Kitty Kelley’s take on writing biography, “Unauthorized, But Not Untrue,” appears in the Winter 2011 issue of The American Scholar. Read the article here.

Update 2/1/11: The article has been reposted by NY Social Diary, with more pictures, here.

Update 1/8/15: There’s a PDF here.

Posted in General, His Way, Oprah, The Family and tagged biography, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, Oprah, Sinatra, unauthorized biography

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Five years ago I sat down with Matt Lauer on NBC’s The Today Show for a three-part interview. Go here to MSNBC to revisit the entire interview (there’s video too). Among the exchanges, here is one of my favorites:

Lauer: “What about the timing of this book? You’ve been working on it for four years.”

Kelley: “I have.”

Lauer: “Why release it 50 days before what is a hotly contested, incredibly divided election?”

Kelley: “Why not?”

Lauer: “Well, I’m asking why?”

Kelley: “I mean, why not? It’s relevant.”

Lauer: “Do you want people to read this and do you want it to influence their choices as they go to the polls on November 2nd?”

Kelley: “Matt, I want them to read this book. It’s an important book. There are relevant themes here. Is it going to change an election? No. I wrote a book about Frank Sinatra; I still love his singing.”

Lauer: “He’s an entertainer.”

Kelley: “I wrote a book about the British royal family. The queen still sits.”

Lauer: “Nobody goes to the polls to vote for them.”

Kelley: “I wrote a book about the Kennedy family. There’s no more revered family…”

Lauer: “They weren’t in office at the time.”

Kelley: “…in the country. No, they weren’t in office.”

Lauer: “Ronald Reagan was out of office when you wrote about him.”

Kelley: “True.”

It should be an entertaining April.

Posted in The Family and tagged Media, The Family, today show, video