Features
President George W. Bush to Publish Book Honoring the Courage and Sacrifice of America’s Military and Veterans
Featuring 66 of His Paintings and Related Stories
PORTRAITS OF COURAGE, with Forewords by Former First Lady Laura Bush and General Peter Pace, 16th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
Scheduled for February 28, 2017 Release by Crown
(New York, NY—September 14, 2016)—The Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, announced today that it will publish a new book by George W. Bush, the 43rd President of the United States. Titled PORTRAITS OF COURAGE: A Commander in Chief’s Tribute to America’s Warriors, the book features 66 full-color portraits and a four-panel mural personally painted by President Bush of service members and veterans who have served our nation with honor, and whom the President has come to know personally since leaving office.
PORTRAITS OF COURAGE will be released by Crown in print and digital formats in the United States and Canada on February 28, 2017. The book will be simultaneously issued in unabridged audio formats by Penguin Random House Audio, with the text of the stories read by President Bush. President Bush was represented in negotiations by Robert Barnett of Williams & Connolly, with Crown acquiring world, electronic, and serial rights to the work.
Since leaving Washington, President Bush has made it a priority to support and honor America’s veterans as they re-enter civilian life, and PORTRAITS OF COURAGE is an integral part of that mission. It is President Bush’s hope that these stories of courage and resilience will honor our men and women in uniform, highlight their family and caregivers who bear the burden of their sacrifice, and help Americans understand how we can support our transitioning veterans and empower them to succeed.
“PORTRAITS OF COURAGE is more than an art book. This is a book about the men and women who have been tremendous national assets in the Armed Forces – and who continue to be vital to the future success of our country,” President Bush writes in the book’s introduction. “The greatest honor of the presidency was looking them in the eye and saluting them as their Commander in Chief. And I intend to support and salute them for the rest of my life.”
President Bush will donate his net author proceeds from PORTRAITS OF COURAGE to the George W. Bush Presidential Center, a non-profit organization whose Military Service Initiative works to ensure that post-9/11 veterans and their families make successful transitions to civilian life with a focus on gaining meaningful employment and overcoming the invisible wounds of war.
President Bush spoke about the book today in a speech he gave at the Fort Carson Military Community Transition Summit at Fort Carson, Colorado, a free hiring fair and transition summit for service members, veterans, and military spouses held in partnership with the USO and the George W. Bush Institute.
Growing out of President Bush’s own outreach and the ongoing work of the George W. Bush Institute, PORTRAITS OF COURAGE features veterans of the U.S. Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force, with their individual stories written by President Bush in his inimitable voice. As the stories unfold—some of them inspiring, some of them heartbreaking—readers will encounter the faces and the hearts of those who answered the nation’s call and learn from their bravery on the battlefield, their journeys to recovery, and the continued leadership and contributions they are making as civilians.
The paintings in the book will be the subject of a special exhibition at the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, also titled PORTRAITS OF COURAGE, which will be open to the public from March 2 through early October 2017. Advance tickets for the exhibition can be purchased at www.bushcenter.org.
Crown will produce two print editions of the book, each in full-color: a jacketed hardcover edition priced at $35, and an over-sized, deluxe edition signed by President Bush, priced at $250. The deluxe edition will be cloth-bound with a special slipcover and exclusive cover design.
Crown previously published two #1 New York Times bestsellers by President Bush: Decision Points (2010), the best-selling presidential memoir of the modern era and 41: A Portrait of My Father (2014), a personal biography of his father President George H.W. Bush.
About the Author:
GEORGE W. BUSH is the 43rd President of the United States, serving from 2001 to 2009. He previously served as Governor of Texas. He and his wife, Laura, live in Dallas, where they founded the George W. Bush Presidential Center on the campus of SMU.
About the Bush Center:
Rooted in the guiding principles of President George W. Bush and Mrs. Laura Bush, the George W. Bush Presidential Center engages communities in the United States and around the world by developing leaders, advancing policy, and taking action to solve today’s most pressing challenges. The Bush Center is home to the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, operated by the National Archives and Records Administration, and the George W. Bush Institute, the non-partisan, public-policy arm of the Bush Center. The Bush Center is located on the campus of SMU in Dallas, Texas, and also includes a 15-acre park; Café 43, a full-service restaurant; and a Museum Store.
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Crown is an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Penguin Random House (http://global.penguinrandomhouse.com/) is the world’s most global trade book publisher. It was formed on July 1, 2013, upon the completion of an agreement between Bertelsmann and Pearson to merge their respective trade publishing companies, Random House and Penguin, with the parent companies owning 53% and 47%, respectively. Penguin Random House comprises the adult and children’s fiction and nonfiction print and digital trade book publishing businesses of Penguin and Random House in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and South Africa, and Penguin’s trade publishing activity in Asia and Brazil; DK worldwide; and Penguin Random House Group Editorial’s Spanish-language companies in Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia, and Chile. Penguin Random House employs more than 10,000 people globally across almost 250 editorially and creatively independent imprints and publishing houses that collectively publish more than 15,000 new titles annually. Its publishing lists include more than 70 Nobel Prize laureates and hundreds of the world’s most widely read authors.