“Who is it that can tell me who I am?”
― William Shakespeare, King Lear
Followers of this page are perhaps more keen on King Lear than Prince Harry, but let's take a moment to congratulate author and journalist J.R. Moehringer for scoring the high-profile (and lucrative) ghostwriting gig for the prince's upcoming memoir. A first draft is due by October and will be published by Penguin Random House.
Moehringer was our guest in 2005 upon the release of his own memoir The Tender Bar, which is being adapted for the screen by Prince Harry's friend George Clooney. The film will be released later this year.
Moehringer started his career as a news assistant at The New York Times and went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for Journalism in 1998 while writing for The Los Angeles Times. He co-wrote Andre Agassi's Open: An Autobiography in 2009 and Nike co-founder Phil Knight's memoir Shoe Dog, published in 2016.
His novel, Sutton, based on the life of bank robber Willie Sutton, was published in 2012.
Not interested in the royals? Understandable, but as Catherine Bennett wrote yesterday in The Guardian, "... if Moehringer repeats his achievement in [Agassi's] Open, of making fan-level detail fascinating to the previously indifferent, Harry’s story could engage an audience left cold until now by routine royal hagiography."
Will J.R. Moehringer return to Albany with Prince Harry? We'll put out the ask. In the meantime, we can imagine Prince Charles quoting from King Lear:
“How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is
To have a thankless child!”
Below is an excerpt from Moehringer's 2005 visit. You may purchase The Tender Bar at the local, independent Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza: https://www.bhny.com/book/9780786888764
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