Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Knopf to Do 200K Printing for Remnick's Obama Bio


Knopf has acquired a biography of President Obama by New Yorker editor David Remnick. The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama is slated for April 6 and, according to the Random House imprint, will be "a sweeping and deeply reported look at both the life of the 44th President and the complex saga of race in America that led to his historic election."

Knopf has an announced first printing of 200,000 copies, and will release simultaneous e-book and audiobook editions along with the April hardcover.

Remnick, who has one Pulitzer to his name (for his book about the collapse of the Soviet Union, Lenin's Tomb, which is also published by Random House), delivers what the publisher claims is the "fullest narrative possible of a sitting President," compiled from hundreds of interviews with Obama, as well as his staffers, family, confidantes, and political rivals. The title will also feature never-before-published letters Obama wrote to his mother, Stanley Ann Dunham.

Knopf publisher Sonny Mehta said The Bridge "reveals not only [Obama's] character, but also his trials, motivations, and perspectives in a way that a memoir, even a remarkable one, cannot."

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