There’s a good chance a book written by Fox News host Bill O’Reilly will be under the Christmas tree for thousands of people this morning. O’Reilly has the #1 and #3 New York Times Bestsellers in “Killing Kennedy” and “Killing Lincoln,” respectively. “Killing Lincoln” has been on the list for more than 14 months.
Now the New York Times profiles O’Reilly, the author:
In person Mr. O’Reilly sheds his on-air bellicosity but maintains the forward energy of a barreling freight train. During an interview, held at his corner office at Fox headquarters in Manhattan, Mr. O’Reilly barely looked up as he autographed a pile of bookplates to be put into copies to be sold on his Web site for a premium for charity. He is determined, he explained, to take advantage of the holiday season.
AdvertisementThirty minutes later he pointed to the pile completed and said: “That’s about 10 grand for charity right in that pile. Not bad.” That money, he said, is likely to go to the Coalition for the Homeless, a New York-based group that has successfully sued the city and won a court-ordered “right to shelter” — just the kind of policy initiative that Mr. O’Reilly and might gleefully label “radical” or “leftist” on his program.
Following the success of “Killing Lincoln,” O’Reilly signed a three-book deal with Holt for one history book a year for a seven-figure deal. He says he’ll start writing the next one tomorrow. It’s due to his editor in May. “I work harder now than I have ever worked in my life, which is kind of insane,” says O’Reilly. And of his latest book: It “will be a blockbuster of epic proportions,” says the always understated Fox News host.