Betty White has deal to write two books

NEW YORK, Aug. 18 (UPI) -- U.S. television icon Betty White is to write two books for G.P. Putnam's Sons, it was announced Wednesday by Ivan Held, president of the publishing house.

The first book, "Listen Up!," will draw upon life lessons learned during her decades-long career in Hollywood, with an emphasis on the extraordinary past 15 years of White's life, the publishers said.

The second book, called "The Zoo and I: Betty and Her Friends," will be a collection of stories and photographs capturing the daily life of her animal friends at the zoo.

The 88-year-old former star of "The Golden Girls" and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" is a longtime member of the board of the Los Angeles Zoo and a supporter of animal health and welfare.

Putnam plans to publish the first book in hardcover in Spring 2011 and the second book in hardcover the following year.

"Betty White is a national treasure. We are tremendously excited that she will be writing these two books for Putnam. Her wide-ranging appeal and irrepressible humor transcends generations, readers and cultures. She truly is one of a kind," Held said in a statement.

"Much as I love what I do for a living in show business, I love writing even more -- so I am thrilled to be working on not only one new book but two of them," White said.