Biden announces memoir on presidency, set for release after midterms

Joe Biden will release Promise Me, America on Nov. 17, 2026, a memoir that lands two weeks after the midterm elections and puts the former president back into the center of the party’s post-election conversation. The book is being published by Little, Brown and Company and is being framed as Biden’s account of the years that defined his presidency.

The timing gives the rollout an immediate political edge. Democrats have spent much of the fall trying to keep attention on President Donald Trump’s record, and a Biden memoir arriving after the vote could quickly shift attention back to the man who left office and forced his party to confront the next phase of its leadership fight. Biden has also said his prostate cancer treatment is going “really well,” adding a personal layer to a launch already loaded with political baggage.

The announcement also came with a late-night joke that captured how Biden is being packaged in public life. Jimmy Fallon said, “It’s the second book Biden has written,” then added, “The first was ‘The Odyssey.’” The line drew on a familiar late-night formula, turning Biden’s new book into a comic marker of age and legacy before readers ever reach the first chapter.

Biden said Promise Me, America will cover his presidency, including COVID-19, the economy, the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, the withdrawal from Afghanistan, support for Ukraine and NATO, and his decision to run for reelection and then step aside. Little, Brown has described the memoir as Biden’s personal account of “four of the most consequential years in American history,” signaling that the book is meant to be both a record of decision-making and a defense of his place in history.

The memoir will be Biden’s third book, following Promises to Keep and 2017’s Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose, which centered on his late son Beau Biden. Little, Brown acquired world rights through CAA, and Reagan Arthur will edit the book, giving the project a high-profile publishing team behind a release designed to keep Biden in the national conversation long after the midterms end.