On The Road with the Carters

By Guy D. Garcia

Their day began with a 6 a.m. jog, followed by breakfast, interviews with the press and a book-signing appearance. By afternoon they were on Manhattan's Lower East Side to announce a major housing initiative for the poor and visit an apartment house they helped rehabilitate two summers ago. Such a hectic schedule might tax a brace of yuppies but not Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter. Looking refreshed and relaxed last week as they sat together in their New York City hotel suite, Jimmy, 62, and Rosalynn, 59, are clearly exhilarated by all the fanfare for their new book, Everything to Gain: Making the Most of the Rest of Your Life (Random House; $16.95). The day before, they had signed 1,000 copies at a Washington bookstore and had to stop for lack of time. The former President was elated. "You never know about Washington," he observed. "We didn't know if anybody would show up."

Part memoir, part self-help manual, Everything to Gain combines some rather obvious advice on how to stay healthy (do not smoke, fasten seat belts, exercise regularly) with strikingly candid personal reflections. After the 1980 presidential defeat, Rosalynn reveals, she was reluctant to give up the dream that her husband might again run for President and win. Daughter Amy, then 12, announced that she did not want to live in Plains, Ga. "You may be from the country," she said. "But I'm not." (She went to boarding school instead.) On a lighter note, the Carters write that one of the "positive things about losing the election" was that they were able to let Ronald Reagan "inherit Menachem Begin and Sam Donaldson."

The genesis of Everything to Gain dates back to the dark winter of 1981, when the Carters were forced to cope not only with political disaster but also with a host of domestic crises. The family farm and peanut business, which had been in blind trust during his presidency, were mired in disarray and debt. The couple found themselves facing the bleak prospect of an unwanted retirement and uncertain future. "We think that the experiences that we had are the kind of things that happen to anybody," explains Jimmy. "We tried to relate what we did to what happens to a truck driver, or anybody."

Once the Carters began writing a year ago, they realized that co-authoring a book was no joke. Reports the former President: "It was the worst thing we ever tried to do together, and we will never do it again." Part of the trouble arose from their conflicting views of the same event. At one point, they report, the arguments became severe enough to threaten their 40-year marriage. "Once I accused him of destroying my memories," Rosalynn recalls. Counters Jimmy: "If she wrote something, it was sacred, as though she received it from God on Mount Sinai, and nobody could modify a word of it." Eventually they settled on a compromise: each section is preceded by an initial J or R.

Today they can laugh easily at their time of literary turmoil. The intervening years and gained perspective have changed them in subtle ways: Jimmy looks older; Rosalynn seems more assertive. Both remain preoccupied with politics and humanitarian causes. They quietly support their daughter Amy's | activism, defending her right to express herself. Nevertheless, scars from the past remain. In private, the couple refers to the 1980 election as "the tragedy." And Rosalynn still thinks history has treated them unfairly. Says she, with a trace of sadness: "I just think there are so many problems that I wish Jimmy had been there to take care of."

With reporting by David E. Thigpen/New York