# Did you know that Broadwell had a "ghostwriter" that was writing Petraeus' biography? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 13, 2012, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-that-broadwell-had-a-ghostwriter-that-was-writing-petraeus-biography/640918 "2012-11-13T20:43:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2012, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-that-broadwell-had-a-ghostwriter-that-was-writing-petraeus-biography/640918/1 "2012-11-13T20:43:51Z")
Color me naive, but I thought that ghostwriters were primarily used in writing autobiographies. What would be the reason for a publisher to use a [ghostwriter](http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/broadwell-ghostwriter-dumbfounded-petraeus-affair-article-1.1201304?localLinksEnabled=false&google_editors_picks=true)for Broadwell as a biographer? Hell, I had never heard of her before a few days ago. Whether his biography was written by Paula Broadwell or Vernon Loeb, would have made no difference to me in whether I would have bought it and read it. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2012, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-that-broadwell-had-a-ghostwriter-that-was-writing-petraeus-biography/640918/2 "2012-11-13T20:47:13Z")
That is a little strange. How do we know this guy didn’t pass on the real work to someone else too? Maybe she had the vision for the book but he acted more like an editor? ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2012, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-that-broadwell-had-a-ghostwriter-that-was-writing-petraeus-biography/640918/3 "2012-11-13T20:53:02Z")
Maybe she’s really good at getting the information (REALLY good at it, apparently) but not much of a writer. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2012, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-that-broadwell-had-a-ghostwriter-that-was-writing-petraeus-biography/640918/4 "2012-11-13T20:54:02Z")
“Co-author” might be a friendlier job description. After all, he was listed on the cover as such. I imagine she did the reporting and he fashioned it into a book-length narrative. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2012, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-that-broadwell-had-a-ghostwriter-that-was-writing-petraeus-biography/640918/5 "2012-11-13T21:51:49Z")
Wasn’t she originally working on Patraeus for her doctoral dissertation? Those tend to be awfully dry and unreadable. Loeb may have been brought in to make in actual marketable book, instead of a scholarly work. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2012, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-that-broadwell-had-a-ghostwriter-that-was-writing-petraeus-biography/640918/6 "2012-11-13T22:14:54Z")
I’m not sure why they call him a ghostwriter when his name is right there on the jacket. I assume it’s because Broadwell did the interviews and the publicity; she’s good looking and fairly personable and made a decent guest on The Daily Show. I agree with **Freddy the Pig** and **muldoonthief** here: Broadwell has a military background and is not a professional writer, and Loeb is an investigative reporter who had written at least one other military-related book. He probably helped polish her writing and shape it away from something technical and thesis-ish into something more readable. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2012, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-that-broadwell-had-a-ghostwriter-that-was-writing-petraeus-biography/640918/7 "2012-11-13T22:16:45Z")
> [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](#): > > “Co-author” might be a friendlier job description. After all, he was listed on the cover as such. I imagine she did the reporting and he fashioned it into a book-length narrative. Right. His name is on the cover, it’s not ghostwriting if you’re a credited contributor to the book. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2012, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-that-broadwell-had-a-ghostwriter-that-was-writing-petraeus-biography/640918/8 "2012-11-13T22:28:25Z")
Who received Loeb’s naked pics? ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2012, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-that-broadwell-had-a-ghostwriter-that-was-writing-petraeus-biography/640918/9 "2012-11-13T23:43:22Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I’m not sure why they call him a ghostwriter when his name is right there on the jacket. I assume it’s because Broadwell did the interviews and the publicity; she’s good looking and fairly personable and made a decent guest on The Daily Show. Whereas Loeb, whom I saw last night on C SPAN, is small, shabby and shifty looking enough to play a drifter for the Coen Bros. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2012, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-that-broadwell-had-a-ghostwriter-that-was-writing-petraeus-biography/640918/10 "2012-11-13T23:56:07Z")
Loeb wrote a good piece for the [Washington Post](http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/petraeus-ghostwriter-clueless-to-affair/2012/11/12/c1271634-2ce4-11e2-89d4-040c9330702a_story.html?hpid=z1) about his role. He calls himself “clueless” and seems somewhat befuddled by the whole scandal. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2012, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-that-broadwell-had-a-ghostwriter-that-was-writing-petraeus-biography/640918/11 "2012-11-14T13:16:13Z")
If you are listed as “with …” that is _not_ a co-author credit. Co-authors are never listed after a “with”. The “with …” credit is what is used for credited ghostwriters. (An oxymoron if there ever was one.) That is what Loeb is. Also, read the [WP](http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/petraeus-ghostwriter-clueless-to-affair/2012/11/12/c1271634-2ce4-11e2-89d4-040c9330702a_story.html?hpid=z1) link: “In July 2010, I got a call from my agent, Scott Moyers in New York, who wanted to know whether I was interested in _ghostwriting_ a war book about Petraeus, who had just been named commander in Afghanistan. I’d just finished ghostwriting a CIA memoir that Scott had represented.” (My emphasis.) The term is used several times in the article. It’s also clear from this: “I never anticipated the extramarital affair between David H. Petraeus and Paula Broadwell, the woman I’d worked with for _16 months_ on a book about Petraeus’s year commanding the war in Afghanistan.” This makes it clear he is truly the main author of the book. He didn’t just take Broadwell’s rough draft and polish it up. That doesn’t take 16 months. Also: “Broadwell was free to make whatever revision or modifications she desired to the text, and did so liberally.” And on and on. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2012, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-that-broadwell-had-a-ghostwriter-that-was-writing-petraeus-biography/640918/12 "2012-11-14T13:28:19Z")
She needed someone to pound the keyboard while she…😃 y’know. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2012, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-know-that-broadwell-had-a-ghostwriter-that-was-writing-petraeus-biography/640918/13 "2012-11-14T13:41:52Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > Whether his biography was written by Paula Broadwell or Vernon Loeb, would have made no difference to me in whether I would have bought it and read it. I’ll bet Vernon Loeb doesn’t have 13% body fat.