The New York Observer reported that young Times' scribe Jodi Kantor has signed "a stunning seven-figure book deal" to produce an Obama book for the publishing house Little, Brown. Leon Neyfakh reported [1]:
The deal was the result of a heated citywide auction, and was brokered by independent lit agent Elyse Cheney. It comes on the heels of the 34-year-old reporter's New York Times Magazine cover story on the Obamas' marriage, which argued that "the Obamas mix politics and romance in a way that no first couple quite have before."
It could not be determined whether Ms. Kantor has secured the Obamas' cooperation, but the fact that her story featured an extensive interview with them in the Oval Office seemed to indicate that she is going into the project with a good working relationship with them.
Besides her long, flattering profile [2] on the Obamas' marriage and life in the White House, she helped Obama get there with her coverage of both Barack and especially Michelle Obama during the 2008 campaign, boosting the future president and hurting his Republican opponent.
Kantor got some unwanted attention [3] after filing an unflattering profile of John McCain's wife Cindy. It was revealed that Kantor had trawled Facebook for information about Mrs. McCain's children. Kantor's message to an unidentified person on Facebook included the charming requests, "we are trying to get a sense of what [Cindy McCain] is like as a mother" and "I'm trying to figure out what school her 16 year old daughter Bridget attends."
Blogger Tom Maguire has spotted some rabbits Kantor might want to chase down [4] regarding unanswered questions about Obama's biography.