Promises to Keep (memoir)

Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics
Cover of a c. 2019 reprint
AuthorJoe Biden
LanguageEnglish
GenreMemoir
PublisherRandom House
Publication date
  • July 31, 2007 (hardcover)
  • August 28, 2008 (paperback)
Publication placeUnited States
Pages400
ISBN978-1-4000-6536-3
OCLC1132901206
Followed byPromise Me, Dad 

Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics is a memoir by then-senator Joe Biden (later the 46th president of the United States), first published by Random House on July 31, 2007. A paperback version was published on August 28, 2008.[1] It was published in the run-up to his 2008 presidential campaign.

Contents

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Biden begins by recounting his life growing up in a Roman Catholic family in Scranton, Pennsylvania and later Wilmington, Delaware. He details the 1972 car accident that killed his wife Neilia and their one-year-old daughter Naomi, and the struggles he faced in its aftermath. He then writes about the second chance he was given upon meeting Jill Jacobs in 1975, as he began his career representing Delaware in the U.S. Senate.[2] The book also explores his beleaguered 1988 presidential campaign, during which he suffered from two brain aneurysms, and the physical and political recovery he later made.[3]

Parts of the text describing Biden's early childhood are drawn verbatim from the 1992 book What It Takes: The Way to the White House.[4]

Cultural reference

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The title of the book was inspired by Robert Frost's 1922 poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening."[3]

Reception

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The Christian Science Monitor praised the book saying "Biden is a master storyteller and has stories worth telling." Likewise, The New York Times called it "a compelling personal story", while Salon commended Biden's response to tragedy as "both admirable and likable".[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b Biden, Joe (2008). Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics. Random House Publishing. ISBN 978-0812976212.
  2. ^ "Joe Biden's First Wife, Neilia, and Daughter Naomi Passed Away In a 1972 Accident". Marie Claire. July 30, 2019. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  3. ^ a b Dakss, Brian (August 1, 2007). "Joe Biden's "Promises To Keep"". CBS News. Retrieved August 7, 2020.
  4. ^ Entous, Adam (15 August 2022). "The Untold History of the Biden Family". The New Yorker.
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