Dmitri Nabokov “has finally broken his silence about the contents” of the late Vladimir Nabokov’s unfinished THE ORIGINAL OF LAURA, which is set for publication rather than the burning originally called for by the author. And he shows the index cards on which it has written–which have been stored in a Swiss bank vault–to the BBC’s cameras. He told the BBC, “My father told me what his most important books were. He named Laura as one of them. One doesn’t name a book one intends to destroy. He would have reacted in a sober and less dramatic way if he […]
New Releases/Forthcoming
Huckabee's Campaign Begins with A Book
Has the 2012 election season started? Mike Huckabee’s book DO THE RIGHT THING: Inside the Movement That’s Bringing Common Sense Back to America lands today, and most media interprets the book as the first part of an effort to build an Obama-esque movement among young conservatives for the next election. Time magazine leads: “in terms of payback, it will not disappoint. At once a memoir of his campaign, a treatise on the ills of the Republican Party and a blueprint for his own political future, Do the Right Thing is filled with sharp words for his fellow Republicans who frustrated […]
On Kitty on Oprah
December’s Chicago Magazine will carry a story called Bagging the Media Queen, looking at Kitty Kelley’s research and forthcoming book on Oprah Winfrey. The Sun-Times says the article “makes it pretty clear Kelley’s long-anticipated book about the TV queen will not be a puff piece. Kelley told all of the people she’s interviewed that her Oprah project will not be a hatchet job…. Yet the Chicago mag story points out that even after spending a hour or two listening to glowing tales about Oprah, Kelley eventually gets around to questions about sex, drugs and old boyfriends.”Sun-Times
Mailer Estate: The Client Wylie Lost
As an Observer article reports, Andrew Wylie at The Wylie Agency represented Norman Mailer while we he was alive but the estate has selected Mailer’s friend and longtime collaborator Larry Schiller to represent all unpublished material, including the trove of “something like 60,000” letters. J. Michael Lennon, who just signed with S&S for an authorized Mailer biography, has been working on one book compilation of Mailer letters “on and off for about five years.” The Observer suggests that publishing rights to that collection might have been ambiguous under Mailer’s contractual relationship with Mailer: “Though at one point last winter there […]
Turner's Book Lands
The AP went first this weekend with a story based on an advance copy of Ted Turner’s book CALL ME TED, landing this week. Turner says he wasn’t upset by former Jane Fonda’s conversion to Christianity; “he was upset because Fonda didn’t talk to him about it.” (He doesn’t mention “the infidelities alleged against him by the Academy Award-winning actress.”) In reviewing his career, “he still insists he was ‘fired’ by Gerald Levin in the wake of Time Warner’s 2000 merger with AOL, and Levin, allowed to offer his side, still denies it (They no longer speak, Levin adds, regretfully).”AP […]
Collins and WSJ Announce Partnership
The Collins Group has announced a three-year publishing partnership with their corporate News Corp. sibling at the Wall Street Journal “to develop books written by the Journal’s expert editors and reporters across a variety of topics for a wide range of readers.” Collins group president Steve Ross had previously published a line of WSJ books when he was publisher at Crown. HarperCollins ceo Brian Murray notes in the release, “Through this partnership we will build a branded list of guides from the editors of the Journal and enduring narratives from The Wall Street Journal reporters that will stand the test […]