Former White House infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci is cashing in on a book deal worth upwards of $5 million, according to industry insiders.
Dr. Fauci has reportedly sold his memoir to Crown Publishing Group, the same publisher that managed books for former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. The nearly $5 million price tag came after a two-week auction to the highest bidder, according to Page Six. Crown Publishing helped make Michelle Obama’s “Becoming” a national bestseller in 2018.
Here’s more from the PageSix report:
We hear that Fauci was repped in the deal by Washington, DC, superlawyer Robert Barnett — the publishing powerbroker who has inked past book deals for the Obamas as well as Bill and Hillary Clinton, Andrew Cuomo, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Nikki Haley, Mitch McConnell, Tony Blair and Queen Noor of Jordan, among others.
Reps did not immediately get back to us.
Crown previously has published books by other political figures such as Bernie Sanders and Andrew Yang, as well as Hollywood stars Matthew McConaughey and Seth Rogen.
Born in 1940s Brooklyn, Dr. Fauci was raised by the son of pharmacists and earned his medical degree from Cornell Medical College. He went on to serve in various public health capacities for more than 50 years and retired as the president’s chief medical advisor in 2022. Insiders say his book will span his childhood through his entire medical career.
Dr. Fauci served five U.S. presidents going back to the Reagan Administration but did not gain notoriety until the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. President Donald Trump relied on Dr. Fauci to make public statements about the pandemic’s progress and White House mitigation efforts before publicly clashing with him as Trump pushed back on more stringent public health containment efforts.
Fauci, 82, spoke to the New York Times in anticipation of a book deal, saying, “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.”
In 2021, Dr. Fauci published “Fauci: Expect the Unexpected: Ten Lessons on Truth, Service, and the Way Forward,” a collection of interviews with infectious disease experts as part of a documentary film. His memoir and likely book tour will be managed by Washington, D.C. superlawyer Robert Barnett, a veteran of publishing deals including those of former President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.