Yorba Linda : Nixon Library to Get Income From New Book

The Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace Foundation will receive the income from former President Nixon’s new book, foundation officials announced Monday.

The book, as yet untitled and written for Simon & Schuster, will be Nixon’s eighth and is scheduled for publication next spring. The dollar value of the contract was not disclosed. Previous Nixon books--”Six Crises,” “The Real War,” “No More Vietnam” and last year’s “1999: Victory Without War”--were on the New York Times’ best-seller list.

As part of the new contract, all seven of Nixon’s previous books will be reissued by Simon & Schuster in uniform “Nixon Library and Birthplace” editions, foundation Executive Director Hugh Hewitt said. Their release is scheduled to coincide with the opening of the facility in June, 1990.

“Perhaps even more important than the books is President Nixon’s leadership contribution to the library construction,” Hewitt said. “It has made our final fund-raising sprint much more achievable.”

The new book contains firsthand accounts of Nixon’s meetings with Charles de Gaulle, Winston Churchill, Mao Zedong and former Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and Lyndon B. Johnson.

“The book contains reflections and conclusions based on my entire life from private, political, foreign policy and philosophical standpoints,” Nixon said. “It is the most personal book I have ever written.”

The Nixon library and birthplace are to be the first facilities of their kind built and operated without tax funds, according to foundation President William E. Simon. Nixon’s contribution from book sales will assist in the $25-million fund-raising goal, he said.

The Yorba Linda farmhouse where Nixon was born on Jan. 9, 1913, is undergoing restoration and will be part of a nine-acre facility under construction.