Signed Memoirs by First Ladies Hillary Clinton (Born 1947) and Barbara Bush (1925-2018). Includes "Barbara Bush - A Memoir" signed edition from 1994, and "Living History" signed edition from 2003. 

Size: 9 3/4 x 6 1/2 x 2 in. 

To date, fourteen first ladies of the United States have written a total of twenty-three memoirs. The first lady is the hostess of the White House, and the position is traditionally filled by the wife of the president of the United States, with some historical exceptions. In the early 1800s Abigail Adams had her correspondence published as “Letters of Mrs. Adams, the Wife of John Adams,” and “The Memoirs and Letters of Dolley Madison, Wife of James Madison, President of the United States” was published in 1886, edited by Lucia Cutts and written by Dolley Madison’s niece Mary Cutts. Julia Grant was the first to write and attempt to publish her memoirs, with “The Personal Memoirs of Julia Dent Grant” written in the 1890s after the death of her husband Ulysses S. Grant. However, she never found a suitable publisher for them before her death in 1902, in part because she had unrealistic expectations of their value. The memoirs were eventually published in 1975. Helen Taft was the first to have memoirs published during her lifetime, in 1914. Memoirs by presidential spouses were uncommon until the 1970s, and in the decades after Taft only Edith Wilson, Grace Coolidge, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Lady Bird Johnson wrote and published their memoirs. Since Betty Ford’s publication of her first memoir in the late 1970s, most first ladies have written and published at least once about their life, either during or after their husband’s administration. Early published memoirs focused largely on the first lady’s personal life, and were considered “simple witticism and reminiscences.” Eleanor Roosevelt, who wrote four autobiographies, marked a shift in the content of the memoirs, writing more about political issues and less on her personal life. Lady Bird Johnson condensed a dictated two-million-word transcript into 300,000 for “A White House Diary,” which outsold her husband Lyndon B. Johnson’s memoir. In the 1960s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was involved in editing two books by Molly Thayer, “Jacqueline Kennedy” and “Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House Years.” Memoirs written by Betty Ford, Rosalynn Carter, and Barbara Bush also outsold the memoirs of their husbands. Nancy Reagan’s memoir “My Turn” (written by William Novack and published in 1989) was nicknamed “My Burn” for its scathing coverage of Reagan’s life and mistakes, particularly in the White House, and was one of the longest bestselling memoirs at the time of its release. Michelle Obama’s memoir “Becoming” was published in 2018, which sold over 12 million copies by 2023. Although Jill Biden published a memoir titled “Where the Light Enters: Building a Family, Discovering Myself,” it was released in 2019 before Joe Biden won the presidential election, making the most recent memoir from a sitting or previous first lady “Melania,” published by Melania Trump in 2024.