Lissa Muscatine, a co-owner of Politics & Prose Bookstore in Washington, is finally ready to tell her story about working with Hillary Clinton.
This is a journey Muscatine experienced firsthand before and after she and her husband, Bradley Graham, bought Politics & Prose in 2011. Penguin Press President and Editor-in-Chief Ann Godoff said, "Muscatine has intimately witnessed events that define who we are culturally and politically in a changing America through her close association with Hillary Clinton for the last quarter century."
After working as a reporter and editor for the Washington Star and The Washington Post, Muscatine first met Hillary Clinton in 1993, when she was hired as a presidential speechwriter in the Clinton White House. Her work quickly shifted to Hillary. She wrote speeches for the first lady and then for Secretary of State Clinton in the Obama administration. She served as a senior adviser on Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign and as an unofficial adviser during the 2016 campaign. And she collaborated on Clinton's 2003 memoir, "Living History," which garnered an $8 million advance.
The decision to step out from behind the curtain and write in her own voice was a significant step for Muscatine. Her parents were authors, her husband has written two books, and she helps run one of the country’s most famous indie bookstores, but, she says, “I promised myself long ago that I would never write a book of my own unless I had something meaningful to say.”
The rise of Donald Trump changed everything for her. “The election was devastating, and I’m still reeling from it,” she said. “After years of writing in someone else’s voice, I just felt absolutely compelled to write this book. I hope that by telling this story in my own words, I can offer insights into an important slice of history — a window into Hillary’s world, and how that world is a mirror back on ourselves, our nation and our times.”
Clinton’s cooperation with the book seems likely. When Clinton finished the manuscript for her second memoir, “Hard Choices,” she sent the manuscript to Muscatine to get her comments. At a joint presentation in Washington in 2014, Clinton said, “Lissa has been my partner in some of the most important writing and speaking that I’ve done, going back to the White House years.”
"Hillaryland" will join a growing shelf of books about Clinton. Just this month, Susan Bordo published "The Destruction of Hillary Clinton," and Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes released "Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton's Doomed Campaign." Clinton herself plans to publish a collection of personal essays in September.
The title is a reference to the self-designated name of a group of about a dozen devoted supporters and staffers that includes Huma Abedin, Mandy Grunwald and Patti Solis Doyle, who is credited with coining the word.
A release date for “Hillaryland” has not yet been set.
A note to our readers
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
