Publisher cancels re-issue of racy novel by Lynne Cheney [View All]

[JoFerret]

http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2004-04-03-cheney-book_x.htm

<<New American Library, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA), was going to reprint Sisters, a historical romance published in 1981 that includes brothels, attempted rapes and a lesbian love affair.

"We felt interest was growing because it was an election year and we decided it could be a timely book," Liz Perl, executive director of publicity at New American Library, told The Associated Press on Friday.

But according to Cheney's attorney, Robert Barnett, she did not even know about the reissue until receiving calls last week from the media. Barnett then contacted the publisher, which agreed this week to pull the novel.
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Perl and Barnett said no legal action was threatened. Although New American Library had the rights to reissue the novel, Perl said, there was no desire "to put out a book that the author was not happy with."

Liberals have often mocked Sisters, noting that Cheney is a longtime conservative and that President Bush supports a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

Her novel was the subject of a recent satirical performance at the New York Theatre Workshop, with actors reading such passages as, "Let us go away together, away from the anger and imperatives of men. There will be only the two of us, and we shall linger through long afternoons of sweet retirement. In the evenings I shall read to you while you work your cross-stitch in the firelight. And then we shall go to bed, our bed, my dearest girl." >>
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