For Whom the Memoir Tolls
The publishing world plays an uncelebrated role in every election, selling hundreds of thousands of books that explain political candidates to voters.
The New York Times just published an intimate profile of John McCain’s first memoir, Faith of My Fathers. The book began with a $500,000 advance, and went on to sell 500,000 copies over two different presidential campaigns.
The long article includes portraits of the publishing folks who helped McCain’s book happen–his co-author, Mark Salter, and his agent, Philippa Brophy (the president of Sterling Lord Literistic). It also showed how the authors gave literary weight to McCain’s experiences:
“The John McCain of Faith of My Fathers, for example, bears more than a little resemblance to the fictional Robert Jordan of ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls, the Hemingway hero Mr. McCain later celebrated in another book with Mr. Salter, Worth the Fighting For, which was named for a line of Jordan’s dying thoughts.”
It’s funny. We chastise literary memoirists for similar acts of re-writing, but excuse politicians for their creative self-images. Jump in the comments section–what literary character guides your imaginary (or real) memoir?
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