June 22, 2004

Former Arkansas governor and U.S. president Bill Clinton’s autobiography My Life was published by the Knopf Publishing Group at Random House, setting a worldwide record for single-day nonfiction book sales. The autobiography was written during the three years after the end of Clinton’s term in office. The 957-page book was the most thorough memoir of a presidency ever published and the most financially successful. Knopf ordered a first printing of one and a half million copies, but two million orders were received before its release; the company ordered a second printing of 1,075,000. On the day of its release, booksellers sold more than 400,000 copies.