Best-Selling Biographer
Kitty Kelley
Notes from Evan Smith
"Today's guest is the official biographer of the Bush dynasty. Just kidding. But even without the blessing of 41 and 43, Kitty Kelley is once again one of the world's best-best-selling authors, and The Family, her couldn't-be-more-unauthorized tale of the president and his kin, is the book everyone's talking about -- and squawking about.
Controversy and chart-topping sales have been the stuff of 62-year-old Kelley's career ever since her equally unauthorized biography of Frank Sinatra, My Way, was published in 1986 -- and 1 million hardback copies promptly flew off the shelves. 1991's Nancy Reagan, An Unauthorized Biography, also sold 1 million copies in hardback and became the fastest-selling biography in publishing history. The Royals, about Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles, and company, debuted at number one soon after it was published in 1997.
Now comes her take on George W.'s clan, which is filled with allegations of drug use, infidelity, assorted National Guard shenanigans, and other salacious charges rebutted so quickly by the White House that they left skid marks.
For Kelley, whose early years as a freelance writer had her publishing tamer articles in the likes of The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, membership in the pariah club has its privileges. Life as the colonscopist to the stars, as Slate magazine calls her, has been very good indeed, and she'd be forgiven for not doing anything differently the next time around. " - Evan Smith, Texas Monthly Talks, Broadcast 10.14.04
