List of memoirs by first ladies of the United States

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Title page of Recollections of Full Years by Helen Taft Recollections of Full Years (Helen Taft).jpg
Title page of Recollections of Full Years by Helen Taft

Thirteen first ladies of the United States have written a total of twenty-two memoirs. The first lady is the hostess of the White House, and the position is traditionally filled by the wife of the president of the United States, with some historical exceptions. Every memoir by a first lady published in the 20th and 21st centuries has been a bestseller, at times outselling those of their presidential husbands. [1] [2]

Contents

In the early 1800s, Abigail Adams had her correspondence published as Letters of Mrs. Adams, the Wife of John Adams , and Louisa Adams "made several attempts at an autobiography", though she never sought to publish them. [1] The Memoirs and Letters of Dolley Madison, Wife of James Madison, President of the United States were published in 1886 but were actually edited by Lucia Cutts and written by Dolley Madison's niece Mary Cutts. [note 1] [4]

Julia Grant was the first to write and attempt to publish her memoirs, writing The Personal Memoirs of Julia Dent Grant in the 1890s after the death of her husband Ulysses S. Grant. However, she never found a suitable publisher for them before her death in 1902, in part because she had unrealistic expectations of their value. The memoirs were eventually published in 1975. [5] Helen Taft was the first to have memoirs published during her lifetime, in 1914. [1] Memoirs by presidential spouses were uncommon until the 1970s; in the decades after Taft, only Edith Wilson, Grace Coolidge, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Lady Bird Johnson wrote and published their memoirs. [2] Coolidge had her memoirs published in the 1930s as several articles in The American Magazine . [4] Most first ladies have written and published at least one memoir about their life since Betty Ford's publication of her first memoir in the late 1970s. [2]

Early published memoirs focused on relatively trivial matters, often largely focusing on the first lady's personal life. Helen Taft's memoirs were described by The New York Sun as "bright, witty, delightfully entertaining reminiscences" upon publication, and Edith Wilson's My Memoir was criticized by contemporary reviewers such as The New York Times for excessively focusing on clothing and social events. [6] [7] Eleanor Roosevelt, who wrote four autobiographies, marked a shift in the content of the memoirs, writing more about political issues and less on her personal life. Lady Bird Johnson condensed a dictated two-million-word transcript into 300,000 for A White House Diary , which outsold her husband Lyndon B. Johnson's memoir. [6] In the 1960s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was involved in editing two books by Molly Thayer, Jacqueline Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House Years. [4]

Memoirs written by Betty Ford, Rosalynn Carter and Barbara Bush also outsold the memoirs of their husbands. [1] My Turn by Nancy Reagan, published in 1989, was nicknamed My Burn for its "vengeful" coverage of Reagan's life, particularly in the White House. The book sold very well, remaining on The New York Times Best Seller list for more than three months. [6] [8] Michelle Obama's memoir Becoming was published in 2018. She received over $60 million in advance of publication, and the book had sold over 11.5 million copies as of November 2019. [9] [10] There has been speculation that Melania Trump is writing a memoir or in talks to do so. [11] [12]

Memoirs

TitleFirst ladyPublisherYearIdentifierNote
Personal Memoirs of Julia Dent Grant Julia Grant Putnam Publishing Group 1975 ISBN   978-0-399-11386-4
OCLC   1362819 		[note 2]
Recollections of Full Years Helen Taft Dodd, Mead & Company 1914 OCLC   1071952821
My Memoir Edith Wilson Bobbs-Merrill Company 1939 OCLC   300015696
This is My Story Eleanor Roosevelt Harper & Brothers 1937 OCLC   1222392544
This I Remember Eleanor Roosevelt Harper & Brothers 1949 OCLC   1222358304
On My Own: The Years since the White House Eleanor Roosevelt Harper & Brothers 1958 OCLC   1007583041
The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt Eleanor Roosevelt Harper & Brothers 1961 OCLC   241967 [note 3]
A White House Diary Lady Bird Johnson Holt, Rinehart & Winston 1970 ISBN   978-0-03-085254-1
OCLC   247688211
The Times of My Life Betty Ford Harper & Row 1978 ISBN   978-0-06-011298-1
OCLC   1089520085 		[note 4]
Betty: A Glad Awakening Betty Ford Doubleday 1987 ISBN   978-0-385-23502-0
OCLC   624464837 		[note 4]
First Lady from Plains Rosalynn Carter Houghton Mifflin 1984 ISBN   978-0-395-35294-6
OCLC   608350043
Everything to Gain: Making the Most of the Rest of Your Life Rosalynn Carter Random House 1987 ISBN   978-0-394-55858-5
OCLC   1020180943 		[note 5]
Nancy: The Autobiography of America's First Lady Nancy Reagan HarperCollins 1980 ISBN   978-0-688-03533-4
OCLC   5613799 		[note 6]
My Turn: The Memoirs of Nancy Reagan Nancy Reagan Random House 1989 ISBN   978-0-394-56368-8
OCLC   19921006 		[note 7]
Barbara Bush: A Memoir Barbara Bush Scribner 1994 ISBN   978-0-02-519635-3
OCLC   733651482
Reflections: Life After the White House Barbara Bush Scribner 2004 ISBN   978-0-7432-5582-0
OCLC   57355785
Living History Hillary Clinton Simon & Schuster 2003 ISBN   978-0-7432-2224-2
OCLC   961885123
Hard Choices Hillary Clinton Simon & Schuster 2014 ISBN   978-1-4767-5144-3
OCLC   900303720
What Happened Hillary Clinton Simon & Schuster 2017 ISBN   978-1-5011-7556-5
OCLC   1003606642
Spoken from the Heart Laura Bush Scribner 2010 ISBN   978-1-4391-5520-2
OCLC   669262090
Becoming Michelle Obama Crown Publishing Group 2018 ISBN   978-1-5247-6313-8
OCLC   1079014347
Where the Light Enters: Building a Family, Discovering Myself Jill Biden Flatiron Books 2019 ISBN   978-1-250-18234-0
OCLC   1198401967 		[note 8]

See also

Notes and references

Notes

  1. ↑ According to Stuart Leibiger, "Many historians (including myself) have cited the Memoirs and Letters of Dolly Madison: Wife of James Madison, President of the United States [...] without realizing that the volume was actually written by Dolley's niece, Mary Estelle Elizabeth Cutts, and published without attribution." [3]
  2. ↑ Grant tried but was unable to secure a publisher for her memoirs during her lifetime. [5]
  3. ↑ Compiled material from her first three autobiographies with additional chapters [13]
  4. 1 2 Written with Chris Chase [14] [15]
  5. ↑ Written with husband Jimmy Carter [16]
  6. ↑ Written with Bill Libby [17]
  7. ↑ Written with William Novak [18]
  8. ↑ Published before becoming the first lady [19]

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Mary Estelle Elizabeth Cutts was an American socialite, amateur historian, and memoirist. She exchanged letters frequently with Dolley Madison and, after Madison's death in 1849, spent the last seven years of her life writing and attempting to publish two memoirs. The memoirs included biographical information on Madison and were published in 1886 as the heavily edited Memoirs and Letters of Dolley Madison, Wife of James Madison, President of the United States by Lucia B. Cutts. The work was the standard on Madison's life for over a century.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Fehrman, Craig (May 21, 2010). "First Lady Lit". The New York Times . Archived from the original on April 3, 2015. Retrieved March 30, 2015..
  2. 1 2 3 Sánchez, Bianca (November 13, 2018). "The History of First Ladies' Memoirs". Smithsonian Magazine . Archived from the original on November 29, 2020. Retrieved November 20, 2020.
  3. ↑ Leibiger, Stuart (June 2014). "The Queen of America: Mary Cutts's Life of Dolley Madison". Presidential Studies Quarterly. 44 (2): 376–377. doi:10.1111/psq.12125.
  4. 1 2 3 Anthony, Carl (May 18, 2016). "First Ladies as Author". The National First Ladies' Library . Archived from the original on November 29, 2020. Retrieved November 21, 2020.
  5. 1 2 "The Personal Memoirs of Julia Dent Grant". National Park Service . Archived from the original on November 27, 2020. Retrieved November 20, 2020.
  6. 1 2 3 Brockell, Gillian (November 12, 2018). "Julia Grant couldn't find a publisher for her memoir. Michelle Obama got paid millions for hers". The Washington Post . ISSN   0190-8286. Archived from the original on November 22, 2020. Retrieved November 20, 2020.
  7. ↑ "The Memoirs of Mrs. Wilson" . The New York Times. March 12, 1939. Retrieved August 19, 2021.
  8. ↑ Fehrman, Craig (2012). "Reagan and the Rise of the Blockbuster Political Memoir". American Literary History . 24 (3): 468–490. doi:10.1093/alh/ajs031. ISSN   0896-7148. JSTOR   23249745 . Retrieved May 20, 2021.
  9. ↑ "Michelle Obama's book is set to become the best-selling memoir in history". Reuters. March 27, 2019. Archived from the original on November 25, 2020. Retrieved November 20, 2020– via NBC News.
  10. ↑ Superville, Darlene (November 19, 2019). "Michelle Obama signs 'Becoming' copies on book's anniversary". Associated Press . Archived from the original on May 18, 2021. Retrieved November 20, 2020.
  11. ↑ Mahdawi, Arwa (December 1, 2020). "Operation Rebrand Melania: What can we expect from the first lady's rumoured memoir?". The Guardian . Archived from the original on May 17, 2021. Retrieved May 17, 2021.
  12. ↑ Zoellner, Danielle (November 28, 2020). "Melania Trump 'in discussions about writing her own memoir'". The Independent . Archived from the original on May 17, 2021. Retrieved May 17, 2021.
  13. ↑ Laski, Marghanita (August 3, 1962). "Eleanor Roosevelt's autobiography – archive, 1962". The Guardian . Archived from the original on November 28, 2020. Retrieved November 21, 2020.
  14. ↑ Howard, Jane (December 21, 2018). "Notes From the Book Review Archives". The New York Times . ISSN   0362-4331. Archived from the original on November 8, 2020. Retrieved November 21, 2020.
  15. ↑ "Betty — A Glad Awakening". Kirkus Reviews . Archived from the original on October 26, 2020. Retrieved November 21, 2020.
  16. ↑ Carter, Jimmy; Carter, Rosalynn (1987). Everything to Gain: Making the Most of the Rest of Your Life. University of Arkansas Press. ISBN   978-1-55728-388-7. JSTOR   j.ctt22h6q6h. Archived from the original on May 19, 2019. Retrieved November 21, 2020.
  17. ↑ Quinn, Sally (May 1, 1980). "Nancy Reagan On the Road To the Realm". The Washington Post . ISSN   0190-8286. Archived from the original on August 28, 2017. Retrieved November 21, 2020.
  18. ↑ "My Turn". Publishers Weekly . Archived from the original on May 18, 2021. Retrieved November 21, 2020.
  19. ↑ Jensen, Erin (May 7, 2019). "Jill Biden writes of marriage with Joe, 'totally shattering' death of son Beau in new book". USA Today . Archived from the original on June 30, 2019. Retrieved May 18, 2021.

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