Politics comes to Book Expo America

Hillary Clinton has promised an audience at Book Expo America that her next memoir, to be published by Simon & Schuster, will go “a lot further – as far as I can” in discussing her run for the presidency and its aftermath.

Clinton, who won the popular vote and failed to win the presidency in the US election last November, joined Pete Souza, the photographer who officially chronicled Barack Obama, the man she wanted to succeed in the White House; and former astronaut Scott Kelly at the event. Each couldn’t help but inject politics into Book Expo speeches on Day Two, when yet another storm broke over Washington.

At the author breakfast, Kelly - who spent nearly a year on the international space station - spoke about his forthcoming memoir Endurance (Knopf), and showed a video in which the effects of weightlessness were evident. “I changed positions so many times you would have thought I was running for president – probably I should have!” he quipped.

Politics, though, are a very serious business in Kelly’s family: his twin, Mark, also a retired astronaut, is married to former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, the target of a mass shooter in Tucson in 2011. And this first day of June, Scott Kelly recognized, was “a critical one in the nation’s future. In space you realize how fragile the atmosphere is – you can see some parts of the world covered in pollution. I hope our president makes the right decision.”

Last night (1st June), Donald J. Trump didn’t.  But before word came down in the afternoon that he had failed America and the world and his own grandchildren yet again with his climate-change decision, Pete Souza showed-and-told about some of the 300 images that will appear in Obama: An Intimate Portrait: The Historic Presidency in Photographs (Little, Brown).

Hilary Clinton and Cheryl Strayed

“I kind of miss this guy,” Souza began, to audible murmurs of agreement from hundreds of booksellers. With a shot of the former president in Africa, Souza said, “this was his return to Kenya – where his father was born.” As for an image taken this past January 20 – the day of the inauguration – showing President Obama and his successor, Souza declared: “I don’t have anything to say about this.” Moist eyes throughout the audience said it all.

Hillary Clinton spoke about her as yet untitled book – another memoir coming from S&S – at the very end of the day, in an hour-long Q&A with bestselling author Cheryl Strayed. Clinton said that this latest installment, about the run for the presidency and its aftermath, “will go a lot further – as far as I can – the choices in the future depend on it….It will deal with all the incredibly bizarre happenings. You may think that you know about them, but I’m going to say how I felt, saw, and thought – because you cannot make up what happened....

“In 2008, it was not fun losing, but I didn’t worry about our country. I am really worried. We are living in such an abnormal time, with dishonesty, fabrication, and ways of behaving about the challenges we face. It could cause lasting damage to our institutions. I will talk about what is totally unprecedented in American history. You can’t be all right with a foreign adversary trying to influence our elections….I try to arm citizens to be active, to speak up.

“I’m deeply troubled: all of a sudden attitudes and feelings are bursting through the veneer of civilization….I saw in the election a deliberate effort to blow the top off….It’s incredibly dangerous…It doesn’t take much to rip off the politeness and accommodation that keep diverse people living and working together. We saw it in Bosnia, Rwanda, political leaders for power or greed or ideology really lighting those flames. There is always kindling there.”

In the end, when Strayed asked Clinton what her next chapter would be, the former Secretary of State, senator, and First Lady responded: “I have no idea. But I will do everything I can to support the resistance.”

Booksellers made clear that they will do their part.