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When Newt Gingrich was about to have a book published when he was still a sitting Senator, the MSM and the Left-Wing lock-steppers had a conniption fit about this "conflict of interest" and his attempt at "profiteering" by way of his senate seat. He was hounded so much that he canceled the book deal and gave back the 300k in advance money. So, here we have Senator Teddy (The Swimmer) Kennedy's new book ... and an EIGHT MILLION DOLLAR advance payment ... and where's the outcry from the Left?
WASHINGTON - Senator Edward M. Kennedy has agreed to a multimillion dollar deal with Hachette Book Group USA to pen his memoirs, giving the veteran Massachusetts lawmaker a forum for his own perspective on a life and career that has been examined by others in countless books and articles, negotiators of the deal confirmed yesterday.
Neither Kennedy's office nor the publishing house would reveal the size of the package, but a publishing figure familiar with the deal said Kennedy's payment was one of the largest in history, eclipsing the $8 million given to New York Senator Hillary Clinton. Former President Clinton and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair each got a reported $10 million for their memoirs.
"I've been fortunate in my life to grow up in an extraordinary family and to have a front row seat at many key events in our nation's history," the 75-year-old Kennedy said in a statement. "I hope my reflections can contribute to a deeper understanding of many events in the history of this great country and to a more in-depth picture of an American family."
Bob Barnett, a Washington lawyer who represented Kennedy in the book auction, said he was "thrilled" with the deal for the book, which publishers expect will include details about Kennedy's personal life and his 45-year Senate career and the historic events he has witnessed.
"My sense is he's going to write his life as he lived it," Barnett said in an interview last night. "You will hear the [accounts] of these momentous events in the voice of the man who lived them."
The book is scheduled to be released in 2010, the 50th anniversary of the election of the senator's brother, President John F. Kennedy, and will cover the Kennedy administration, the assassinations of his brothers, the civil rights movement, and later events.
"It's going to be one of the most important memoirs of our time. He's been a seminal figure on the leading issues of post-World War II America," said Douglas Brinkley, a noted historian at Tulane University in Louisiana. "He's probably the most durable and interesting American politician that's had a sustained career, decade after decade, since Franklin Roosevelt."
Kennedy will work with a collaborator and a researcher, and will donate a "significant portion" of his profit to charity, according to people involved in the negotiations. The Democratic lawmaker - currently the second-longest-serving member of the Senate - has been cooperating in an oral history of his life underway at the Miller Center of the University of Virginia. The audio tapes from that project will give Kennedy a jump start on his memoir, said Stephanie Cutter, a spokeswoman for the senator.
Kennedy will donate his private and public papers to the John F. Kennedy Library and will use a portion of the book's proceeds to pay for the processing, preservation, and digitalization of those papers, Cutter said.
No one involved in the negotiation could say if Kennedy would address the events at Chappaquiddick, where Kennedy's car went over a bridge in 1969, killing his passenger and campaign worker, Mary Jo Kopechne.
The then-youthful senator pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident, and was given a two-month, suspended jail sentence.
But the episode forever tainted Kennedy's image, and political analysts believe it contributed heavily to the senator's failure to win the Democratic nomination for president in 1980.
Nine publishing houses competed for six days for the rights to the book, according to two sources close to the deal.
The winner was Twelve, a subdivision of Hachette Book Group USA.
The amount is considered large even for a famous figure as Kennedy.
But while the senator's life has undergone excruciating analysis by authorized and unauthorized biographers, Hachette is betting that readers will still pony up to read Kennedy's own account.
"The publishing industry often makes huge advances for celebrity [books] they aren't sure they can earn back," said Adam Clymer, author of a book on Kennedy. But "a book by him that is reasonably frank and interesting will sell," he added.
Anita Elberse, a business administration professor at Harvard Business School, said Kennedy's book would need a "new angle" to attract readers, who might already know a great deal about the senator and his family.
But as Nicholas Lattimer, a publicist at Random House, noted, "that's what they said about the Bill Clinton book."
Clinton's deal was reportedly tied to be the largest of its kind in publishing history, and "we did quite well with it," said Lattimer, whose company published "My Life," Clinton's memoir.
Wendy Strothman, a Boston literary agent, said that while some publishers accept losses on autobiographies by famous people because they want the prestige of the deal, a Kennedy book would likely sell well.
"I'll go out and buy it," Strothman said.
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company. </IMG>
WASHINGTON - Senator Edward M. Kennedy has agreed to a multimillion dollar deal with Hachette Book Group USA to pen his memoirs, giving the veteran Massachusetts lawmaker a forum for his own perspective on a life and career that has been examined by others in countless books and articles, negotiators of the deal confirmed yesterday.
Neither Kennedy's office nor the publishing house would reveal the size of the package, but a publishing figure familiar with the deal said Kennedy's payment was one of the largest in history, eclipsing the $8 million given to New York Senator Hillary Clinton. Former President Clinton and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair each got a reported $10 million for their memoirs.
"I've been fortunate in my life to grow up in an extraordinary family and to have a front row seat at many key events in our nation's history," the 75-year-old Kennedy said in a statement. "I hope my reflections can contribute to a deeper understanding of many events in the history of this great country and to a more in-depth picture of an American family."
Bob Barnett, a Washington lawyer who represented Kennedy in the book auction, said he was "thrilled" with the deal for the book, which publishers expect will include details about Kennedy's personal life and his 45-year Senate career and the historic events he has witnessed.
"My sense is he's going to write his life as he lived it," Barnett said in an interview last night. "You will hear the [accounts] of these momentous events in the voice of the man who lived them."
The book is scheduled to be released in 2010, the 50th anniversary of the election of the senator's brother, President John F. Kennedy, and will cover the Kennedy administration, the assassinations of his brothers, the civil rights movement, and later events.
"It's going to be one of the most important memoirs of our time. He's been a seminal figure on the leading issues of post-World War II America," said Douglas Brinkley, a noted historian at Tulane University in Louisiana. "He's probably the most durable and interesting American politician that's had a sustained career, decade after decade, since Franklin Roosevelt."
Kennedy will work with a collaborator and a researcher, and will donate a "significant portion" of his profit to charity, according to people involved in the negotiations. The Democratic lawmaker - currently the second-longest-serving member of the Senate - has been cooperating in an oral history of his life underway at the Miller Center of the University of Virginia. The audio tapes from that project will give Kennedy a jump start on his memoir, said Stephanie Cutter, a spokeswoman for the senator.
Kennedy will donate his private and public papers to the John F. Kennedy Library and will use a portion of the book's proceeds to pay for the processing, preservation, and digitalization of those papers, Cutter said.
No one involved in the negotiation could say if Kennedy would address the events at Chappaquiddick, where Kennedy's car went over a bridge in 1969, killing his passenger and campaign worker, Mary Jo Kopechne.
The then-youthful senator pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident, and was given a two-month, suspended jail sentence.
But the episode forever tainted Kennedy's image, and political analysts believe it contributed heavily to the senator's failure to win the Democratic nomination for president in 1980.
Nine publishing houses competed for six days for the rights to the book, according to two sources close to the deal.
The winner was Twelve, a subdivision of Hachette Book Group USA.
The amount is considered large even for a famous figure as Kennedy.
But while the senator's life has undergone excruciating analysis by authorized and unauthorized biographers, Hachette is betting that readers will still pony up to read Kennedy's own account.
"The publishing industry often makes huge advances for celebrity [books] they aren't sure they can earn back," said Adam Clymer, author of a book on Kennedy. But "a book by him that is reasonably frank and interesting will sell," he added.
Anita Elberse, a business administration professor at Harvard Business School, said Kennedy's book would need a "new angle" to attract readers, who might already know a great deal about the senator and his family.
But as Nicholas Lattimer, a publicist at Random House, noted, "that's what they said about the Bill Clinton book."
Clinton's deal was reportedly tied to be the largest of its kind in publishing history, and "we did quite well with it," said Lattimer, whose company published "My Life," Clinton's memoir.
Wendy Strothman, a Boston literary agent, said that while some publishers accept losses on autobiographies by famous people because they want the prestige of the deal, a Kennedy book would likely sell well.
"I'll go out and buy it," Strothman said.
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company. </IMG>
