My Life (Bill Clinton autobiography)
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My Life is a 2004 autobiography written by former President of the United States Bill Clinton, who left office on January 20, 2001. The book was published by the Knopf Publishing Group at Random House on June 22, 2004, and set a worldwide record for single day non-fiction book sales according to the publisher;[1] the book sold in excess of 400,000 copies. He had received what was at the time the world's highest book advance fee, believed to have been worth US$12 million; at the announcement of media personality Oprah Winfrey's future weight loss book, it was said that her undisclosed advance fee had broken this record.[2]
The audio book edition, read by Clinton, won the 2005 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album. This was the second time he had won the award; in February 2004, Clinton (along with former leader of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev and actress Sophia Loren) won the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children for narrating the Russian National Orchestra's album Peter and the Wolf/Wolf Tracks.
[edit] Trivia
- Clinton spent about two and a half years on the book. He gathered material for four months, wrote an outline, "and then I wrote for two years and two months."[3]
- He was assisted in the book's writing by Justin Cooper. "I wrote it out long hand, left blanks for research, he'd do the research, put it in the computer, print it out, and then we'd edit it. Every page in this book has probably been gone over somewhere between three and nine times."[4]
- The original draft for the book was written completely in long-hand. "[There were] twenty-two big, thick notebooks."[5]
[edit] References
- ^ Alfred A. Knopft (2004). Bill Clinton's My Life sets one day, non-fiction sales record. Retrieved June 22, 2006.
- ^ Glaister, Dan. "Oprah Winfrey book deal tops Clinton's $12m", The Guardian, 22 May 2006.
- ^ Late Show with David Letterman, The, aired August 3, 2004.
- ^ Late Show with David Letterman, The, aired August 3, 2004.
- ^ Late Show with David Letterman, The, aired August 3, 2004.
[edit] External links
