Devotees camp out for Hillary Clinton's new book – and a chance to say thanks

The sun had not yet risen at 5.30am in Manhattan, but an estimated 300 of Hillary Clinton’s most devoted supporters had already lined up outside a bookstore in Union Square to meet her and buy a copy of her new election memoir, What Happened.

There was Allie Rohletten, a 20-year-old college student, who had been inspired by Clinton’s “history of proving that women can do anything men can do”, and Juan Cuba, a 29-year-old from New Jersey, who had felt that Clinton’s focus on supporting first-generation Americans and LGBT people, and her focus on mental health issues, had spoken directly to him.

There was also Kristen Blush, 36, who said that even compared with Donald Trump “I hate Bernie more”, saying of the Vermont senator who ran Clinton close for the Democratic nomination: “He hurt us from the inside.”

Some Democrats have criticized Clinton’s new book, arguing that a book tour dwelling on Clinton’s loss to Trump is not what the party needs at this moment. In her memoir, Clinton comes out swinging against Bernie Sanders, the news media’s coverage of her campaign, FBI director James Comey, and the rampant misogyny facing women in politics.

But the most enthusiastic of the 65.8 million Americans who voted for Clinton seem to disagree. They are hungry for an authoritative account of what has happened to America – an account that comes from the candidate herself. Those at the front of the Tuesday morning line had arrived at the Barnes and Noble the previous afternoon, but their mood was upbeat nearly 13 hours later. They were wearing Clinton shirts and Clinton pins, and taking comfort in each other’s company.

“I want them to stop telling women to shut up, and I want them to stop telling Hillary to shut up and go away,” Blush said. She said she had met some of the other supporters in the line already, including one woman she had first encountered on social media as they both pushed back against the trolls commenting on Clinton’s Instagram account.

Blush said that as a “grown woman” she should be too old to wait in an all-night line, but she had wanted Clinton to know how much her supporters cared, how she wanted her to see the dramatic evidence of how much her fans still backed her.

Clinton had seen. At about 10pm the previous night, the former secretary of state had pizza delivered to the dozen people who were spending the night on the pavement to see her. Her Twitter account had also sent an emoji-laden tweet sharing a photo of their surprised faces in front of a stack of pizza boxes.