Mackenzie Scott to Publish Book Amid Jeff Bezos & Lauren Sanchez Marriage
Ever since Jeff Bezos and Mackenzie Scott divorced, most headlines about the latter have been about her charitable endeavors. This makes sense, seeing as the philanthropist has vowed to donate most of her money to charity during her lifetime. She certainly seems to be trying to do that, donating more than anyone alive in the past few years, with over $26 billion donated so far.
Now, however, Scott seems to be returning to her “first love”: fiction. Scott is returning to writing after a 13-year hiatus, with a new 80,000-word novel titled Last Days in Two Nations (A History in Eighteen Minds). Scott plans to release the 317-page novel serially throughout August, all through her newly launched Substack, which has the same name as the book.
Scott did not release any details about the plot of the book, but she did release the novel’s title page, table of contents, character list, and epigraphs. The novel will be published chapter by chapter.
For those unaware, Scott studied creative writing under Toni Morrison at Princeton University. Morrison even supervised Scott’s thesis and later helped her secure a literary agent. Scott’s debut novel, The Testing of Luther Albright, was published in 2005, with Morrison providing a blurb for the book. She released another novel in 2013, titled Traps.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Scott’s net worth is around $34.4 billion. She received about 4% of Amazon stock in her divorce settlement with Bezos, which was worth around $36 billion at the time. Despite reducing that stake, her net worth has still increased due to market appreciation. So, she’s just continued giving the money away.
Related: Jeff Bezos’ Ex-Wife’s $40M Financial Change Revealed After He Filed to Sell $4B in Amazon Shares as He ‘Hangs on for Dear Life’ with His New Wife
How? Well, her foundation, Yield Giving, quietly researches to find organizations that need donations and that Scott considers worthy. Then, they make the donation anonymously—no strings attached.
Some have criticized Scott’s philanthropy, including Elon Musk. On June 27, a social media user said Scott’s donations were “making the world a worse place.” Musk agreed, responding, “Sadly, yes.”
Musk’s words come after Scott was included in Forbes‘ Iconoclast 50 list, which honored her as a leader “changing the game in real time, disrupting their industries and challenging the status quo.”
As Forbes noted, “A few generations back, being a major philanthropist meant setting up an organization that would exist in perpetuity (think the Ford Foundations) or establishing a university like Carnegie Mellon. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett sped things up with their Giving Pledge, asking billionaire signers to give away their money during their lifetimes. But it took MacKenzie Scott to put it on warp speed.”