He was approached by a publishing house when he was elected president (NOT EDITOR) of the Harvard Law Review and asked to write a book. That alone is interesting as well.
I have often thot he wrote the book so he could tell the story way he wanted regarding his birth and education. The press is so lazy, they simply bought his “life story talking points.”
I've never seen this aspect proposed before. He was the one who decided to make it an autobiography, as I recall.
Yes, it would be one way to "tidy up" the details.
Yes that is what I had read—that he was was going to write some sort of book and then he got the idea to “expand” the topic and make it autobiographical memoir. Again, I have always thot it was a way for him to manipulate facts.
At the very least, the timing is interesting and it is a perfect example of his narcissism. Who writes a memoir before they have done anything? Who would care what he had to say about his life if he was not a public figure like when he started the book?