[Opinion] The Memoir “Jackpot”

The Clintons probably are the first case where both husband and wife have published their own individual memoirs. Barbara Bush was one of the few first ladies to publish her memoir, but husband George Bush Sr. did not. The Clintons are not only extraordinary for having written separate memoirs, but also for the amount of money their memoirs are raking in. Senator Hilary Clinton, whose memoir “Living History” came out a year ahead of her husband’s, showed the same meticulous intensity towards promoting her book as is revealed in its contents.

Hilary Clinton received an unprecedented $8.1 million (about 9.4 billion won) up front in royalties for her memoir. As if to make up for this sum, she toured 17 cities around the world (including London, Paris, and Berlin), as well as the entire United States, signing books and spending “face time” with her readership. At a Wal-Mart in Virginia, she continued to sign even with a swollen wrist, applying cold poultices and wearing a wrist protector. Carolyn Reidy, president of the book’s publisher, Simon and Schuster, marveled that Hilary cheerfully went through the hour-and-a-half ordeal of shaking hands with 1,500 readers and signing their copies of “Living History.”

Former President Bill Clinton has a tight schedule of interviews and book tours ahead of him in order to promote “My Life.” He will be making the rounds at bookstores in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Denver, and more, through the end of July. In one bookstore in Washington D.C., more than 1,000 people lined up for seven hours to get an admission ticket to the book signing. Interviews with CBS’s Dan Rather, ABC’s Oprah Winfrey, and CNN’s Larry King are all on the agenda, in addition to those for magazines and newspapers such as “USA Today.” It’s a great expense-free way to promote your new book.

A substantial number of people are buying the Clintons’ memoirs out of morbid curiosity about the reactions of this famously proud couple to the disastrous Lewinsky scandal. In “Living History,” Hilary writes that she wanted to “wring his neck” when Bill first confessed his relations with Monica Lewinsky. The part where she banished him from their conjugal bed and made him sleep on the sofa seems to have been saved for last: it only just came out in “My Life.” Perhaps the couple split even their Lewinsky-induced marital woes in order to market their respective memoirs.

Editorialist Hwang Ho-taek, hthwang@donga.com