Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan

Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan is a 1999 book by Edmund Morris, and the first authorized biography of an incumbent U.S. president. It details the life of Ronald Reagan, from his childhood to his postpresidency, from the point of view of a heavily fictionalized version of the author, who portrays himself as a contemporary and lifelong friend of Reagan. Numerous other imagined characters, including a fictional wife and son of Morris, and a gossip columnist whose nonexistent correspondence Morris cites, feature as well. To write Dutch, Morris spoke to Reagan over a period of thirteen years and was granted special access to the Reagan administration and the White House. He found the information that he gained unsatisfactory, which led him to write a semi-autobiographical novel rather than a normal biography. Upon its publication by Random House, Dutch faced immediate controversy, as critics disagreed with Morris' use of fictional elements within an ostensibly biographical work that the Reagan family had trusted him to write factually.