Robert Gates just retired from his job as secretary of defense. Now, of course, he is writing not one but two books.
The first, to be published in 2013, will be a memoir about his experience as the only secretary of defense to serve two different presidents from both parties while at war the entire time. The second, for 2014, will “focus on Gates’s philosophy about leadership, his views about great leaders he has admired, and his thoughts about effective leadership, even in the face of adversity and difficulty.” Fun.
While Gates was hired by George W. Bush, in opting to go with Knopf for his books instead of a conservative imprint it appears that his books will take a non-partisan approach (reasonable given his bi-partisan tenure in the office). Donald Rumsfeld, in contrast, published his memoir Known and Unknown with Penguin’s conservative imprint Sentinel.
