25 famous books written with ghostwriters

Everyone has heard that many books are written by hired writers who professionally assisted the authors, but few people can name even a few ghostwriter books, even fewer people can name the names of the ghostwriters. Let's fix that.

  1. Henry Ford did not write letters, articles, or books on his own. Three books of Ford's memoirs, including “My Life and Work,” (1922) were written by ghostwriter Samuel Crowther.
  2. In 1948, the first book of Winston Churchill's six-volume memoirs, “The Second World War,” was published. Churchill always worked on letters, documents, speeches, columns, articles, and books with a large team of assistants, including secretaries, assistants, researchers, and historians. While working on the World War II series, Churchill's literary team, called the Syndicate, included Hastings Lionel Ismay, Henry Pownall, Denis Kelly, Guy Garrod, and William Deakin, among others. Churchill received the 1953 Nobel Prize in Literature for his literary legacy.
  3. The book “Profiles in Courage”, with U.S. President John F. Kennedy, was written by Ted Sorensen, his advisor and speechwriter. The book won the Pulitzer Prize in 1957. For decades, controversy over authorship and ghostwriting continued, as Kennedy and Sorensen denied collaborating on the book. Only in a 2007 memoir did Ted Sorensen admit to having done first drafts of most of the chapters, which Kennedy personally edited.
  4. “My years with General Motors” (1963) was written by Alfred Sloan with the help of John MacDonald and Catherine Stevens. Research for the book was conducted by Alfred Chandler. In the first editions of the book, which helped to establish management as an academic discipline, Macdonald and Stevens were listed on the cover with Sloan. John McDonald described the book's appearance in “A Ghost's Memoir: The Making of Alfred P. Sloan's My Years with General Motors,” published in 2003.
  5. Barbara Sher wrote her mega bestseller “Wishcraft” with Annie Gotlieb. The book was first published in 1979, and as Barbara wrote in the preface to the anniversary edition, thanks to this book she “became a 'somebody'” — a popular psychotherapist, lecturer, expert.
  6. “In Search of Excellence” by Tom Peters and Robert H. Waterman, Jr. was published in 1982, starting an industry of popular management and business books. Before that, business books were aimed at a narrow professional audience. Two professors, Anthony Athos and Richard Pascal, helped to give the ideas an attractive shape. "In Search" was assisted in writing by John Cox and Jennifer Futernick, who are mentioned by the authors in the acknowledgements. Cox turned drafts into a manuscript; Futernick worked with library sources and edited the manuscript. The book remained a bestseller for twenty years.
  7. The most successful memoirs of Lee Iacocca, president of the Ford Motor Company and Chrysler automobile companies, “Iacocca: An Autobiography,” (1984) was written with Iacocca by William Novak. Novak went on to become one of the most famous and best-paid freelance writers in the world.
  8. “Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!” (1985) is a memoir based on conversations between Nobel Prize winner Richard Feynman and his friend, American biographer Ralph Leighton. The stories Feynman told were recorded by Leighton and edited by Edward Hutchings. The rights to the book, written in the first-person singular, are owned by Feynman and Leighton. 
  9. In 1986, the book “The IBM Way” was published, which Francis G. “Buck” Rodgers wrote with the writer Robert L. Shook. Shook is not only listed on the cover, but also holds the copyright to the book. Rodgers had the rare habit of giving copyrights to his ghostwriters and editors.
  10. Donald Trump's “The Art of the Deal” was written by journalist Tony Schwartz. The book was published in 1987, spent 48 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list and made Trump a worldwide figure.
  11. Stephen Covey's bestseller “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” first published in 1989, was written by ghostwriter Ken Shelton. The book has been reprinted many times and translated into many languages. Ken Shelton also wrote other books by Stephen Covey.
  12. Sam Walton's memoir “Made in America”, in which he told the story of the creation of Walmart, was co-written with the help of John Huey. The book was published in 1992.
  13. Nelson Mandela's autobiography, “Long Walk to Freedom,” which he wrote with Richard Stengel, was published in 1994.
  14. Andy Grove, CEO of Intel, wrote the best-selling management book “Only the Paranoid Survive” (1996) with Catherine Fredman.
  15. Bill Gates' memoir, “Business @ The Speed of Thought,” (1999) was co-written with Collins Hemigway, who had previously managed one of Microsoft's public relations departments. 
  16. Keith Ferrazzi wrote the book “Never Eat Alone” with writer Tahl Raz. The book, which became The New York Times bestseller, was first published in 2005.
  17. In 2007, the book “It's Not About the Coffee: Lessons on Putting People First from a Life at Starbucks” by Howard Behar, former president of Starbucks. The book was written with the help of Janet Goldstein. The book became a mega bestseller and has been translated into dozens of languages.
  18. Ken Robinson wrote the book “The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything” with Lou Aronica. The book was first published in 2009 and quickly became a global bestseller.
  19. Meg Whitman, former CEO of eBay wrote “The Power of Money” with Joan O'S Hamilton. The book about the transformation of a startup into a global multi-billion dollar company was published in 2010.
  20. Andre Agassi's sports memoir “Open” was written by J. R. Moehringer, a Pulitzer Prize winner. To write the book, which was published in 2010, the writer lived next door to Agassi for two years, they often met and talked.
  21. Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, wrote the book “Lean in: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead” (2013) with writer Nell Scovell, who previously wrote the TV series “Sabrina the Teenage Witch,” several episodes of “The Simpsons” and speeches for Facebook executives, among others. The book “Lean in” became a bestseller for The New York Times and Amazon.
  22. “I am Malala” by Malala Yousafzai written with the help of Christina Lamb was the 2013 UK Non-Fiction Book of the Year. Yousafzai shared the award with Lamb.
  23. Hillary Rodham Clinton's memoir “Hard Decisions” (2014) was worked on by a three-person team: two former Hillary assistants — speechwriter Dan Schwerin and researcher Ethan Gelber and Ted Widmer, historian, advisor, and speechwriter to Bill Clinton.
  24. Phil Knight's book "Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike" is another book that was written by ghostwriter J. R. Moehringer. The book was released in 2016.
  25. Will Smith, the world-famous actor, wrote his memoir "Will" with renowned author Mark Manson. The same Mark Manson who wrote the mega bestseller “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck". Will Smith's memoir was released in 2021 and became a bestseller according to The New York Times and The Sunday Times.

Change: Dec. 5, 2024, 4:05 p.m.