At the Washington Post’s Political Bookworm, I’ve got a blog post explaining how the publisher of Jimmy Carter’s White House Diary accidentally violated its own publicity embargo. I also run down the history of this sort of thing — it involves both Richard Nixon and Pinkerton guards — but the newsy take away is this: the first 50 pages of Carter’s Diary, which comes out next week, are available right now on Google Books. A diary that’s three decades old will offer a different appeal than a hot new memoir, but there’s still some juicy details. Let’s start with this one: Carter says he got the idea to keep a diary from Nixon.
(If you’re in the mood for more on political book culture, check out this New York Times Book Review essay on the history of first lady memoirs and this American Prospect essay on the history of political ghostwriting.)
Craig Fehrman 