The title might have been written by Mao himself. Instead, it was dictated by the revealing, intimate, never-before-published recollections of Li Yinqiao, Mao's bodyguard, and brought to light by the author Quan Yanchi.

After fifteen years of devoted service, Li received this request from Mao: "If what happens in my family is a secret to others, it is not a secret to you. But don't write about me while I'm still alive; wait until I die, and write truthfully when you do." For the first time, the personal, inside story of China's dynamic leader and world statesman is told-the life and thought of Mao, the husband father, comrade-in-arms, the peasant's son. The recollections, only now made public in English, provide the reader with a refreshingly different perspective from any of the many other works about Mao. Highlighting the book are photographs, published here for the first time.