Both former Vice President Joe Biden and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will release deeply personal memoirs before the year ends. The two books feature minimalist covers and intimate details of two of the political figures that have dominated American politics in their lifetime.
Titled Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose, Biden’s book looks back on the year following the death of his son, Beau, who died in 2014 after battling brain cancer, and the incredible challenges he faced in his career while mourning the death of his son. The title alludes to the Thanksgiving during the last months of Beau’s life, during which he told his father: “Promise me, Dad. Give me your word that no matter what happens, you’re going to be alright.”
The book chronicles a year in which Biden traveled over a hundred thousand miles and fulfilled his duty to his country while experiencing such a striking loss. Sadly, the former vice president is not unfamiliar with such tragedy. Shortly after winning the 1972 Delaware Senate election, Biden lost both his first wife Neilia and one-year-old daughter Naomi in a car accident. Promise Me, Dad recounts how Biden depended on the “strength of his long, deep bonds with his family, on his faith, and on his deepening friendship with the man in the Oval Office, Barack Obama,” according to a statement released by Flatiron Books.
Promise Me, Dad will be released November 14th and will coincide with Biden’s tour of the country, during which he will host discussion panels with local leaders.
Titled What Happened, Clinton’s memoir will detail her experience running against Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. The book is said to reveal Clinton’s thoughts and regrets of her journey during and following the 2016 presidential election.
Last week, MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” aired exclusive excerpts of the book read by Clinton herself, including a clip in which she describes how she felt during the October 9th debate when Trump stood uncomfortably close behind her. “He was literally breathing down my neck,” she reads in one of the excerpts. “My skin crawled. It was one of those moments where you wish you could hit pause and ask everyone watching, well, what would you do?”
According to a description released by Simon & Schuster, Clinton will reflect on her mistakes, what it was like to oppose Donald Trump, the role of Russian interference in the election and how she recovered from the “shocking and devastating” loss on November 8th. She also comments on the criticism she received about her age, voice and appearance and the challenges that women in politics face. Moving beyond simply an account of her experience, Clinton will also argue that the 2016 election was marred by an “unprecedented assault on our democracy by a foreign adversary,” and will lay out what she believes Americans need to understand to protect our democracy and the future of the country.
Clinton is no stranger to writing books. In a long-standing relationship with publishing house Simon & Schuster, Clinton has published six books to date, including two other memoirs, Living History (2003), which explore her early life and time as First Lady, and Hard Choices (2014), an account of her time as the former U.S. Secretary of State. Clinton received a near-record-breaking offer of $8 million from Simon & Schuster for Living History, which went on to break first-week publishing records for nonfiction works. The audio book, read by Clinton, won her a second Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album.
What Happened is set to release on September 12th.