Hundreds of Hillary Clinton fans packed into the Barnes & Noble in Union Square Tuesday morning ahead of a book signing by the vanquished presidential contender.
Long Island resident Allan Holland, 63, awoke at 3 a.m. to catch a 3:47 a.m. train to Manhattan to see his Democratic hero.
He arrived outside the book store at 5 a.m., a full six hours before Clinton was slated to appear, only to find himself number 200 in line.
“I’ve always been a Hillary supporter,” said Holland of Woodbury.
“I came here for her first book so I couldn’t miss this one.”
Holland and the others were forced to wait even longer than expected. Clinton arrived at noon, an hour after the scheduled start time.
Her book, “What Happened,” tells the story of the 2016 presidential election from her perspective.
Many of the Democratic diehards sitting on the bookstore’s third and fourth floors said they were still struggling to grapple with her loss to Donald Trump.
“We’re upset, we’re angry, we’re resentful that she’s not our president,” said Susan Toomey, 69, of Ditmas Park.
“I skipped ballet class just to be here. As long as I get to see her, I don’t care how long I wait.”
Ava Paloma, 33, beamed after being one of the first to get her book signed by the former Secretary of State.
The West Village resident and some friends slept on the sidewalk overnight after showing up at Barnes & Noble about 11 p.m.
A photo of the the group appeared on social media — catching the eye of Clinton staffers who sent over a pie from Joe’s Pizza.
“We just wanted to make sure we got the chance to meet her,” Paloma said. “I’ve been in love with her since I was a little girl. She’s a female role model that I’ve respected since I was very young.”
The crowd also included a tourist from Italy who recounted the sadness she felt watching news coverage of Clinton’s defeat from thousands of miles away.
“On the night of the election, I waited up past 6 am to see if she would win,” said Claudia Cavaliere, 27, of the town of Salerno, noting the time difference between Europe and the U.S.
“I really wanted her to be president. Many of us in Europe did. We were disappointed too.”
Cavaliere said she was eager to read about what happened behind the scenes of Clinton’s failed presidential bid.
“She handled the situation with strength and grace,” Cavaliere said. “I admire her for that.”
In a recent interview with the hosts of the Pod Save America podcast, Clinton said she wrote the book in part to “sound the alarm about what I think could still and may well happen.”
“I think Trump, left to his own devices, unchecked, would become even more authoritarian than he has tried to be,” Clinton said.
One person who likely won’t be reading the book is Trump.
“Whether or not he is going to read Hillary Clinton’s book I’m not sure, but I would think that he is pretty well versed on what happened,” said White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. “And I think it’s pretty clear to all of America.”
The book, released Tuesday, has drawn headlines for Clinton’s pointed words about former FBI director James Comey, former Vice President Joe Biden and her primary challenger Bernie Sanders.
But she directed her most vitriolic attacks on the man who shocked the political world by winning an election that many expected would result in the country’s first female president.
“In 1992 and 2008, change meant electing dynamic young leaders who promised hope and renewal,” she wrote. “In 2016, it meant handing a lit match to a pyromaniac.”
Jacqueline Paolino, 26, had already read six chapters into the book by the time she had her copy signed.
“I think it spoke to a lot of how I felt,” she said.
“After the election I went into a very deep depression for about two weeks, could barely get out of bed.”