Barbra Streisand to Publish Memoir in November

Barbra Streisand is going to publish her first memoir.

The iconic star, long beloved by the LGBTQ+ community, will release My Name Is Barbra November 7, the Associated Press reports.

“The book is, like Barbra herself, frank, funny, opinionated, and charming,” says a press release from its publisher, Viking. “She recounts her early struggles to become an actress, eventually turning to singing to earn a living; the recording of some of her acclaimed albums; the years of effort involved in making ‘Yentl’; her direction of ‘The Prince of Tides’; her friendships with figures ranging from Marlon Brando to Madeleine Albright; her political advocacy; and the fulfillment she’s found in her marriage to James Brolin.”

The book will come in at 1,040 pages, according to the AP. Its title is the same as a 1965 album and TV special.

Streisand has had an LGBTQ+ fan base since her earliest days singing at the Bon Soir, a nightclub in New York City. Her career has spanned 60 years and has included singing, acting, songwriting, and directing. She won an Oscar for Best Actress for Funny Girl (1968) and one for Best Original Song for “Evergreen” from A Star Is Born (1976). She has also won several Grammys and Emmys as well as a special Tony Award.

She has often talked about writing a memoir. One was announced in 2015 but later apparently canceled, the AP reports. When Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was an editor at Doubleday in the 1980s, she asked Streisand to write a memoir, the entertainer told talk show host Jimmy Fallon in 2021, but the project never came to fruition.

“I go back and forth,” Streisand told the AP in 2009. “Do I really want to write about my life? Do I really want to relive my life? I’m not sure.”

Streisand’s political advocacy has long included LGBTQ+ issues. She spoke out for marriage equality long before it became a reality, opposed the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, and denounced Colorado’s Amendment 1, which said antidiscrimination laws could not include sexual orientation; it was eventually struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court. She funded groups such as the Human Rights Campaign and Lambda Legal, along with AIDS organizations.

“Homophobia is a disease which desperately needs to be cured,” she told The Advocate in 1999. “We need to get beyond this fear, ignorance, and bigotry and move on to a mature society.”

She has been a supportive mother to her gay son, Jason Gould. “I would never wish for my son to be anything but what he is,” she said in the 1999 Advocate interview.