Sarah Palin's lawyer threatens suit over McGinniss book

An attorney for Sarah Palin is threatening to sue over a new book that he says defamed the Palins. That book is the unauthorized Sarah Palin biography by Joe McGinniss, "The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin," which included stories of cocaine and infidelity.

The Associated Press reports: 

John Tiemessen, in a letter to the publisher of Crown Publishing Group Monday, cites an email that author Joe McGinniss allegedly sent a blogger in January seeking substantiation for several rumors that have surrounded Palin's family. That email was posted online last week by Andrew Breitbart.

Tiemessen says McGinniss' book, "The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin," contains "most of" the stories that merely "amounted to the wishful fantasies of disturbed individuals."

McGinniss, the author "The Selling of the President 1968," moved to a house in Wasilla, Alaska, while researching his Palin book. The house happened to be next door to Sarah Palin -- in response, the Palin family put up a fence between the properties.

Book critic David L. Ulin outlined the book's most controversial allegations in The Times' review of "The Rogue."

McGinniss claims that Palin snorted cocaine off an overturned 55-gallon drum during a snowmobile excursion, slept with college (and later NBA) basketball star Glen Rice when she was an unmarried 23-year-old sports reporter (McGinniss talked to Rice for the book and he confirmed the relationship) and had an affair with Brad Hanson, Todd Palin's business partner, apparently as payback for her husband's infidelities. (Both Palin and Hanson, he notes, have denied the affair.)

Such indiscretions have already seized the public conversation, but what's striking is how tame they are. McGinniss could be describing anyone of Palin's generation -- or anyone as unhappily married as he indicates the Palins are.

Ulin concludes, "I have no doubt that McGinniss' view of Palin is accurate: that she is narcissistic, undisciplined and unqualified for public life. Still, I want more than innuendo to make the point." 

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-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Sarah Palin at a rally in Anaheim in October 2010. Credit: Associated Press

New book claims Coco Chanel was a Nazi spy

Did Coco Chanel design Nazi uniforms and parachute behind enemy lines? A new biography doesn't go that far, but it does claim that the famed French fashion designer helped Nazi forces during World War II.

It is no secret that Chanel dated a German military intelligence officer, Baron Hans Gunther von Dincklage, during the war -- a fact that put her on the outs with some French dressbuyers.

Now American exaptriate Hal Vaughan, who lives in Paris, writes in "Sleeping with the Enemy: Coco Chanel's Secret War" that Chanel's involvement went further than her romantic association with Von Dincklage. He told the Associated Press:

"I was looking for something else and I come across this document saying 'Chanel is a Nazi agent, her number is blah, blah, blah and her pseudonym is Westminster,' " Vaughan told the Associated Press. "I look at this again and I say, 'What the hell is this?' I couldn't believe my eyes!

"Then I really started hunting through all of the archives, in the United States, in London, in Berlin and in Rome and I come across not one, but 20, 30, 40 absolutely solid archival materials on Chanel and her lover, Baron Hans Gunther von Dincklage, who was a professional Abwehr spy."

Chanel was born poor; with a combination of talent, luck and determination she became one of the most celebrated fashion designers in the world.

Her story has been well-documented in dozens of biographies, a few films and other forms by those interested in her vision and legacy. The House of Chanel pointed this out in a statement, saying, "more than 57 books have been written about Gabrielle Chanel .... We would encourage you to consult some of the more serious ones."

"Sleeping with the Enemy" was released this week by Knopf. The publisher describes the book:

In Vaughan’s absorbing, meticulously researched book, Dincklage is revealed to have been a Nazi master spy and German military intelligence agent who ran a spy ring in the Mediterranean and in Paris and reported directly to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, right hand to Hitler.

The book pieces together how Coco Chanel became a German intelligence operative; how and why she was enlisted in a number of spy missions; how she escaped arrest in France after the war, despite her activities being known to the Gaullist intelligence network; how she fled to Switzerland for a nine-year exile with her lover Dincklage. And how, despite the French court’s opening a case concerning Chanel’s espionage activities during the war, she was able to return to Paris at age seventy and triumphantly resurrect and reinvent herself  — and rebuild what has become the iconic House of Chanel.

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-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: French fashion designer Coco Chanel in 1958. Credit: AFP / Getty Images

Steve Jobs biography may be available in time for the iPad 3

Let's start by assuming the iPad 3 will be ready to be wrapped up in foil and ribbon and put under the tree at Christmastime. If that's the case, its perfect companion will be the first official biography of Apple founder Steve Jobs.

"Steve Jobs: A Biography" by Walter Isaacson was originally slated to be published in March of 2012, but it now appears it will arrive much earlier: Nov. 21, 2011.

It wouldn't be the first major change for the biography, which was originally slated to be titled the whimsical "iSteve" and later changed to the more straightforward title it has today.

The publication date appears to be moved up -- mostly. Both Barnes & Noble and Apple's ibookstore list "Steve Jobs: A Biography" as going on sale Nov. 21. Yet as of this writing, Amazon.com still lists the book's publication date as March 6, 2012.

Will the iPad 3 arrive in time for Christmas and Hannukah? That's even harder to say. MacRumors is one of the Apple watching sites that says an iPad 3 in 2011 is possible.

Simon & Schuster is publishing the first authorized biography of Steve Jobs. Isaacson had cooperation from Jobs and his friends and family; he's been known to have been working on the book since 2009, the Associated Press reported earlier this year.

Isaacson, head of the Aspen Institute and a former executive at Time and CNN has previously written biographies of Albert Einstein ("Einstein: His Life and Universe," 2007), Benjamin Franklin ("Benjamin Franklin: An American Life," 2003) and Henry Kissinger ("Kissinger: A Biography," 1992).

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-- Carolyn Kellogg

Image: the current cover of "Steve Jobs: A Biography" 

Credit: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group / Barnes & Noble

 

'iSteve' no more: Steve Jobs biography will now be titled 'Steve Jobs: A Biography'

iSteve: It was too silly a name to be true. The biography of Apple CEO and founder Steve Jobs, which was initially titled "iSteve," has been renamed "Steve Jobs: A Biography." Which says what it means, but isn't nearly as much fun.

The book will be published by Simon & Schuster in March 2012. Yet there is already so much demand that it hit Amazon's bestseller list in June.

Well, "iSteve" did, anyway, peaking at No. 9 and hovering a few places below. Will the book lose momentum without the cute i-Title that worked for Apple's iPhone and, against all odds, for the iPad?

Probably not. Jobs, 56, has been cooperating with biographer Walter Isaacson on the book. Isaacson has written biographies of genius scientist Albert Einstein ("Einstein: His Life and Universe"), founding father Ben Franklin ("Benjamin Franklin: An American Life") and powerful diplomat Henry Kissinger ("Kissinger: A Biography"). When not writing Jobs' bio, Isaacson, a former executive at Time and CNN, leads the Aspen Institute.

Jobs, who has battled pancreatic cancer and is on leave from Apple, made a surprise appearance in March 2011 during the announcement of the iPad 2.

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-- Carolyn Kellogg
Twitter.com/paperhaus

Image: Screenshot from Amazon.com's page for "Steve Jobs: A Biography."

Steve Jobs bio 'iSteve' -- coming in 2012 -- is already an Amazon bestseller

Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs, who appeared at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco on Monday to present the company's new iCloud service, was somewhere else today too: on Amazon's bestseller list.

It's going to be a case of delayed gratification, however, as the authorized biography "iSteve" won't be published until March 2012.

Our Technology Blog reports that "iSteve: The Book of Jobs" was an Amazon bestseller Monday, moving between a top spot of No.9 to a lower threshhold of No. 13. As of this writing, it's at No. 12.

That's the hardcover edition. While doing quite respectable sales for a book that's nine months away from release, "iSteve" for the Kindle isn't as popular as its print edition. It's at No. 161 on the paid Kindle bestseller list.

Jobs, 56, is cooperating with his biographer, Walter Isaacson, head of the Aspen Institute and a former executive at Time and CNN. The book will be published by Simon & Schuster on March 6, 2012.

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-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Steve Jobs at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco on Monday. Credit: Marcio Jose Sanchez / Associated Press

Jennifer Egan wins L.A. Times book prize in fiction

This post has been corrected. See note at the bottom for details.

Jennifer Egan's "A Visit from the Goon Squad," won the L.A. Times 2010 book prize for fiction, it was announced in a ceremony in Los Angeles on Friday night. The top nonfiction prize went to Micahel Lewis for his book "The Big Short."

Read more about the prizes here.

The Los Angeles Times 2010 Book Prize winners:

•Fiction: Jennifer Egan, "A Visit From the Goon Squad" (Knopf)

•Nonfiction: Michael Lewis, "The Big Short" (W.W. Norton)

•Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction: Peter Bognanni, "The House of Tomorrow" (Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam)

•Biography: Laura Hillenbrand, "Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience & Redemption" (Random House)

•Graphic Novel: Adam Hines, "Duncan the Wonder Dog: Show One" (AdHouse Books)

•History: Thomas Powers, "The Killing of Crazy Horse" (Knopf)

•Mystery-Thriller: Tom Franklin, "Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter" (William Morrow)

•Poetry: Maxine Kumin, "Where I Live: New & Selected Poems 1990-2010" (W. W. Norton & Company)

•Science & Technology: Oren Harman, "The Price of Altruism: George Price and the Search for the Origins of Kindness" (W. W. Norton & Company)

•Young Adult Literature: Megan Whalen Turner, "A Conspiracy of Kings" (Greenwillow/HarperCollins)

For the record, 12:38 a.m. April 30: In an earlier version of this post, the title of the winner of the fiction prize was incorrectly given as "Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience & Redemption" in the list of winners.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Jennifer Egan. Credit: Jennifer S. Altman / For The Times

Harper Lee -- who turns 85 today -- denies cooperating with upcoming book

People are inevitably curious about Harper Lee. The author of the much-loved novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" has kept to herself since the book's publication in 1960, eventually moving back to Alabama, and never publishing another book.

On Tuesday, Penguin announced that it would publish a memoir of lives intertwined with the reclusive writer, "The Mockingbird Next Door: Life With Harper Lee," by Marja Mills, a former Chicago Tribune reporter, written "with direct access to Harper and Alice Lee [her sister] and their friends and family."

On Wednesday, the N.Y. Times reports, Harper Lee issued a statement saying that she had not cooperated with the book. "Contrary to recent news reports, I have not willingly participated in any book written or to be written by Marja Mills. Neither have I authorized such a book. Any claims otherwise are false."

The statement was issued by the law firm Barnett, Bugg, Lee & Carter -- the "Lee" is Harper's sister Alice -- and signed by Harper Lee.

Mills' literary agent, Miriam Altshuler, told the paper that her client "has the written support of Alice Lee and a lifelong family friend, and prior to Harper Lee's stroke in 2007, she had the verbal support of Harper Lee."

Even if the book does not proceed as originally billed, but curiosity about the woman who wrote "To Kill a Mockingbird" will remain high. It has been decades since she gave an actual interview -- although she did speak politely (about ducks) to a British reporter who tracked her down in 2010.

As few details of her life are known, one thing is certain: Today, April 28, is Harper Lee's 85th birthday.

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-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Harper Lee at a 2007 ceremony in Alabama. Credit: Associated Press Photos

Coming to the Festival of Books: Yunte Huang

Yunte Huang's book "Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous With American History" unpacks the many complicated layers of Charlie Chan with humor and affection. The book, our reviewer wrote, "is a scintillating, provocative work of discovery, a voyage into racial stereotyping and the humanizing force of storytelling. It is also a deeply personal book in which Huang draws on his own upbringing in China and the questions of race and identity that he continues to consider today." It was a finalist for the 2011 National Book Critics Circle Award in biography.

Huang, who is on the faulty at UC Santa Barbara, will be at the L.A. Times Festival of Books on Sunday at the 11 a.m. panel "Larger Than Life: Behind the Icon." He answered our questions via email.

Jacket Copy: Your book looks at the original detective upon which the Charlie Chan detective was based, as well as the books and movies in which the character appeared. Was there any one thing that you discovered that surprised you the most?

Yunte Huang: The most surprising thing for me was how long a cultural icon can live on in people's memory even after having disappeared from the limelight for many years for various reasons.

JC: There are many layers of identity in your book -- although Chinese, Charlie Chan, was played on film by Swedish actor Warner Oland; author E. D. Biggers created Charlie Chan and took his exploits from Chang Apana before ever meeting him; and Apana, when the character became famous, often took on the Charlie Chan persona. It seems a little bit like assimilation, but more complex. What would you call it? Do you think it still goes on?
 
YH: I would call it imitation, an artistic form that can be creative or lame, empowering or demeaning, inspiring or racist. Racial ventriloquism was historically a driving force of American creativity. It is still ubiquitous in comedic genres.
 
JC: Do you have a favorite Charlie Chan book or movie?
 
YH: The first Charlie Chan novel "The House Without a Key" is really a great novel. "The Black Camel" (1931) is my favorite Chan film, partly because it was made on the beaches of Hawaii and partly because of all the forty-seven or so Chan film, it is closest to the original novel.
 
JC: Have you found yourself using Charlie Chan aphorisms?
 
YH: Yes, but you'd have to take my answer with a grain of MSG.

JC: Are you looking forward to anything in particular at the Festival of Books this year?
 
YH: As someone who has spent a lot of time writing book reviews, I look forward to meeting some book review editors in person.
 
JC: Is there anything you plan to do in Los Angeles while you're here, apart from the Festival of Books?
 
YH: Santa Barbara is my home, but I just spent a year living in the snowy woods in Ithaca, NY. So, coming to LA directly from Ithaca is really my sweet homecoming. Being at home is what I plan to do.

Tickets to the L.A. Times Festival of Books are available now from Eventbrite.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Left, Warner Oland as Charlie Chan. Credit: Reuters. Right: Author Yuente Huang. Credit: Miriam Berkley

Jennifer Egan, Siddhartha Mukherjee and Kay Ryan win writing Pulitzer Prizes

Jennifer Egan's "A Visit from the Goon Squad" has won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, it was announced Monday. "A Visit From the Goon Squad" was cited by the Pulitzer committee cited for being "an inventive investigation of growing up and growing old in the digital age, displaying a big-hearted curiosity about cultural change at warp speed." The book, Egan's fifth, is the recipient of the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction and is a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

Siddhartha Mukherjee, an oncologist, won the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction for his stunning first book, "The Emperor of All Maladies: A History of Cancer." Mukherjee book, the committee wrote, is "an elegant inquiry, at once clinical and personal, into the long history of an insidious disease that, despite treatment breakthroughs, still bedevils medical science."

Former U.S. poet laureate Kay Ryan won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry for her collection "The Best of It: New and Selected Poems." Ryan's poetry collection was cited for being "witty, rebellious and yet tender, a treasure trove of an iconoclastic and joyful mind."

Ron Chernow won the Pulitzer Prize in biography for "Washington: A Life," cited as "a sweeping, authoritative portrait of an iconic leader learning to master his private feelings in order to fulfill his public duties."

The Pulitzer Prize for history was won by Eric Foner for his book "The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery," described as "a well-orchestrated examination of Lincoln's changing views of slavery, bringing unforeseeable twists and a fresh sense of improbability to a familiar story."

The finalists in each category are listed after the jump.

That was fast: Two Elizabeth Taylor books get updates

On Monday, those who want to know more about "the obsessions, passions and courage" of Elizabeth Taylor can walk into a bookstore and purchase the newly revised, $7.99, 558-page paperback bio by Ellis Amburn, "The Most Beautiful Woman in the World."

Amburn's publisher worked fast to revise the book, getting the revised edition to shelves less than a month after Taylor's death. But chances are the author had revisions to his book, originally published in 2000, in the works for quite some time. As he writes in the new version, "In 2006, following illnesses and hospitalizations, Dame Elizabeth went on to the 'Larry King Show,' her first public appearance in three years, to squelch rumors she was dying." He continues, with prose nearly as purple as Liz Taylor's eyes, "Facing her biggest press crisis since le scandal in Rome, she decided it was time for some kick-ass damage control."

But even before that book hits shelves, Kitty Kelley's updated version of her 1981 book "Elizabeth Taylor: The Last Star" is popping up in your favorite ebook store. On Friday, Simon & Schuster announced the availability of the $9.99 ebook, which includes a new afterword by the author. When the book came out, Kelley talked to a Los Angeles audience about the fascination with Taylor: "She's like a traffic accident. Everyone wants to see. She's a walking soap opera." Our review of the book at the time called it "meticulously researched and properly lurid."

Does everyone still want that sense of luridness, of watching the traffic accident? If the schadenfreude of "Elizabeth Taylor: The Last Star" is a little too much, there's the appreciative "The Most Beautiful Woman in the World" instead.

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-- Carolyn Kellogg