Les AuCoin

Author, Public Speaker, and Former US Rep in Portland, OR

Read my book

Greetings, I’m Les AuCoin, the author of "CATCH AND RELEASE: An Oregon Life in Politics" (a memoir published by the Oregon State University Press, 2019).

I’m a former 9-term US congressman, a husband of 58 years, a father, and a grandpa. My wife, Sue, and I live in Portland, OR. I love nature and its creatures, my son and daughter, my late beloved dog Charley, jazz and symphonic music and opera, literary history, boogying with my wife Sue, fly-fishing, sailing, live theater, traveling to forbidden countries, the New Yorker magazine, crossword puzzles, intimate dinners with good friends, abstract art, vibrant democracy, NBA Trail Blazers, the New York Times, NPR, the Atlantic magazine, and great fiction.

My memoir is a series of 32 chapters--each recounting a memory from a life that took me from picking potatoes as a fatherless boy in Redmond, Oregon, to one of the top tiers of national politics. In the pages of my memoir, join me in my ride to cryptic meetings inside the Kremlin, a tour of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the doubling of Oregon wilderness, my rescue of a Jewish Refusenik family from the USSR, my part in opening official relations with China, and my visit to the nuclear war bunker deep inside Colorado's Cheyenne Mountain. Come along with me too when, as an army private in the South, I had to defend myself in the ring against an enraged professional "lady 'rassler."

You can read about all that and more in CATCH AND RELEASE with a click on the button above.

Testimonials
Les AuCoin's book is an excellent account of the life of a very successful and highly-principled politician who served in the Oregon legislature and the U.S. House of Representatives during the last third of the 20th century. It is among the best accounts of the actual workings of the legislative branches of state and federal government I’ve read in any autobiography--no doubt thanks in large part to the fact that before entering politics, the author was a successful journalist."
Republican Jack Roberts, ex-Labor Commissioner (Oregon)
A gifted writer and storyteller, AuCoin describes the vast opportunities that service in Congress provides a dedicated and talented member to create change and right wrongs. Rarely does someone with AuCoin's combination of experience and literary gift provide readers with a sense of what it really means to serve in a legislative role on a daily basis, slugging it out against dogged opponents, weighing conscience against pragmatism, balancing personal life with the demands of politics.
Dr. John Lawrence, former chief of staff of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
Les was an amazing congressman. Now he shows that he's a master storyteller, too. This gripping personal history is sprinkled with humor and suspense and lyrically told.”
ex-US Rep Pat Schroeder, former president Nat'l Assn of US Booksellers
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