Former President Joe Biden said on Sunday that his cancer treatment will force him to scale back the Biden book tour for his memoir, Promise Me, America, renewing public questions about his health days before the book reaches stores.
Biden, 83, wrote in a post on X that he will not be able to do as many conversations about the book as he had hoped. ‘Some days are better than others,’ he wrote. ‘It hasn’t stopped me. But sometimes it slows me down.’ He added that he hoped the words on the page would speak for themselves. The memoir, published by Little, Brown, goes on sale November 17.
The announcement came just over a week before publication, at a point when the Biden book tour was expected to be at its peak. In July, when Little, Brown announced the November 17 release date, a spokesperson said Biden planned a tour and interviews. The Sunday post did not say how many events were canceled, or which ones survive, and it did not spell out what treatment he is on now.
Biden book tour plans before the announcement
Biden announced the book on July 15 with a video saying it would go on sale November 17 and was available for preorder. In that video, he described his cancer treatment as ‘going really well.’ The publisher, Hachette Book Group, says the book covers his campaign, his presidency and his decision to run again, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the aftermath of the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, domestic legislation and global diplomacy.
For his 2017 memoir, Biden ran a large ticketed tour of theaters and bookstores. The new book was expected to follow a similar pattern, with live events and interviews in the weeks around publication. Instead, the Biden book tour now looks built around interviews rather than live events, with no book signings or ticketed talks announced in the days before the release.
What the Biden book tour cut means for the memoir
The first excerpt from the book ran in The Atlantic on November 9, with Biden accusing President Donald Trump of leading an insurrection on January 6, 2021. The Biden book tour was meant to carry that argument to live audiences. The memoir arrives two weeks after the November 3 midterm elections, and its account of the 2024 decision to step aside keeps a long-running argument alive: what Biden knew about his health while in office, and when he knew it.
Biden was the oldest man ever to serve as president, and his age and health shadowed much of his time in office. He suspended his re-election bid in the summer of 2024 and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris after mounting pressure to step aside. He has pushed back repeatedly on accusations about his mental sharpness and his memory, and his team has denied any cover-up of his health while he was in office.
The health questions that remain
The health questions behind the Biden book tour cut go back to May 2025, when Biden was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that had already spread to his bones, about four months after he left the White House. He saw doctors after worsening urinary symptoms, and they found a nodule on his prostate. On May 16, 2025, the diagnosis was confirmed. He has since gone through radiation, completed in the fall of 2025, and hormone treatment.
In August 2026, his son Hunter Biden told the BBC that the cancer had spread further into his bones, a disclosure that added to the questions now surrounding the Biden book tour. On September 8, 2026, Biden wrote on X that the radiation treatment from the previous fall had worked as intended. His wife, Jill Biden, spoke about his condition in August on SiriusXM. The Sunday post gave no new medical detail beyond the effect on his schedule.
The book’s publisher has not said which events on the Biden book tour, if any, will go ahead in person, and the tour remains without a confirmed public appearance. Biden’s post left the door open to some appearances, saying only that he would do fewer than planned. The memoir goes on sale Tuesday, November 17.