A Woman in Charge
| Author | Carl Bernstein |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Hillary Rodham Clinton |
| Genre | Biography |
| Publisher | Alfred A. Knopf |
|
Publication date
|
June 5, 2007 |
| Media type | Hardcover |
| Pages | 640 |
A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton is a biography of United States Senator, and former First Lady of the United States, Hillary Rodham Clinton that was written by Carl Bernstein and published on June 5, 2007, by Alfred A. Knopf.
Bernstein spent eight years working on the book. He is said to have interviewed around 200 people in connection with his research. He did not receive cooperation from the Clintons for the project.
The existence of the work was first announced by publisher Knopf on April 23, 2007, with a scheduled publication date of June 19, 2007.
The book came out at the same time as another mainstream biography, Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta, Jr.'s Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton. The respective publishers both moved up the release dates of their books in the act of competition, with in particular the Gerth-Van Natta work getting moved up from August; in the end the Bernstein book came out first by three days.
Beyond scheduling, there was some trash talking between the publishers: the editor in chief of Little, Brown, which was putting out Her Way, made reference to how Knopf had published Bill Clinton's quite successful autobiography My Life and expressed doubt as to how "objective and critical Knopf can be about Hillary when it's also publishing Bill." Knopf's editor said in response, "The editorial integrity of this (publishing) house speaks for itself. It's ludicrous for Little, Brown to suggest that. They should be very careful if they're going down that road." The Little, Brown editor said. "We [feel] confident we [can] go up against [Bernstein]", while the Knopf editor said that Little, Brown's "desire to link to our publication is understandable, especially since Bernstein will create a tidal wave of interest. They hope a rising tide raises all boats. But … their book could drown in our wake."
The book was published while Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign was underway. According to reviewers at the Washington Post, the Clinton campaign was "nervous" about new revelations from this or the Gerth-Van Natta book. But the Clintons had a less negative feeling about Bernstein's effort, given that they had a special antipathy towards Her Way due to Gerth's role in reporting the Whitewater, which controversy had bedeviled them for much of the Bill Clinton administration. As for the Bernstein book's title, the Boston Globe wrote that "She's not in charge yet, of course, but perhaps the title is meant to suggest that she is a take-charge woman."
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