One day, deep into her term as secretary of state, Madeleine Albright wrote herself a to-do list:

"1) Call Senator Helms; 2)Call King Hussein; 3)Call Foreign Minister Moussa; 4) Make other congressional calls; 5) Prepare for China meeting; 6)Buy nonfat yogurt."

Hey, a gal's gotta eat.

And if that tiny detail, tucked among the 500-plus pages of Albright's new memoir, reads like a quip you might hear on David Letterman's show, it's also symbolic of the book itself, a fascinating mix of the official and the unofficial, the political and the personal. Set free from the constraints of keeping the peace, Albright has produced a biography that affectionately dishes the dirt, along with the diplomacy.

There's Yasser Arafat, an ineffectual drama queen with a high-pitched voice who "made speeches into the phone at a volume sufficient to render the instrument almost unnecessary."

There's his Israeli nemesis, Bibi Netanyahu: "Pugnacious, partisan and very smooth, he reminded me of Newt Gingrich."

There's Hillary and Bill and a cast of others; but if anyone takes a ribbing at the hands of Albright, it's Albright herself. Writing about hosting a political dinner at her house, she notes that the politics were fine, the dinner, well . . . "as one participant told a reporter, anonymously, 'We certainly didn't go there for the food.' "

Albright will be in Denver Thursday to promote Madam Secretary: A Memoir (Miramax, $27.95). She spoke about it recently in a phone conversation from Washington, D.C., where she is now a professor at Georgetown University.

Why write her story now?

"First of all," she says, "I decided that, having held such a high office, which I was highly honored to have, I really had a sense of obligation to write down history. I'm a professor and I know how important it is to have different points of view.

"Then, this was not just about my public life, but it was a good story about a woman's life and what's possible. I wanted to give women the idea that life is zig-zaggy, and you can achieve a lot."

Zig-zaggy indeed.

Before becoming United Nations ambassador and, finally, secretary of state - the first woman to hold the office - Albright had been, at various points in her life: housewife and mother of three, graduate student, school volunteer, political fund-raiser, divorcee, college professor, campaign adviser.

The daughter of a Czechoslovakian diplomat, Albright came to America in 1948, when her father, Josef Korbel, fled communists who had seized power in the country. Korbel became a professor at the University of Denver, where he founded the Graduate School for International Studies. Albright was raised Catholic and attended Kent Denver School on scholarship.

In the book, she paints herself as a serious student, who struggled to fit in.

"Round" and "apple-cheeked," as she describes herself, rather than tall and blond, she "endured the torture of being a permanent wallflower" at high school dances.

In one particularly painful passage, she writes about a boy asking her out on a series of dates - only to suddenly drop her and begin dating an upper-class girl.

"Through the school chatter I learned the truth: his dating me first had been a test she had given him as the price he'd had to pay to date her. For weeks, thinking everyone was talking about my humiliation," she writes, "I dreaded even showing my face."

She says now: "I really was, at least in my own eyes, very foreign."

Albright is clearly the kind of woman who makes the best of bad situations. (Asked for advice she would give career women, she notes that they shouldn't act as though they've "got a chip on their shoulder, whine or feel persecuted.")

Still, as she took high office, she would endure times no less painful. The worst came only weeks after being sworn in as secretary of state.

After a reporter discovered that Albright's grandparents were Jews who had died in concentration camps, people assumed that she, or her parents, had hidden her heritage for political gain.

"The most difficult thing was that people questioned my parents' motives, especially my father, who I adored. I hated some of the accusations," she says.

In addition: "It's one thing to find out about your Jewish background and to actually be proud of adding that to what was already a very interesting background. It's another to find out your grandparents died in concentration camps. That was so horrific . . .

"Then, to find out at a time that in many ways was the most glorious time of my life, aside from having kids. It was terrible news under any circumstances, yet here I was, I'd just assumed the job - an incredible job - and people were watching me to see if I could do it, period. Then to have this trauma, it was very bad. Even in recalling it, it just makes me shudder."

As for absorbing a new religious identity, Albright notes her continued bewilderment at the task: "It's weird to be (age) 66 and not completely clear what religion I am. It's confusing. There's no other way to put it."

Albright attained office after years of learning the political ropes. Still, the challenges of being the first woman secretary of state were great.

While worry that Arab heads of state wouldn't accept a woman's authority proved baseless ("I was the United States," she says. "I came on a very large plane that said 'The United States of America,' with a delegation and all the official approval of the government, so I didn't have that problem."), she faced obstacles on her own turf, nonetheless.

"At home, even the nicest men, who'd known me from other times in my life, wondered why I had the job and they didn't."

They weren't afraid to show their disdain.

"I think it's probably similar to the abuse you might have found, that any woman is subjected to . . . I write about a time when I was making arguments about why we needed to engage in Bosnia and (a high-ranking official) was drumming his fingers on the desk and looking at his watch, things he didn't do when men spoke. I'd wonder, was I saying something stupid?"

Albright seems to have little self-doubt now. Her confidence has been well-earned dousing hot spots in the Middle East, Bosnia and other regions. Asked her opinion on America's actions in Iraq, she doesn't equivocate.

Saddam Hussein needed to go, she says, but, "I didn't understand why the war had to be now and what the plan was. I didn't see the imminent threat . . . I'm deeply troubled. We've opened up this huge, chaotic situation. The area's now open to a variety of people who hate the U.S. to come in."

Albright notes that she hopes the Bush administration will get the United Nations involved in reconstruction.

As the conflict sputters on, though, Albright will be pushing books instead of treaties. She notes that she is looking forward to her visit to Denver, which she still considers home.

It will be only two months since her last visit, when she came to accept the Peace & Justice Award from the University of Denver.

Asked how she felt seeing some of her old Kent classmates in attendance - many of whom weren't exactly kind to her during her school years - Albright chuckles.

"It's very funny you should ask that. I said to them when we were all together that I wasn't sure they would like reading what I had to say (in my memoir). They said, 'No, we all loved you and we were such good friends.' "

Some might rail at the hypocrisy. But ever the diplomat, Albright doesn't miss a chance to build a bridge.

"It was great to see them," she quickly adds, "and I'm looking forward to seeing them when I come to Denver on my book tour."

Meet the author

• What: Madeleine Albright signs copies of her new memoir, Madam Secretary.

• When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday; free tickets for a place in line available beginning at 6:30 p.m.

• Where: Tattered Cover LoDo, 1628 16th St.

• Information: 303-436-1070.

Patti Thorn is the books editor. thornp@Rocky MountainNews.com or 303-892-5149

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