LIVING BIOGRAPHY
Interview with Nigel Hamilton conducted by members of the McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies, 10/10/03
Q1: As someone who hasn't read the book yet, I heard you rely too heavily on secondary sources.....
-- Jamie Ennis
It is impossible to write a biography of Bill Clinton without relying on secondary sources-all the primary sources have been removed from public access. When I began my research in Arkansas, I went to the state archives in Little Rock and asked for the file for governor Clinton, after a while they brought me a single manila envelope. Inside there were 3 pieces of paper! Bill Clinton had removed every scrap of original documentation relating to his 13 years as governor of the state, and 2 years as Attorney General!
Inevitably, a presidential biographer has therefore to research among the secondary sources, but he can supplement this by undertaking interviews with the people who lived with, worked with, and worked against the subject. In the case of Bill Clinton, I therefore interviewed over a hundred members of his family, close friends from Hope and Hot Springs Arkansas, school mates, teachers, college classmates, campaign workers and colleagues who worked under Bill Clinton as attorney general and governor of Arkansas. In this way, I was able to draw up a reasonably comprehensive chronicle of his life from 1946 onwards.
One day, the documentary records which President Clinton has removed, will hopefully resurface in the Clinton Presidential Library, funded by the National Archives and tax payers of America. But by law, the president does not need to open his presidential papers for 5 years after leaving office so the earliest historians can see original materials will be 2006. In the meantime, Bill Clinton, An American Journey, Great Expectations was the best I could do.
-- Jamie Ennis
I doubt it. Presidents and their families are notoriously reluctant to furnish historians with original material, unless it is flattering and positive. My experience at the JFK Presidential Library is that a historian has to be doggedly persevering and rely heavily on freedom of information to get the necessary documents to provide a balanced view of presidential decisions and the circumstances in which decisions are made in the white house.
Of course, President Clinton will eventually give us his own version of events in his autobiography, scheduled to appear in 2004. By law, he is allowed to use his own unpublished and inaccessible documents, as he pleases. I think it will be very difficult for President Clinton to write a satisfactory work of history, however. Although he himself has retired as president, his wife is a sitting U.S. Senator and has aspirations herself to run for the White House. Mr. Clinton will therefore, have to watch every word he writes in order to promote her candidacy rather than truthful reconstruction of history-and the same holds for any insights he might have or wish to share about his private life. We have seen this already in Hillary Clinton's Living History.
Q3: Is it discouraging when a review, such as the New York Times one [by Michiko Kakutani], appears in print before the book is available to the public?
--Michael MacPhee
It is infuriating. I was in London when that review came out, a full week before publication when no reader could find the book in the stores. Miss Kakutani is of course famous for her hatchet jobs. She slaughtered Hillary’s book, and did a previous demolition job JFK: Reckless Youth, which is now considered by many people to be the classic biography of President Kennedy's early years. In that case, however her hostile response was lost in the general controversy surrounding the book and the response of the Kennedy Family, who were outraged by it. This time, she jumped the gun and in extraordinary poisonous prose. I understand she is a 48 year old, single Japanese-American woman, never married who lives as a recluse and makes it her trademark to savage big literary names such as John Updike, Norman Mailer, Salman Rushdie, Zadie Smith, Donna Tartt , Phillip Roth and others. I suppose she remains a recluse because her victims hate her so much and would otherwise put voodoo on her!
Q4: Why did you choose to be based in Boston for a book about an American President whose early life was spent in Arkansas, and who now lives in Chappaqua, New York?
--Sheila Gagnon
When I wrote JFK: Reckless Youth I was the John F. Kennedy Scholar based at the McCormack Institute, teaching in the history department of UMASS, Boston and researching in the JFK Presidential Library. In the case of Bill Clinton, his presidential library won't be open for several years yet, so the question where I should base myself boiled down to the most friendly environment. I had read a quotation from Plutarch, in which the great classical biographer wrote that a historian should live within easy access of good libraries, and people who could help him with memories and information about his subjects. I live in Cambridge, work in the McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies (as it is now called), and could not find myself in a more congenial, helpful and stimulating University atmosphere.
Q5: What helps you to deflect negative criticism after all the hours of hard work and
self-denial?
--Michael Macphee
This takes years to learn. I was more deeply hurt by the negative response of the Kennedy Family and their acolytes in 1992 when JFK: Reckless Youth appeared, than I realized at the time. In fact, it so depressed me that I gave up work on my proposed second volume
This time I'm ten years older, and hopefully have grown a tougher skin. The important thing for any author to remember is that you're not writing for self-regarding critics, but for real readers. I have enjoyed every minute of my American Journey in reconstructing the life of Bill Clinton and I am confident that real readers will enjoy the fruit of that journey.
Q6: Is the reaction to your book different in Europe?
--Françoise Carré
Bill Clinton, An American Journey came out first in Britain on September 25, 2003. It has got some remarkably enthusiastic and laudatory reviews and interviewers on radio and television were fascinated by my attempt to unravel the real Bill Clinton, from his birth and background in Hope, AR to the White House. Michael Portillo, perhaps the most charismatic younger Conservative politician in Britain, loved it – for he comes from an immigrant family and could identify with Bill Clinton’s extraordinary journey from obscurity to the most powerful office in the world – the American dream fulfilled. The only bad reviews I've received in England have by transplanted Brits, living in America: Christopher Hitchens and Michael Pye, and an American transplant to Britain. The first is a well known and fanatical Clinton hater (No One Left To Lie To) The second is a novelist. The third is a lesbian feminist expert on pornography. None of them have the remotest interest in biography as an art, or a skill.
Q7: How do you deal with interviewers who begin their programs by quoting negative reviews?
--Jamie Ennis
With difficulty! It is frustrating that few interviewers ever bother to read the book by the author whom they are interviewing. It is inevitable that they therefore clutch at other people's comments, and hope thereby, to start an interesting conversation. For the author, however it is a test of one's patience to hear the same, tired, negative remarks trotted out on each consecutive program. This has happened to me on my last 3 television interviews. Where I want in the brief time available to talk about my book, I am forced to respond to scurrilous statements and allegations.
Q8: Was traveling to AR scary? I mean, interviewing rural, southern viewpoints, especially racists?
--Michael MacPhee
No, it was exhilarating! The South is definitely another country for a European-educated biographer. I was fascinated to read letters to the editor in AR newspapers about Bill Clinton. The level of poisonous criticism and denunciation surprised me, given that he is a son of Arkansas, and it's only ever elected president. In the course of my research, I interviewed an interesting cross section of people, a number of whom were avowed racists. Something of the southern Baptist stroke Methodist rhetoric seems to give them the right to denigrate Bill Clinton, almost as the devil incarnate. I wasn't scared, but I was surprised. I think it's a subject worthy of deeper investigation.
Q9: Who were your most interesting interviewees?
--Andi Sutedja
I was privileged to interview some extraordinary people, especially in Arkansas. In some ways, the most illuminating was Betsy Wright who was Bill Clinton's Chief of Staff for 8 years while he was Governor. Her insight into the man and the politician were wonderfully authentic. Through her and her former colleague, Bobbie Roberts - who also worked for Governor Clinton - I was able to revisit some of the most important political and personal decisions of his life. For example, Clinton's reactions to the arrest of his half brother, Roger. Or his decision to withdraw from the 1988 Democratic nomination race. Or his decision to divorce Hillary. In each case it was of inestimable value to have personal witness to those moments.
Q10: Was the story of Bill Clinton's life a glimpse for you into the fabric of life in America?
--Michael MacPhee
Yes, very much so! When I began the book, I realized it was early days to be researching and judging the life of a president still in his 50s, and where the primary documentary records are still missing. So from the start, I was interested in setting Clinton's life story within the context of his generation - which is mine also. We are both baby boomers, born at the end of WW II and blessed or burdened with the advantages of having Benn Children of the Sixties. In this sense, the book is not only an American Journey, but my own American Journey as I traced President Clinton back to his birth background, childhood, education and early political career.
Q11: In the writing of the book, was there material that you could not use, from which readers might have benefited?
--Jamie Ennis
Yes. There was material I would have liked to use, but for copyright reasons, was unable to quote from. I don't think most people realize how restrictive copyright law has become in America. If an author wishes to quote from a published book, he or she must apply for permission beyond 250-350 words. In the case of unpublished copyrighted material, the figure can be as low as 10 words. Intellectual copyright law was originally designed to protect the financial interest of the copyright owner in artistic work. Unfortunately, it has been used by copyright holders and their families to restrict access to utterly inartistic work – but material that is crucial to historians attempting to deal with the past in a scholarly way. By denying the applicant-author permission to quote from such sources, copyright holders can stifle critical examination of a subject. This is an issue which concerns me greatly and will feature in a new book I am writing on the study of biography.
Q12: As a non American, was it eye-opening to find someone from Clinton's Background rise to presidency?
--Françoise Carré
Yes. In my last presidential biography, I looked at John F. Kennedy's rise to the presidency - or the first part of that story. JFK of course, was born with a silver spoon in his mouth - his father was a billionaire, in today's terms, and as son of the U.S. Ambassador to Britain, JFK was invited into the homes of the rich and famous, whether in America or abroad. In Bill Clinton's case, the journey is from a very modest home in Hope, Arkansas - grandparents who were rural poor, a single mother, an abusive alcoholic stepfather and public, not private, school education. What enabled Clinton to rise to high office was his extraordinary intellect and ambition. Now it is true the last British Prime Minister, John Major, was the son of a circus entertainer - but I would not put John Major in the same category as President Bill Clinton. Clinton’s story is a real Horatio Alger one and I think many readers will find it as fascinating as I did.
--Patricia Peterson
It's tough. I'm a professor of biography in England, and have spent years teaching the history of biography and its role in the development of modern culture. Am I less responsible than the great Roman biographers Plutarch, Suetonius or Tacitus? They too were fascinated by the private lives of their subjects and without their work, we would have little idea of the real lives of the Roman Emperors, for instance. It is infuriating, therefore to be called irresponsible in the third millennium for examining the private as well as public life of the 42nd President. In his case, his presidency almost came to brief in sex scandals. My job is to trace back the reasons for this, not only in terms of his personal life, but the intersection between that personal life and American politics. In many ways, my book is a chronicle of political, social and cultural change since 1946. I very much hope that when people read the actual book rather than the reviews, they will respond to what I have attempted to achieve.