myself . ”
Worst Sales Loss at the Hands of a Spouse
Poor Gerald Ford just could n’t win any deference . When his memoirA fourth dimension to bring around : The Autobiography of Gerald R. Fordcame out in 1979 , his married woman , Betty , also had a memoir on the stands , The Times of My Life . Betty gave her husband a t - shirt that read “ Bet My Book Outsells Yours ” for his natal day . To make the crummy gift even worse , she was right . At least Ford was in good party ; Nancy Reagan ’s memoir also outsold her husband ’s .
Quickest Read
Calvin Coolidge earn the nickname “ Silent Cal ” for being excellently taciturn , and his memoir were n’t uncharacteristically verbose . Coolidge take the prize for the short presidential memoir — The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidgecomes in at a tight - lipped 247 pages .
Biggest Advance
Bill Clinton start an astounding $ 15 million advance from Knopf for his 900 - page behemoth of a memoirMy Life . When Clinton signed the great deal , publishing analysts figured the book would have to sell upwards of 800,000 hardcover copy just to break even , but Knopf aggressively dictate a presidential - record - breaking first run of 1.5 million copies .
To give you a sentiency of perspective , Richard Nixon ’s memoirs trade 330,000 and were moot a huge hit ; to rationalise this procession , Bubba was going to have to really move some books . But as of 2008 , Clinton had not just exceed that monstrous advance ; he had pocket nearly $ 30 million from sales ofMy Lifeand his follow - up , Giving : How Each of Us Can switch the World . Hilary was n’t doing so badly for herself in the publishing game , either . Her bookLiving Historymade her more than $ 10 million .
Longest Takedown of FDR
Like Buchanan , Herbert Hoover does n’t get much honey from historian , but he certainly stood up for himself . After leave spot in 1933 after what ’s generally correspond was a fairly fateful stretch , Hoover ask 18 years to crank out the first tome of his gigantic three - volume memoir . His independent goal ? Explaining why his presidency was n’t really a failure and whap the insurance policy of his successor , Franklin Roosevelt .
Among Hoover ’s most memorable vilification of FDR : “ The effort to crossbreed some features of Fascism and Socialism with our American innocent system of rules quickly developed in the Roosevelt government activity . " Take that , New Deal !
