NEW YORK (Reuters) - Readers hoping for tantalizing details of Bill Clinton's presidency in the first excerpt of his memoirs released on Friday instead were treated to a recollection of the day Clinton shook President John F. Kennedy's hand in 1963.
In the brief, folksy audio excerpt released on AOL online, Clinton recalls in his own voice the trip to Washington when he was a teenager, calling it "an amazing moment for me, meeting the president whom I had supported in my ninth-grade class debates."
The meeting has been credited as his inspiration to seek the presidency, but Clinton says: "I'm not sure about that."
Instead, he writes that he thought about becoming a senator and quotes Abraham Lincoln as saying, "I will study and get ready, and perhaps my chance will come."
The audio excerpt was the first to be released on AOL from Clinton's 957-page "My Life," tracing his life from childhood through his scandal-tainted White House years.
The book will be published on Tuesday when 1.5 million copies will go on sale in bookstores.
Publicity about the book has pushed his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky back in the news.
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But readers' opportunity to hear Clinton read more enticing excerpts will come in the next few days, as Time Warner Inc.'s AOL releases an excerpt entitled "I started crying" on Saturday, another entitled "I loved & forgave him" the next day and "Marriage remains" on Monday, a spokeswoman said.
Clinton's choice of opening excerpt, with its references to two of America's most respected presidents, is a way to position himself in a way he wants to be perceived, said John Baker, editorial director of Publishers Weekly.
"I'm sure he was aware that everyone would be looking for the racy bits, and he wants to come out of the gate first as a statesman-like figure," Baker said.
The high-profile unveiling of Clinton's memoirs picks up its pace ahead of Tuesday's release, with Time magazine running the first print interview with Clinton about the book.
On Sunday night, CBS' "60 Minutes" will air an hour-long interview with the former president.
On Monday, roughly 1,000 people are invited to a lavish book party for Clinton at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Several booksellers in Washington and New York are planning to remain open after midnight on Monday to accommodate early-bird buyers.
On Tuesday, Clinton has two book signings scheduled in Manhattan, with further televisions interviews throughout the week.
Clinton was reportedly paid a $10 million advance for the book published by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Bertelsmann AG's Random House unit.
