Executives at two publishing houses and a senior aide to Rice say potential deals would also include a memoir about Rice's family and a multimedia project about international affairs for preteens and adolescents. All asked not to be identified, saying that talks were still in preliminary stages.
Although the 54-year-old Rice has been criticized for her loyalty to an unpopular president, publishers believe there is strong interest in her story
- a minister's daughter who rose from a segregated community in Birmingham, Ala., to become a trusted national security official for the first President Bush and a close ally of the second President Bush as national security adviser and secretary of state.
The senior aide to Rice said that she will visit with publishers in New York on Jan. 28-29, and is being represented by the William Morris Agency. Several other administration officials working on memoirs, including first lady Laura Bush and political adviser Karl Rove, had retained Washington attorney Robert Barnett, who has also negotiated deals for then-Sen. Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton.
---
Associated Press writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
