Scoop: Bob Woodward's memoir, "Secrets," to reveal stories about deceased "forever sources"
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Cover: Simon & Schuster
Bob Woodward has been pretty much underground for nearly a year. This town knows what that means: He has a captivating bestseller coming. Bob doesn't talk, and you don't ask. But his friends always speculate.
- This morning, it can be told: Woodward will be out Sept. 29 with "Secrets: A Reporter's Memoir." Finally, Bob's long-awaited book about Bob.
"I never planned to write a memoir," Woodward told me. "But I'm 83 years old on Thursday, and it was time to put some of my best reporting stories and details of my longest reporting relationships on paper. "
- "Some of the best sources are deceased, and I can tell those stories now," he added. "Elsa Walsh, my wife, calls them 'the forever sources.' But no longer, because they are gone."
Behind the scenes: Woodward has been working intensely on the book for the last year or so. Claire McMullen, his assistant, had been digging in the files for several years, at least.
- Woodward "has kept notes, transcripts and files of all his interviews with the most important players in Washington," from the Vietnam and Nixon eras to today, Simon & Schuster says in today's announcement.
- "Woodward describes in vivid detail his reporting methods in the newsroom and book-writing. How does he get people to talk? Why do people talk? Why do some sources continue to talk for decades?"
The backstory: Woodward, legendary for his Pulitzer-winning Watergate coverage, has written 24 bestsellers, many going deep inside presidential decision-making, and is an associate editor at The Washington Post, where he has worked for 55 years.
- "Woodward lifts the lid on his historic reporting relationships, some spanning several decades," the announcement says. "It is a return to Woodward's own reporting story that captivated the world in 'All the President's Men.' ... Woodward offers his personal views on everything as he saw it at the time, preserved in his detailed notes, and his reflections now."
Jonathan Karp — who edited the book for Simon & Schuster, and acquired world rights and audiobook rights from the late Robert Barnett — said: "No reporter has had a greater impact covering our national story. 'Secrets' puts the past 55 years into context in a fascinating and revelatory way."
