A few other statesmen (and I call Jim Webb a statesman, not a politician) who wrote novels:
WINSTON CHURCHILL : Sir Winston of England wrote a novel, Savrola (1900). A Churchill-esque hero leads a democratic revolution in a despotic fictional Mediterranean country GÇö and attracts the love of the dictatorGÇÖs spouse.
BENJAMIN DISRAELI (1804-1881): Prime Minister of Great Britain under Queen Victoria in 1868 and 1874-80 he wrote eighteen novels. Some are boy-meets-girl romances (Vivian Grey, Sibyl), some political tracts masquerading as fiction.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN: http://en.wikipedia....
In 1733, Franklin began to issue the famous Poor Richard's Almanac (with content both original and borrowed) on which much of his popular reputation is based. Adages from this almanac such as "A penny saved is twopence clear" (often misquoted as "A penny saved is a penny earned") and "Fish and visitors stink in three days" remain common quotations in the modern world. He sold about ten thousand copies a year. In 1758, the year in which he ceased writing for the Almanac, he printed Father Abraham's Sermon, one of the most famous pieces of literature produced in Colonial America. Franklin was well-known as a humorist and a collection of his humorous writings can be found in the book: Fart Proudly: Writings of Benjamin Franklin You Never Read in School.
WILLIAM COHEN: Former GOP Senator and Defense Secretary, he published two volumes of poetry before he became defense secretary in 1997. He also wrote at least one spy novel (I remember that because he used my name for one of the main characters).
Not a fiction writer:
Perhaps Mr. Wadhams may want to stop dissing Laura Bush, who has made literacy her main cause. In an article entitled GÇ£Why We ReadGÇ¥ http://www.opinionjo... published in the Wall Street Journal, she said:
First I was a teacher and then, since what I liked best about teaching was reading and sharing literature with children, I became a librarian. Now it is the whole focus of my life, really. And it all started with my mother's love of reading books like "Little Women" to me. I went on to read it on my own, then with friends and my own children.