Authors write their own bios, and after it’s printed they are asked to review it for accuracy. This is specifically true of the literary agency in question and of the industry as a whole.
“The editor of the Harvard Law Review failed to review his own bio for his first book.”
Only an idiot would believe such a statement.
Only a political hack could make such a statement.
The bio that ends up on the book jacket? This was promotional material. The book may not have been written yet, for all I know. The employee may have guessed based on what she thought she remembered.
I guess Obama could have been another possible the source of the error, making different claims at different times. He could even have written the part about his father being Kenyan Finance Minister.
I got into the discussion just to say that if there was an error made, it was most likely to involve material that was already known to the employee about Hawaii and Kenya, rather than pull in something new about Obama being born in Sweden or France. In other words, if she did make a mistake, this was the logical one to make.