President Bush’s Literary Legacy

By Jason Boog 

01AA-002-6-1207.jpgNobody wants George W. Bush’s memoir, apparently. According to the AP (Via Huffington Post), publishers urged the outgoing President to hold off on writing his memoirs.

At the same time, a number of writers have said that George W. Bush actually damaged their artistic output. In a feature at the Times of London, playwrights, actors and producers spoke about how Bush hurt American creativity.

Playwright Wallace Shawn, the son of great New Yorker editor, William Shawn, actually made Page Six headlines for this comment: “my emotional life has been very strongly affected by the fact that Bush was president and my writing life is affected by my emotional life.”

Playwright Edward Albee was equally bleak: “I see no cultural legacy from Bush … I’m more interested in the deep malaise in this country that has permitted us to have eight years of George W. Bush.” Click here to see what six other authors told GalleyCat about the 2008 Election.