Hard Choices

For over 15 years, in the 1980s and 1990s, the image of the face of Lady Diana Spencer was seen everywhere. Even today, 20 years after her death, while her photos are no longer ubiquitous in supermarket check-out line magazine displays, they are still often seen and almost all westerners know who she was.
 

Her place, at least for the time being, as the woman whose photograph has been most reproduced in the media, has been taken by Mrs. Bill Clinton. It's a curious fact that the more recognizable a person might be, the more likely it is that their picture will appear in the print or on-line media. Everybody knew who Princess Di was and what she looked like but nevertheless her face peered at us everywhere.
 

Such is also the case with Mrs. Bill Clinton. We all know what she looks like but the media insists that we see her regularly anyway.

That brings us to the literary Mrs. Clinton and her 2014 memoir Hard Choices. The 635 page effort centers around her tenure as Secretary of State ending in 2013. If you think that Mrs. Clinton must have been very busy in the 16 months between her leaving the State Department and the publication of Hard Choices you would be right. But the brilliant Mrs. Clinton didn't lock herself in the attic during that time span to write and revise. Like many another politician with literary ambitions she had a little help, in this case considerable help. Clinton was assisted in writing the book by three aides credited in the Acknowledgements section as her "book team", two former State Department assistants, Dan Schwerin, speechwriter and Ethan Gelber, researcher, and Ted Widmer , a speechwriter in the Bill Clinton administration.

Shortly thereafter, Hard Choices, was released in an audio format. Sadly, Mrs. Clinton was otherwise occupied and unable to narrate her own memoir to adoring fans with failing eyesight or a desire to listen to her account while commuting by car or public transportation. Instead, the book was read by Kathleen Chalfant, a Tony nominee Broadway stage actress. In the case of a Mrs. Clinton literary effort, it truly does "take a village".