Historically, memoirs have dealt with public matters, rather than personal.

Nevertheless, the memoirs undeniably deal with real persons, places, and events.

Ms. Kincaid, whose memoir "A Small Place" dealt with growing up in Antigua, described the place in this later period as "a monument to rottenness."

The memoir deals with Kennedy's experiences with the assassination of his two older brothers John and Robert, the controversial Chappaquiddick incident, his battle with drinking and with brain cancer, why he decided to run for president in 1980, and his lifelong fight for universal health care.

This memoir deals with the years (1942-1945) that Traudl Junge spent with Adolf Hitler as his personal secretary.

Nancy Reagan said today that her memoirs would deal with the main controversies of her eight years in the White House.

Erkin's memoirs dealt with his efforts to aid the Turkish Jews' in France, as their lives were increasingly at risk.

Her first memoir, A Romantic Education, dealt with Hampl's Czech heritage and won Hampl the Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship in 1981.

His literary agent, Aaron Priest, said that his memoirs would deal with "the violent chaos of our times," a period the author refers to as "the age of the terrorist."