Former President Jimmy Carter to sign memoir July 24 at Seminary Co-op

Jimmy Carter, former U.S. president and Nobel Peace Prize winner, will sign his new autobiography, A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety, July 24 at the Seminary Co-op Bookstore.

In his memoir, Carter describes growing up in rural Georgia and brings together stories of his segregationist father and his mother, a nurse who treated every patient equally and had a profound influence on him. Carter also reflects upon critical moments in his presidency, including the intense 12 days of secret negotiations that resulted in the 1978 Camp David Accords signed by Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin.

Carter also offers his frank assessment of the presidents who succeeded him and world leaders with whom he had worked. He also writes about his passion for special causes, particularly the condition of women and their deprivation in the developing world.

“Reaching my 90th birthday is a good time to look back on moments that changed my life and reflect on some of the memories that are especially important to me,” writes Carter in A Full Life. “I learned some profound and lasting lessons from the combination of my political defeat and my recovery from it, which can best be encapsulated by advice given to us as schoolchildren by our teacher…‘You must accommodate changing times but cling to unchanging principles.’”

Carter served as president from 1977 to 1981. In 1982, he and his wife founded The Carter Center, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of people around the world. Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. He is the author of more than two dozen books, including An Hour Before Daylight; Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid and Our Endangered Values.

The book signing, which will be held from noon to 2 p.m., will be on a first-come basis (read more details here). It was organized by UChicago’s Institute of Politics and the Seminary Co-op Bookstores.