Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Announces Memoir by Boston Mayor Thomas Menino

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) has acquired publishing rights to longtime Boston Mayor Thomas Menino's story, written with veteran author and journalist Jack Beatty. Mayor Menino will step down in January 2014, after serving a record five terms in office with approval ratings as high or higher than any politician in the country. The book will cover local history and politics, but its message is national: The Mayor who has personally met more than half the people who live in his city offers an antidote for the Washington-centered, hyper-partisan new era of politics.

Mayor Menino's political career stretches from Boston's busing crisis of the 1970s to the city's extraordinary response to the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013. HMH plans to publish the book in the spring of 2014. This book is as much about the man and how he grew in office as it is about the city that progressed with him. Boston is one of the youngest cities in the country and as urban areas are resurging, Boston has come back strongest: over the Mayor's final term, Boston's economy grew faster than any other metro in the U.S.

Commented HMH Trade Publishing President Gary Gentel, "HMH has a longstanding relationship with Boston and we are continually impressed by the leadership of Mayor Menino and what he has meant to this city its people. We are excited to publish such an important chronicle of the Boston's modern history."

"I have always believed the purpose of government is to help improve people's lives, and that's what I've done here in Boston in the many years that I've served the city," said Mayor Menino. "Boston can be a model for Washington, and for the nation. My book will show how, and Jack Beatty is the perfect collaborator."

About Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Trade Publishing
For nearly two centuries, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt's Trade division has published some of the world's most renowned novels, non-fiction, children's books and reference works in hardcover, trade paperback, and eBook formats. Its distinguished author list includes eight Nobel Prize winners, forty-seven Pulitzer Prize winners, thirteen National Book Award winners, and more than one hundred Caldecott, Newbery, Printz, and Sibert Medal and Honor recipients. HMH publishes such distinguished authors as Philip Roth, Temple Grandin, Tim O'Brien, and Umberto Eco, and a celebrated roster of children's authors and illustrators including Lois Lowry, Chris Van Allsburg and David Wiesner. HMH is also home to The Best American series; The American Heritage and Webster's New World dictionaries; Betty Crocker, Better Homes and Gardens, How to Cook Everything, The Gourmet Cookbook, and other leading culinary properties; the Peterson Field Guides; CliffsNotes; books by J.R.R. Tolkien; and many iconic children's books and characters including Curious George, The Little Prince and The Polar Express. For more information, visit www.hmhco.com.