Billions of cicadas emerge from underground every dozen-plus years, loudly making their presence known across the land to lure mates.
Slightly fewer politicians come out of hiding to attract admirers, but they do so more frequently, often writing books every four years to sing their own praises. This election year is no exception. There have been memoirs by potential presidential candidates (Gretchen Whitmer’s True Gretch) and past contenders (Hillary Rodham Clinton’s Something Lost, Something Gained, published by Simon & Schuster on Sept. 17). Bill Clinton, for his part, is waiting until shortly after the Nov. 5 election to publish his latest book, Citizen: My Life After the White House (Knopf, Nov. 19).
Donald Trump first made a name for himself as a real estate developer in the 1980s with his bestseller The Art of the Deal. The lucrative approach continues apace: Within two months of surviving an assassination attempt in July, the Republican presidential candidate released a $99 photobook, Save America, whose instantly famous cover image shows its author’s face streaked in blood, his fist held high.
The former president is not the only Trump who has published a book this season: Melania, a memoir, came out within a few weeks of the election, on Oct. 8, and less favorable portraits of her husband were written by Trump’s nephew Fred Trump (All in the Family) and his niece Mary L. Trump (Who Could Ever Love You).
Unflattering examinations of Trump, of course, haven’t been limited to relatives. Two election-year titles stand out: Meridith McGraw’s Trump in Exile and Russ Buettner and Susanne Craig’s Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father’s Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success.
Bob Woodward, prolific as ever, is also in the mix. His most recent behind-the-scenes book, War (Simon & Schuster, Oct. 15), homes in on Ukraine, the Middle East, and the presidential campaign.
It’s not just presidents and presidential contenders who are the subjects of political books this season. Michael Tackett, deputy Washington bureau chief for the Associated Press, has published a critical look at the U.S. Senate’s minority leader: The Price of Power: How Mitch McConnell Mastered the Senate, Changed America, and Lost His Party (Simon & Schuster, Oct. 29). McConnell’s congressional colleague, Nancy Pelosi, shares her own view of leadership in her memoir The Art of Power (Simon & Schuster, Aug. 6).
Will any of these books have a shelf life that goes beyond the election season? It remains to be seen, of course. But one acclaimed political biography may well stand the test of time. David Greenberg’s John Lewis: A Life (Simon & Schuster, Oct. 8) celebrates the late civil rights activist and “conscience of the Congress” in its 700 capacious pages.
As Greenberg writes of Lewis’ death in 2020, “In a summer when the names of statesmen were being stripped off buildings in penance for their racism and other imputed sins, Lewis was someone everyone wished to honor. For months to come, his name would be affixed to schools and centers, bridges and parks, streets and post offices, fellowships and awards.”
Other than a book, what more lasting physical tribute could there be?
John McMurtrie is the nonfiction editor.
PHOTO CREDITS: Above, from left, Donald Trump (Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images), Melania Trump (Leon Neal/Getty Images), Mitch McConnell (Nathan Howard/Getty Images), Gretchen Whitmer (Rob Kim/Getty Images for The Webby Awards), Nancy Pelosi (Kimberly White/Getty Images), Bill Clinton (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images), Hillary Clinton (John Nacion/WireImage)
