Clinton Book Bonanza: $10 Mil Plus

By Stephen M. Silverman

Tuesday August 07, 2001 03:02 PM EDT

Bill Clinton, 54, will not have to worry about his retirement. On Monday, he signed a deal to write his memoirs for the publisher Alfred A. Knopf Inc. The German-owned Knopf -- which also publishes Toni Morrison and Anne Rice -- did not disclose the financial terms for the Clinton book, which is to be published in 2003. On Tuesday, The New York Times reported that Clinton's advance was more than $10 million, believed to be the largest ever for a non-fiction book. (Pope John Paul II received an $8.5 million advance for his memoirs in 1994, and Hillary Rodham Clinton was recently paid $8 million for hers.) Explaining the reason for the high advance his company is shelling out to the former president, Knopf president and editor in chief, Sonny Mehta, cited Clinton's celebrity to The Times. "I think he is up there, one of a handful," said Mehta. Asked whether or not the book will detail the Monica Lewinsky affair and the Whitewater controversy, Clinton's attorney, Robert Barnett, said that the book will be "comprehensive and candid."

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