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The former president has said he’s been ‘working like hell’ on the book, which will focus on his term in office.
July 24, 2025, 2:53 p.m. ET
Former President Joe Biden is writing a memoir about his time in the White House. The book, which doesn’t yet have a title or a publication date, was acquired by Little, Brown & Co., an imprint within Hachette, in an auction, according to industry executives familiar with the deal. News of the book’s acquisition for a roughly $10 million advance was first reported in The Wall Street Journal.
Biden, 82, who was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer in May, has spoken about the book at public events in recent months, and indicated that he feels intense pressure to finish it quickly, as he contends with illness. At a recent event in San Diego, Biden said that he was “working like hell with a publisher” to research and crash a memoir that will focus on his presidential term.
While it’s standard practice for former presidents to publish books reflecting on their time in office, Biden’s memoir may allow him a chance to reshape the narrative of his presidency and address questions about his mental and physical fitness.
Biden, who aspired to be president for most of his decades-long political career, became the oldest person to ever hold the office when he was inaugurated in 2020, and then made the stunning decision to bow out of the 2024 race amid questions about his fitness for office.
Since then, questions about whether his inner circle and party ignored his apparent decline have dominated the headlines.
One of this year’s biggest nonfiction titles, Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s book “Original Sin,” chronicles how Biden’s closest and most protective aides refused to acknowledge his frailty, and put the Democrats’ chances of winning the election at risk. It became a breakout hit, selling close to 100,000 hardcover copies, according to Circana BookScan.
