''Dear Socks, Dear Buddy: Kids' Letters to the First Pets'' is a 1998

children's book Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. In addition to conventional literary genres, modern children's literature is classified by the intended age of the reade ...

written by

First Lady of the United States First Lady of the United States (FLOTUS) is a title typically held by the wife of the president of the United States, concurrent with the president's term in office. Although the first lady's role has never been Code of law, codified or offici ...

Hillary Rodham Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, lawyer and diplomat. She was the 67th United States secretary of state in the administration of Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, a U.S. senator represent ...

. It concerns the two pets that lived in the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...

during the

Clinton administration Bill Clinton's tenure as the 42nd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1993, and ended on January 20, 2001. Clinton, a Democrat from Arkansas, took office following his victory over Republican in ...

, Socks the cat and Buddy the dog.

Description

The book includes more than 50 letters written to the First Pets by children and more than 80 photographs of Socks and Buddy. Examples of questions that letters asked include, "Who do you like best? Mr. Clinton? Mrs. Clinton or Chelsea?" and, "How do you like being a dog, Buddy? I like being a person." Socks was also asked if he was allowed to watch

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

and Buddy was asked if he ever got petted by the

Spice Girls The Spice Girls are an English girl group formed in 1994, consisting of Mel B ("Scary Spice"), Melanie C ("Sporty Spice"), Emma Bunton ("Baby Spice"), Geri Halliwell ("Ginger Spice"), and Victoria Beckham ("Posh Spice"). They have sold over 10 ...

. The book also includes several sections of text by Clinton discussing the two pets' habits, as well as the rivalry between them. Clinton also provided a history of the previous pets that had lived in the White House. The text also dispensed some advice on caring for pets and told parents to encourage children to express themselves through writing. The last chapter of the book is titled "A Note on Saving America's Parks and Treasures".

History

The idea for the book originated with Clinton's publisher,

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster LLC (, ) is an American publishing house owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts since 2023. It was founded in New York City in 1924, by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. Along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group US ...

, who were interested in a follow-up to Clinton's best-selling 1996 volume ''

It Takes a Village "It takes a village to raise a child" is a proverb that means that an entire community of people must provide for and interact positively with children for those children to experience and grow in a safe and healthy environment. Attributions T ...

''. It also followed prior First Lady

Barbara Bush Barbara Bush (; June 8, 1925 – April 17, 2018) was the first lady of the United States from 1989 to 1993, as the wife of the 41st president of the United States, George H. W. Bush. She was previously second lady of the United States fr ...

's popular 1990 effort '' Millie's Book'', about the prior White House dog. Plans for ''Dear Socks, Dear Buddy'' were announced in June 1998 and it was stated that

Linda Kulman Linda is an English feminine given name, derived from the Spanish word , meaning "pretty." Linda may also refer to: Names * Linda (given name), a female given name (including a list of people and fictional characters so named) * Linda (singer) ...

, a reporter based in Washington, would assist Clinton in the writing. ''Book'' magazine would subsequently characterize Kulman's role as that of a

ghostwriter A ghostwriter is a person hired to write literary or journalistic works, speeches, or other texts that are credited to another person as the author. Celebrities, executives, participants in timely news stories, and political leaders often h ...

. The book had a first printing put at somewhere between 400,000 and 500,000 copies. Its actual sales were around 350,000 copies. The book did not sell as well as ''It Takes a Village'' had, in part because the nature of the book was different and in part because Clinton did not engage in the same level of promotional activity for it. The book came out as the

Lewinsky scandal Monica Samille Lewinsky (born July 23, 1973) is an American activist. Lewinsky became internationally known in the late 1990s after U.S. President Bill Clinton admitted to having had an affair with her during her days as a White House intern ...

turned into the

impeachment of Bill Clinton Bill Clinton, the List of presidents of the United States, 42nd president of the United States, was Federal impeachment in the United States, impeached by the United States House of Representatives of the 105th United States Congress on Decem ...

, which contributed to Clinton's lessened efforts in promoting the book.

Proceeds

Clinton received no advance for writing the book. All of her proceeds from book sales and related publishing rights were donated to the

National Park Foundation The National Park Foundation (NPF) is the official charity of the National Park Service (NPS) and its national park sites. The NPF was chartered by Congress in 1967 with a charge to "further the conservation of natural, scenic, historic, scientif ...

, the official charity of America's

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...

. The publisher said it would donate some of its proceeds to the foundation as well. The foundation was given possession of the copyright to the book, which simplified the tax aspects related to awarding profits to the foundation, thus eliminating some complexities that Clinton had encountered in donating the proceeds of ''It Takes a Village''.

References

{{Hillary Rodham Clinton 1998 children's books American children's books American picture books Children's non-fiction books Letters written in English English-language children's books Books about cats Children's books about dogs Pets Children's books about friendship Fiction set in 1998 Books by Hillary Clinton Simon & Schuster books Hillary Clinton's tenure as First Lady of the United States