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mahatmakanejeeves

(56,897 posts)
Thu Apr 29, 2021, 03:51 PM Apr 2021

Opinion: Dropping an author is one thing. Vanishing his book is another.

Opinion: Dropping an author is one thing. Vanishing his book is another.

Opinion by Matt Bai
Contributing columnist
April 29, 2021 at 9:00 a.m. EDT

From everything I’ve read, the greatest American architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, was an unseemly human being. He abandoned his small children, treated his wives shamefully, behaved generally like Genghis Khan with a drafting board. ... What are we to do with this knowledge? Do we evict whoever’s living in the hundreds of remaining homes Wright designed and bulldoze them?

How about his Guggenheim Museum in New York? Burn it to the ground and start again? ... That’s pretty much the decision the publisher W.W. Norton made this week when it decided to un-publish a book it had released to great fanfare only weeks ago.

Since then, the author of “Philip Roth: The Biography,” Blake Bailey, has been sullied by horrific and detailed allegations of having sexually assaulted multiple women and preyed on former students he met when he was a high school teacher.

Norton’s announcement that it would not only walk away from the author, but also that it would effectively erase the book he wrote, is an extraordinary development — the kind of thing that seems more like a Roth plot line than real life.

{snip}

Matt Bai Follow https://twitter.com/mattbai
Matt Bai, a Washington Post contributing columnist, is a journalist, author and screenwriter. He spent more than a decade at the New York Times, where he was the chief political writer for the Sunday magazine and a columnist for the newspaper, and five years as the national political columnist for Yahoo News.
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Opinion: Dropping an author is one thing. Vanishing his book is another. (Original Post) mahatmakanejeeves Apr 2021 OP
This is ridiculous. Matt Bai should ask someone to explain free speech to him. Scrivener7 Apr 2021 #1
Exactly wryter2000 Apr 2021 #4
Is this Matt Bai a great artist like Wright or Roth? lagomorph777 Apr 2021 #8
If they can do this contractually wryter2000 Apr 2021 #2
It is unclear to me, what is so hard about neither demonizing or venerating famous dead people... Thomas Hurt Apr 2021 #3
Maybe wryter2000 Apr 2021 #5
"Mr. Bailey will be free to seek publication elsewhere if he chooses." PoliticAverse Apr 2021 #6
Matt Bai is confused. Phoenix61 Apr 2021 #7

Scrivener7

(50,774 posts)
1. This is ridiculous. Matt Bai should ask someone to explain free speech to him.
Thu Apr 29, 2021, 03:56 PM
Apr 2021

What nonsense. They are taking the book out of print. The author is free to take it to another publisher, if he can find one who wants to look past his slimy ass crimes.

lagomorph777

(30,613 posts)
8. Is this Matt Bai a great artist like Wright or Roth?
Thu Apr 29, 2021, 04:38 PM
Apr 2021

He seems to be trying to salvage the book by associating himself with these guys.

Thomas Hurt

(13,903 posts)
3. It is unclear to me, what is so hard about neither demonizing or venerating famous dead people...
Thu Apr 29, 2021, 03:57 PM
Apr 2021

As far as that goes, live famous people should not venerated or demonized either.

Arrest, convict and imprison if necessary but demonizing accomplishes little.

PoliticAverse

(26,366 posts)
6. "Mr. Bailey will be free to seek publication elsewhere if he chooses."
Thu Apr 29, 2021, 04:05 PM
Apr 2021

From: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/publisher-pulls-philip-roth-bio-cuts-ties-with-author/2021/04/27/2d3a0246-a798-11eb-a8a7-5f45ddcdf364_story.html

NEW YORK — The publisher of a highly anticipated and widely discussed biography of Philip Roth is pulling the book and cutting ties with author Blake Bailey, who faces multiple allegations of sexual harassment and assault. W.W. Norton and Company previously released Bailey’s memoir “The Splendid Things We Planned.”

“Norton is permanently putting out of print our editions of ‘Philip Roth: The Biography’ and ‘The Splendid Things We Planned,’ Blake Bailey’s 2014 memoir,” the publisher announced Tuesday. “Mr. Bailey will be free to seek publication elsewhere if he chooses. In addition, Norton will make a donation in the amount of the book advance for ‘Philip Roth: The Biography’ to organizations that fight against sexual assault or harassment and work to protect survivors.”

Phoenix61

(16,954 posts)
7. Matt Bai is confused.
Thu Apr 29, 2021, 04:20 PM
Apr 2021

A publisher is free to publish or not anything they want. The author is free to take the book to another publisher of self-publish.

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