Simon & Schuster will publish Secrets: A Reporter’s Memoir by Bob Woodward in the fall, the press announced in a news release. The publisher said the book will “break news”; reflect on Woodward’s life as a reporter; and shed light on how the Pulitzer Prize–winning author, who has written about every U.S. president from Richard Nixon to Donald Trump, “gets so far inside presidential decision-making.”
“For the first time…Woodward lifts the lid on his historic reporting relationships, some spanning several decades,” the publisher added.
Woodward, 83, is the author or co-author of 24 books, from 1974’s All the President’s Men (with Carl Bernstein) to his 2018-2021 Trump trilogy Fear, Rage, and Peril, as well as last year’s War. All were bestsellers, and 16 of them reached the top spot on the New York Times bestseller list. In his 55 years at the Washington Post, he has been co-awarded two Pulitzer Prizes: one with Carl Bernstein for their reporting on Watergate and the other for leading the Post’s coverage of the terrorist attacks of 9/11.
Simon & Schuster said that Secrets promises to reveal how Woodward got people to talk about everything “from the Vietnam War to Watergate to 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq; from the machinations of the Supreme Court to the secret operations of the CIA; from the economic turmoil of the Clinton and Obama years to the dysfunction of the Trump years.” According to the publisher, the memoir will be informed by the author’s notes, transcripts, and interview files,
“This memoir is monumental and magnificent,” said S&S president Jonathan Karp, who edited the book, in a statement. “It may be Bob Woodward’s greatest achievement as an author. 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.”
Secrets: A Reporter’s Memoir is scheduled for publication on Sept. 29.
Amy Reiter is writer in Brooklyn.
