Nancy Reagan Remembered as Gracious at Her Book’s Launch
Image by Karen Leon
I first met Nancy Reagan — who died on March 6 at 94 of congestive heart failure — during the 1989 American Booksellers Association Convention in Washington, D.C. The event was a June 5 by-invitation-only reception for her autobiographical memoir “My Turn: The Memoirs of Nancy Reagan” with William Novak, held at the Library of Congress’ mezzanine hosted by then Random House’s Publisher Joni Evans. Hundreds tried to crash the event just to get a glimpse of the former First Lady who stood for more than an hour in unbearable un-air-conditioned humid heat smiling, smiling, smiling as a phalanx of Secret Service men glowered at the seemingly endless line of gawkers and hopeful hand-shakers.
Image by Karen Leon
Though the intended guest list was 600, nearly 900 vied for a moment with the former First Lady cum author — dazzling in a white and black geometric patterned dress with a large black bow and belt — ignoring fatigue, smiling and shaking hands.
With that year’s ABA roster of name authors that included a by-invitation-only reception for Umberto Eco, celebrities Gladys Knight, Roseanne Barr, Pearl Bailey, and Art Buchwald, it was, Nancy Reagan’s book that had the cache of expose and White House celebrity.
Random House — who had scheduled a 350,000-copy first-run printing, was kvelling.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
