Navigation Salon Salon Books email print
Arts & Entertainment
.Books
Comics
Health & Body
Media
Mothers Who Think
News
People
Politics2000
Technology
- Free Software Project
Travel & Food
_______
Columnists

 

- - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Also Today

For a full list of today's Salon Books stories, go to the Books home page.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Search Salon


  
Advanced Search  |  Help

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Recently in Salon Books Log

Top Bush flack grinds out candidate's memoir
[10/07/99]

John Major slams Maggie Thatcher in upcoming memoir
[10/05/99]

Fiction or nonfiction?
[10/02/99]

British witch casts a spell on Oprah
[10/01/99]

Reagan biographer bites back
[09/30/99]

Complete archives for Books

- - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - - -




Bestseller lists reach verdict on "Dutch"

Edmund Morris' biography of Ronald Reagan ruled nonfiction -- barely.

- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Craig Offman

Oct. 11, 1999 | The verdict may come as no surprise, but the mere fact that there was some deliberation was a little shocking. As it turns out, the leading bestseller lists have allowed Edmund Morris' controversial biography, "Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan," to slip under the gates of truth: It's being treated as nonfiction.

The Random House book, which uses a fictionalized narrator to tell the life story of the Gipper, had an initial print run of more than 300,000 copies, a number that suggests a good deal of confidence on the publisher's part. Apparently it's warranted: "Dutch" will debut at No. 2 on the Oct. 17 New York Times bestseller list -- but with a few words of warning. "We've decided to put it on the nonfiction side with a little line indicating that, as everyone knows, there is indeed fictional stuff in it," says Times Book Review editor in chief Charles "Chip" McGrath.

"Dutch" has also landed in the No. 2 spot on the nonfiction list at Publishers Weekly. "It still is basically a memoir, but using a literary device," PW executive editor Daisy Maryles notes. "We're following the lead of the title, which uses the word 'memoir.' After that you can tear it up any way you want to." The book will appear on the nonfiction side at the Wall Street Journal as well, according to Bob Hughes, the reporter who compiles the newspaper's bestseller lists.

All the same, opinion varies. At the Lexington Avenue branch of the New York bookstore Shakespeare & Co., a sign in the front window reads, "'Dutch' is available from our fiction section."
salon.com | Oct. 11, 1999

 

- - - - - - - - - - - -

About the writer
Craig Offman is the New York correspondent for Salon Books.

Sound off
Send us a Letter to the Editor
Send e-mail to Craig Offman

Related Salon stories
Biography as screenplay Edmund Morris has conceived the life of Ronald Reagan as a movie. And it's a bomb.
By Charles Kaiser 10/07/99

Fiction or nonfiction? Editors ponder which bestseller list Edmund Morris' Reagan biography should go on.
By Craig Offman 10/02/99

Reagan biographer bites back Edmund Morris answers his critics in an online chat.
By Craig Offman 09/30/99

Washington Post book critic defends Reagan biographer After an attack by the New York Times' Maureen Dowd, Jonathan Yardley comes to the rescue.
By Craig Offman 09/29/99

Let it be me Wherein the author travels back in time to encounter "Morris" as he brushes up against "Reagan" -- and the rest is "history."
By David Corn 09/28/99

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Print this story  Get a printer-friendly version

Email this story  E-mail a friend about this article

Backflip This Story  Backflip this article to find it again

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Search Salon


  
Advanced Search  |  Help

 

Salon | Search | Archives | Contact Us | Table Talk | Ad Info

Arts & Entertainment | Books | Comics | Life | News | People
Politics | Sex | Tech & Business | Audio
The Free Software Project | The Movie Page
Letters | Columnists | Salon Plus

Copyright © 2000 Salon.com All rights reserved.