-Vogue
Well, that vacation
didn't last long: after a multi-publisher bidding war, Barack and
Michelle Obama have sold the rights to their next books to Penguin
Random House for a sum that has reportedly passed $60 million, according
to a report by the Financial Times. (They
will be writing separate books, but the rights were sold jointly.) As
far as past and present presidential book deals go, this one’s a biggie:
it surpasses previous records set by George W. Bush's reported $7 million deal and Bill Clinton's reported $15 million dollar advance.
“We
are absolutely thrilled to continue our publishing partnership with
President and Mrs. Obama,” Penguin CEO Markus Dohle said in a statement,
according to The Associated Press.
“With their words and their leadership, they changed the world, and
every day, with the books we publish at Penguin Random House, we strive
to do the same.” The publisher added that they would aim to “make each
of their books global publishing events of unprecedented scope and
significance.” And what more would you expect from a former president
who believed, as Nathan Heller wrote in December, so fully in the power of “what artful sentences can do?”
Obama has always had literary leanings—occasionally even to his detriment, according to his critics. Among his last events
at the White House was an informal lunch with his favorite authors
(Dave Eggers, Colson Whitehead, Zadie Smith, Junot Diaz, and Barbara
Kingsolver), after which he gave an interview to the New York Times about his reading habits, after which its author, Michiko Kakutani, wrote:
“Not since Lincoln has there been a president as fundamentally
shaped—in his life, convictions, and outlook on the world—by reading and
writing as Barack Obama.” His critically lauded first book, Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, was published in 1995 and re-released in 2004, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream was published in 2006 and was on the New York Times bestseller list for 30 weeks. (He also wrote a children’s book, Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters, in 2010.) Is it too soon to place a pair of pre-orders?
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