The United Nations Secretary-General is the head of the Secretariat, one of the principal divisions of the United Nations. Many of the individuals who have served as the world body's top office have written memoirs, either before, during or after their terms of office.
| # | Secretary-General | Dates in office | Memoirs Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| - | Sir Gladwyn Jebb | Acting Secretary General 1945 – 1946 |
? |
| 1 | Trygve Halvdan Lie | 2 February 1946 – November 1952 | In the Cause of Peace (first and only publication, 1954) |
| 2 | Dag Hammarskjöld | 10 April 1953 – 18 September 1961 | Vägmärken (Markings) ISBN 0-394-43532-X |
| 3 | U Thant | 3 November 1961 – 31 December 1971 | View from the UN ISBN 0-385-11541-5 |
| 4 | Kurt Waldheim | 1 January 1972 – 31 December 1981 | In the Eye of the Storm ISBN 0-297-78678-4 |
| 5 | Javier Pérez de Cuéllar | 1 January 1982 – 31 December 1991 | Pilgrimage for Peace ISBN 0-312-16486-6 |
| 6 | Boutros Boutros-Ghali | 1 January 1992 – 31 December 1996 | Unvanquished: A U.S.-U.N. Saga ISBN 0-8129-9204-0 |
| 7 | Kofi Annan | 1 January 1997 – present | ? |
Famous quotes containing the words secretary, general and/or memoirs:
“... the wife of an executive would be a better wife had she been a secretary first. As a secretary, you learn to adjust to the boss’s moods. Many marriages would be happier if the wife would do that.”
—Anne Bogan, U.S. executive secretary. As quoted in Working, book 1, by Studs Terkel (1973)
“You don’t want a general houseworker, do you? Or a traveling companion, quiet, refined, speaks fluent French entirely in the present tense? Or an assistant billiard-maker? Or a private librarian? Or a lady car-washer? Because if you do, I should appreciate your giving me a trial at the job. Any minute now, I am going to become one of the Great Unemployed. I am about to leave literature flat on its face. I don’t want to review books any more. It cuts in too much on my reading.”
—Dorothy Parker (1893–1967)
“There are people who can write their memoirs with a reasonable amount of honesty, and there are people who simply cannot take themselves seriously enough. I think I might be the first to admit that the sort of reticence which prevents a man from exploiting his own personality is really an inverted sort of egotism.”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)