Dr Anthony Fauci has reportedly sold his memoir to Crown Publishing Group, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House, for approximately $5m.
On Tuesday, a “publishing insider” revealed to Page Six that there was a “two-week auction” for Dr Fauci’s proposed memoir and speculated Crown Publishing picked it up for “just under $5 million.”
Crown Publishing has produced several notable memoirs including both Barack and Michelle Obama’s respective memoirs A Promised Land and Becoming.
A spokesperson for Crown Publishing pushed back on the Page Six report, calling it inaccurate. The company declined to comment further.
Dr Fauci, 82, announced he planned to write a memoir of his life after retiring from his positions as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and chief medical advisor to the president in December.
Although Dr Fauci was most well-known for his infectious disease expertise during the Covid-19 pandemic, his career spans more than 50 years.
Dr Fauci became director of NIAID in 1984 and led efforts to research and cure HIV/AIDS, Ebola, swine flu, and more.
Throughout his career, Dr Fauci has advised seven presidents.
Speaking to the New York Times in December, Dr Fauci said, “What I would like to do is make it a real memoir, which is a life story of which Covid is a part.”
“Because if you look at what Tony Fauci was and is, Tony Fauci is not defined by Covid,” Dr Fauci added.
Dr Fauci said he wanted to step down from his government leadership roles while he is still healthy and “energetic” to “inspire younger people to either go into medicine or science” through writing, lecturing, and getting involved in advisory issues.
While there is limited information available about Dr Fauci’s forthcoming memoir, it will likely take readers through the doctor’s life history rather than focus heavily on his modern work.
Some of Dr Fauci’s current efforts were highlighted in the PBS documentary American Masters: Dr Tony Fauci, which was released this week.
The film gives an inside look at the infectious disease doctor’s life while handling the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021. A film crew followed Dr Fauci around for 23 months starting in January 2021.
“I would much rather give a story of the whole me, from the time I grew up in the streets of Brooklyn to where I am right now,” Dr Fauci told New York Times.
“But I don’t know. I’ve never written a book before,” he added.
