by Janny Scott, International Herald Tribune, France - Barack Obama was a first-time author and rookie politician embarking upon his first run for public office. Hermene Hartman was the publisher of N'Digo, a magazine in Chicago aimed at upscale black readers. As Hartman tells it, she got a call from Obama in the fall of 1995 saying he wanted to come and talk. He wanted her to read his newly published memoir.