It is called: The Truth About Hillary: What She Knew, When She Knew It, and How Far She'll Go to Become President. It is by Edward Klein, and has a title almost as slimy as its text. The Klein book, with its ugly rhetoric, insinuations and smears, has dropped from No. 2 to No. 4 on the New York Times bestseller list. It is No. 7 on the Washington Post bestseller list. The publisher, Sentinel Books, rushed to get the book out this summer, only to see reviewers blast it as a sexually sensational read—more sex than sense.

But did such language hurt the book? Not at all—those reviews were sellers.

Political books are hot items in this period of unrest in which we find ourselves. They are not only climbing the bestseller lists, with their authors seen on TV and chatting on the radio, but are the subjects of news stories in themselves. The Clinton book is the latest example of such interest. We asked Fredric Alan Maxwell, a widely published author and biographer who reviewed the mass of 2004 political books for us last year [see the September 1, 2004, issue], to take a look at this recent biography of Senator Clinton, which among other things calls her a lesbian.

Fred reports that the book is more an example of prurient sensationalism in print than an in-depth look at the possible front-runner of the 2008 Democratic presidential campaign.

often smile when someone mentions Hillary Clinton, and I think of a note that she sent me after reading a piece of mine in the New York Times Magazine. While writing Bad Boy Ballmer, my biography of Microsoft's CEO, Steve Ballmer, I had the unsettling experience of being investigated by the Secret Service. There was a bogus report that I'd threatened George W. Bush.

I was cleared—a pretzel is more of a threat to Bush than I am. When the agents asked me when I was last in the White House, I responded: "In the early '90s for a press conference in the East Room. You know, Hillary doesn't photograph well; she looks far better in person."

As the Washington Post and NPR reported, shortly thereafter I received a handwritten letter from Senator Clinton, saying: "Dear Mr. Maxwell: I vouched for you with the Secret Service. Anyone who thinks I look better in person is a true patriot—albeit myopic. In any event, don't let this experience deter you from speaking up and out. We need to keep our sense of humor during these Orwellian times. All the best, Hillary Rodham Clinton."

FULL BOOKSHELVES—The Library of Congress lists over 70 books about Hillary Clinton, and some 250 about her husband. The best-selling Hillary book is probably her 2003 autobiography, Living History. The newest entry into Hillaryography is the badly misnamed The Truth About Hillary: What She Knew, When She Knew It, and How Far She'll Go to Become President, by Edward Klein (Sentinel, $24.95).

The book's original publication date was September, but it was rushed into print in mid-June to take advantage of a self-created firestorm of publicity: gossipy forecasts cited its sex sagas, dwelling on titillating tidbits that supposedly filled its pages. The publisher should have waited until the fact checkers and copy editors had had their say before inflicting their book on readers.

Conservatives who put their hands on a copy called it a "smear job," "sordid," said "I had to take a shower after reading it" and averred that it "assumes . . . conservatives are stupid." Even Fox News Channel's arch-conservative Bill O'Reilly panned the text, nixing author Ed Klein's TV appearance on his rather salacious show. Two other Fox personalities scheduled, then canceled, an appearance by the author.

Klein, however, was not much deterred by this negative feedback. He told the National Review that The Truth About Hillary is a comprehensive biography, encompassing both her personal and political life. "My book is much broader than any representation that has appeared in the media so far," he said.

Others disagree, and they haven't been shy about panning the work. Sara Nelson, the editor of Publisher's Weekly, the publishing industry's bible, wrote that "Klein seems intent on rehashing the rehash in this too-boring-to-even-be-execrable title." In a Washington Post column Tina Brown, the former editor of Vanity Fair and the New Yorker, referred to Klein as "Ed Slime" for his obsession with sex and particularly his constant implication that Hillary is a lesbian. Klein also cites an anonymous source who claims that the Clintons' daughter, Chelsea, is the outcome of Bill's rape of Hillary.