Alice Walker says no to Israeli edition of 'The Color Purple'

Citing "apartheid" in Israel and the occupied territories, author Alice Walker declined an offer to publish a new Israeli edition of her prize-winning novel "The Color Purple."

In recent years Walker has become an increasingly vocal advocate for Palestinian issues. Her reply to publisher Yediot Books, which had wanted rights to print a Hebrew edition of "The Color Purple," is posted on the website of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel.

Thank you so much for wishing to publish my novel THE COLOR PURPLE.  It isn’t possible for me to permit this at this time for the following reason:  As you may know, last Fall in South Africa the Russell Tribunal on Palestine met and determined that Israel is guilty of apartheid and persecution of the Palestinian people, both inside Israel and also in the Occupied Territories.  The testimony we heard, both from Israelis and Palestinians (I was a jurist) was devastating.  I grew up under American apartheid and this was far worse.  Indeed, many South Africans who attended, including Desmond Tutu, felt the Israeli version of these crimes is worse even than  what they suffered under the white supremacist regimes that dominated South Africa for so long.

It is my hope that the non-violent BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement, of which I am part, will have enough of an impact on Israeli civilian society to change the situation.

Licensing books internationally rarely makes news. American authors whose works are published overseas get additional payments from international publishers; it can be a nice way for books that sell well to make an additional profit. A book like "The Color Purple," which won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, and went on to be the subject of a film, would be a good candidate for international sales.

Walker mentions the film in her letter to the Israeli publisher. The movie, directed by Steven Spielberg, came out in 1985. During consideration of whether it should be released in South Africa, Walker and Spielberg agreed to honor a cultural boycott and not allow it to show in that country while it was under apartheid. After the apartheid system was dismantled in the mid-1990s, the film finally did show there. "[T]o this day, when I am in South Africa, I can hold my head high and nothing obstructs the love that flows between me and the people of that country," Walker writes.

Walker's decision to withhold "The Color Purple" from publication has stirred controversy. An email to Anti-Defamation League supporters went out Wednesday afternoon with the subject line "Alice Walker's Decision Not to Publish 'The Color Purple' in Hebrew Exposes Her Own Bias & Bigotry."  In it, the ADL writes, "It is sad that people who inspire to fight bigotry and prejudice continue to have a biased and bigoted side. For some time Walker has been blinded by her anti-Israel animus."

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz notes that Walker's book was published before in Israel; a Hebrew edition appeared in the country in the 1980s. According to publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Walker's books have been translated into more than two dozen languages.

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Photo: Alice Walker at a 1996 book signing at Eso Won Books in Los Angeles. Credit: Los Angeles Times

Amazon categorizes Rodney King's memoir as 'criminal biography'

After Rodney King's unexpected death this weekend at the age of 47, his recent book began climbing the charts. In April, HarperOne published King's memoir, "The Riot Within: My Journey from Rebellion to Redemption."

King, who was found dead in his swimming pool Sunday morning, was a central figure in one of the most troubled periods in L.A.'s recent history. In 1991, he was pulled over for speeding and police officers were videotaped beating King. The widely-viewed video caused an uproar; when four Los Angeles police officers were tried and found not guilty in April 1992, the anger over the verdict erupted into six days of violence. On Day 3 of the riots, King appeared at a news conference calling for calm, asking: "Can we all get along?"

Being in the spotlight and becoming a lightning rod for civil rights issues was not an easy role for King, who struggled with substance abuse. In the years after the riots, he had a number of run-ins with the law, which included crashing his car in 2003 while driving under the influence. He appeared on the television series "Celebrity Rehab," and wrote about his addiction and recovery in his book "The Riot Within."

Sunday morning, before the news of his death had spread, the book was not a huge seller. On Amazon, it ranked  No. 246,505. By 2:45 p.m. that day, it had leapt up past more than 200,000 other books, to No. 1669.

That didn't make it a bestseller. Amazon's bestseller list includes just 100 books, an echelon that King's memoir did not reach. However, Amazon has many subcategories, each of which feed into the overall list. A book that doesn't make it into the top 100 may appear in one or more subcategories.

Once "The Riot Within" ranked  No. 1669, it had surfaced in three subcategories, or you might call them sub-sub-subcategories. It was No. 6 in "Books > Biography and Memoir > Regional US > West"; No. 17 in "Books > Biography and Memoir > Ethnic & National > African-American & Black"; and No. 7 in "Books > Biography and Memoir > Specific Groups > Criminals."

Certainly, King was of the West, and he was African American. But does "The Riot Within" constitute a  "criminal biography"?

The other bestselling books on Amazon's top "Criminal biographies" list are two books about serial killers, two mob memoirs, and the memoir of "the world's most-wanted hacker." Does King's book about his addiction and recovery belong there?

Whether it did or not, it continued to climb. It reached No. 5 in the category at 4 p.m., where it stayed until Monday morning, when it bumped up to No. 4. That was when the book peaked, reaching No. 388 overall on Amazon -- after starting at No. 246,505 about 24 hours before. As of Monday afternoon, it was bobbing down below No. 500.

It's true, King committed criminal offenses, but his book was about addiction and redemption. There are other books that cover similar arcs that appear in the dozens of sub-sub-sub-categories that are not categorized as "criminal." Gregg Allman was arrested on federal drug charges and went to rehab 11 times; his memoir "My Cross to Bear" is No. 13 in "Books > Biography and Memoir > Memoir." Laura Hillenbrand's biography "Unbroken," about Louis Zamperini, the Olympic runner and war hero, recounts his years as a teenage delinquent; it's No. 1 in "Books > History > Military > World War II." Luis Rodriguez's "Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A." is also in "Biography and Memoir > Regional US > West" and appears in "Politics & Social Sciences > Crime & Criminals > Gangs," but it is not ranked as a "criminal biography."

Why Rodney King's memoir "The Riot Within" is classified as "criminal biography" is mysterious. And Amazon did not respond to our requests for comment.

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Photo: In March 2012, Rodney King looks at a photograph of his news conference on Day 3 of the 1992 L.A. riots. Credit: Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times

Rodney King dead at 47: 'I was one of the lucky ones'

Rodney King, the victim of a police beating who wound up at the center of major political upheavals in Los Angeles, was found dead early Sunday. King was found by his girlfriend at the bottom of his pool at his home in Rialto. He was 47.

Our blog L.A. Now recounts how King entered the public spotlight:

King was drunk and unarmed when he was pulled over in 1991 for speeding by Los Angeles Police Department officers, who responded to his erratic behavior by kicking him and striking him dozens of times with their batons.

The incident was captured on video by a civilian bystander, and the recording became an instant international sensation.

Four of the officers were tried for excessive force. Their acquittal on April 29, 1992, touched off one of the worst urban riots in U.S. history.

Although King received a substantial financial settlement, he was plagued by personal challenges. He recounted his experiences in the recent memoir "The Riot Within: My Journey from Rebellion to Redemption." The book was published by HarperOne this April, on the 20th anniversary of the L.A. riots.

King appeared at the L.A. Times Festival of Books to talk about his book.

King, for his part, arrived out of breath, and spoke of forgiveness for the officers involved in his videotaped beating after a high-speed chase. With his history of substance abuse, he said, he has been in need of some forgiveness. "I am a forgiving man," he said. "That's how I was raised, to be in a forgiving state of mind. I have been forgiven many times. I am only human. Who am I not to forgive someone?"

King said he was uncomfortable with his role as a political symbol, while noting that those who fought racism in the early 20th century faced even more difficult challenges. "I'm so glad I wasn't born in the 1930s or the 1940s," he said. "My heart goes out to those who have died for what's right....I was one of the lucky ones," which drew a large laugh from the audience. He added, "The camera was a blessing."

Authorities said there were no immediate signs of foul play.

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Photo: Rodney King addresses the media May 1, 1992, asking for an end to the violence of the L.A. riots. Credit: Larry Davis / Los Angeles Times

Raghad Saddam Hussein shopping her father's book manuscript

Raghad Saddam Hussein, the eldest daughter of Iraq's Saddam Hussein, is said to be looking for an international publisher for a manuscript written by her father. The handwritten manuscript is a memoir, according to Al Arabiya news.

Raghad's lawyer told the network, "These are the only real memoirs Saddam Hussein wrote by hand and they will be released as soon as we find a publishing house."

Saddam Hussein served as president of Iraq from 1979 to 2003, when his government collapsed after the invasion by the United States. Hussein's tenure, which outsiders have called a dictatorship, was characterized by extreme brutality and even genocide. He was tried and executed in 2006.

Saddam Hussein had five children with his first wife, Sajidah Talfah, who is seated next to him, above. There were two sons, Uday and Qusay (above, standing, center and second from right), and three daughters: Raghad (standing, in blue), Rana (left), and Hala (in front of Raghdad). Uday, Qusay and Qusay's 14-year-old son were killed by American forces in 2003.

Raghad Saddam Hussein has been living in Jordan since 2003, where she, her sister Rana, and nine children were given sanctuary after her father's government collapsed. (Hala and her mother are thought to be in exile elsewhere). Upon Raghad's arrival in Jordan, she blamed aides for her father's downfall, telling Al Arabiya news, "He was betrayed by the closest and most trusted.... They betrayed not just Saddam, but Iraq. History will condemn them."

Al Arabiya news reports that in 2009, a 480-page Arabic language book, "Saddam Hussein from the American Cell: What Really Happened," published by a lawyer on Saddam Hussein's defense team, was based on interviews with Hussein while he was being tried and awaiting punishment. It includes letters and poems by the former Iraqi leader. Raghad had opposed the book and some of its claims.

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Photo: Saddam Hussein with his first wife and family in an undated photo. Raghad is standing, in blue. Credit: AFP/Getty Images

'Ethical historian' William Lee Miller has died

William Lee Miller died in Manhattan on Tuesday at age 86. Although he had been ill, longtime publisher Knopf announced, he had continued writing. His latest book, "Two Americans: Truman, Eisenhower, and a Dangerous World," was published just last month.

Miller, who was born in 1926, graduated from Yale in 1950; he stayed on to earn a PhD there in Reglious Social Ethics. He taught at Smith, Indiana University and Yale before settling down at the University of Virginia.

He began publishing in the 1960s. He sometimes wrote books grounded in the present -- "Yankee From Georgia: The Emergence of Jimmy Carter" was published in 1978, just two years after Carter's election to the presidency. Yet he became known for histories, particularly those that grappled with ethics and religion.

His 1986 book "The First Liberty: Religion and the American Republic" was a finalist for the L.A. Times book prize. It was his first book with Knopf; he stayed with the publisher for another 26 years.

Miller's later books included "Arguing About Slavery: The Great Debate in the United States Congress,"  "Two Americans: Truman, Eisenhower, and a Dangerous World," and "Lincoln's Virtues: An Ethical Biography."

About Lincoln, Miller wrote, "Lincoln was human, he was not born on Mount Rushmore ... he acquired such moral distinction as he did by deliberate effort over time, and [his] moral excellence never was or would be anything like perfection."

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Salon's charges of CIA ties to the Paris Review? Read skeptically

In 1953, three American writers living in Paris — George Plimpton, Peter Matthiessen, and Howard L. Humes — founded a literary magazine, the Paris Review. Matthiessen, who won the 2008 National Book Award for fiction, has admitted that he worked for the CIA at the time — that's not news.

The Salon news is principally about the Paris Review and the Congress for Cultural Freedom. A cultural outpost during the Cold War, the Congress for Cultural Freedom was designed to win the hearts and minds of international players who might be tempted by the lure of communism. Among other things, it created and supported magazines in Europe and the former Axis powers of Germany and Japan. It was secretly funded by the CIA, a fact that came to light later, in a 1967 article in the New York Times.

Researching in the Paris Review archive at the Morgan Library in Manhattan, what Joel Whitney has found are ties between the Paris Review and the Congress for Cultural Freedom. Plimpton sought support for special projects from the organization, and the magazine syndicated its interviews with famous American authors, such as Ernest Hemingway, to the magazines the Congress for Cultural Freedom supported in other countries.

While the piece is interesting for the window it provides into the cultural aspects of the Cold War, that window seems to be installed askance. For example, Whitney writes:

As several of the Morgan letters, never reported on before, indicate, the CIA would augment the meager literary quarterly pay — and the ways to work together had already become multiply evident. The Review was to coordinate the hiring through “friends of the Congress.” The Paris Review’s candidates were Frederick Seidel, the New York poet, and Roger Klein.

The passage is not technically untrue — the CIA was a funder of the Congress for Cultural Freedom, and the letters were describing an arrangement in which a new Paris Review editor would also hold a Congress for Cultural Freedom job in order to make ends meet. But since the relationship between the CIA and the Congress for Cultural Freedom wasn't known at the time, it might not be an entirely fair leap. The letters weren't about the CIA augmenting pay, they were about the Congress for Cultural Freedom providing a day job.

If this CIA connection is a stretch, this one is evidently clear: Whitney has found consistent and real evidence of a literary magazine struggling to support itself financially.

By the time he drops in a mention of George W. Bush's war in Iraq, the threads of the article have become unsupportably tenuous. (The connection is Daniel Bell, a man who was suggested, but apparently did not serve, as an interviewer of the above-mentioned Klein and Seidel; a few years later, Bell went on to co-found the conservative magazine the Public Interest).

While Whitney allows that the Paris Review writers may have been unaware of the connections between their magazine and the CIA, he writes, "a secret patronage system, paid for by the taxpayer with no public debate, appears to have existed." Before getting huffy about American tax dollars going to pay for distributing interviews with Nobel Prize-winning authors around the world with "no public debate," take a moment to consider the Pentagon's classified, undebated black budget, reported in 2008 to be $32 billion. Is cultural funding really so terrible?

It might be, if the magazine's independence of thought was threatened. Whitney implies that this is the case, noting that while the Paris Review sought the Congress for Cultural Freedom's support, other magazines, such as the Evergreen Review, aired criticisms of American policies. This is a concluding note, not particularly detailed — if it were, there might have been space to mention that the Evergreen Review published its interview with Che Guevara in 1968, a year after the connection between the Congress for Cultural Freedom and the CIA had been revealed in the N.Y. Times report, altering its role and its name. It's not clear when, exactly, the Paris Review stopped receiving funding from the Congress for Cultural Freedom.

The basics that Whitney lays out from his research are fascinating, but his conclusions — including asides like this that mention the CIA's most insidious activities, such as assassinations — overreach. Read, but read skeptically.

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Photo: George Plimpton (and friend) in 1977. Credit: Nancy Crampton

Get ready for the election with 'Presidential Campaign Posters'

Before the era of the 24-hour news cycle and weekly televised debates, the predominant and most creative outlet for presidential candidates to communicate their vision was the campaign poster.

With "Presidential Campaign Posters" (Quirk Books, $40), the Library of Congress takes a look back at two centuries of memorable election art.

The book begins with the 1828 Andrew Jackson-John Quincy Adams race, spanning through 2008's Barack Obama-John McCain battle -- including Shepard Fairey's memorable Obama "Hope" poster -- and covering every campaign in between.

"We began in 1828 because it was the first election you didn't have to own property to vote," said W. Ralph Eubanks, publishing director at the Library of Congress. "We felt that was the beginning of modern presidential campaigns."

While the names and faces may have changed and artistic styles evolved, the nature of American politicking, issues and mudslinging have remained constant throughout our country's history. Often the attacks were personal and vicious. Jackson's opponents painted him as a murdering military general in a poster filled with caskets and accounts of his bloody deeds, while Adams represented establishment and ties to the founding fathers.

"The most common slogan has been a variation of 'Bring America Back' or 'Push It Forward,' " Eubanks said. He noted that a recurring theme is the candidate as the common man: James Garfield as a farmer, Ulysses S. Grant as a tanner, and Robert Kennedy's Alfred E. Neuman look-alike psychedelic poster from 1968.

"It's so visually appealing with strong graphics. It makes you like the candidate and feel some connection," Eubanks said in describing what makes a successful poster.

GALLERY: Presidential campaign posters

Political cartoons and parody posters can be a way to connect to popular culture. Among the top candidates in that genre: Ronald Reagan reimagined as a Rambo clone named "Ronbo," Gerald Ford dressed up as Fonzie with the tag line "Fordzie: Happy Days are Here Again" and Jimmy Carter as Jesus Christ ("J.C. Can Save America").

In addition to the 100 pullout posters, there are related materials that give readers what Eubanks calls "a sense of the temper of the times." For Barry Goldwater's 1964 presidential run, a copy of his gold button and a "Grand Wizards for Goldwater" photo are featured along with the poster.

Mixed in with the comedic lampooning is an homage to masterpieces such as Delacroix's 1830 painting "Liberty Leading the People," reimagined for the 1984 campaign of Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro. Posters designed by noted artists include Ben Shahn's 1968 Eugene McCarthy peace poster and James Montgomery Flagg's Uncle Sam in "I Want You F.D.R" in 1944.

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Photo: Abraham Lincoln's full first name wouldn't fit on a flag-themed poster for his 1860 campaign with running mate Hannibal Hamlin, among the treasures in "Presidential Campaign Posters." Credit: Quirk Books / Library of Congress

 

Thousands follow Russian writers in protest walk

Thousands took to the streets of Moscow on Sunday to follow a handful of writers taking a "stroll" as a literal protest against efforts to thwart public gatherings. The poet Dmitry Bykov, detective novelist Boris Akunin, children's book writer Eduard Uspensky, bestselling author Lyudmila Ulitskaya and eight others had come up with the idea just four days before.

The N.Y. Times reports:

No one knew quite what to expect on Sunday. But when the 12 writers left Pushkin Square at lunchtime, they were trailed by a crowd that swelled to an estimated 10,000 people, stopping traffic and filling boulevards for 1.2 miles. Many wore the white ribbons that are a symbol of opposition to Mr. Putin’s government. The police did not interfere, although the organizers had not received a permit to march.

“We see by the number of people that literature still has authority in our society because no one called these people — they came themselves,” said Lev Rubinstein, 65, a poet and one of the organizers. “We thought this would be a modest stroll of several literary colleagues, and this is what happened. You can see it yourself.”

“I don’t know how this will all end, but I can say that no one will forget it,” he said.

Recent protests in opposition to President Vladimir V. Putin, who was inaugurated again Monday, have been subject to increasing crackdowns from authorities. Hundreds have been arrested, some for doing nothing more than wearing a white ribbon, a signal of opposition to Putin's government.

The authors said they wanted to walk across Moscow “without being blocked, beaten, poisoned with gas, detained, arrested or at least subjected to stupid molestation with questions.” A pending measure in Parliament would impose fines of about $50,000 and 740 hours of compulsory labor on public protesters.

Sunday's walk began at a statue of writer Aleksandr Pushkin and ended across town at a statue of playwright Aleksandr Griboyedov. According to organizers, 10,000 joined in the stroll; police set the number of participants at 2,000.

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Photo: Supporters of the writers' walk in Moscow. Credit: Sergey Ponomarev / Associated Press

Skylight Books joins Occupy actions for May Day

Skylight Books, the Los Feliz bookstore, is recognizing May Day as a rallying place -- and also by going on strike (but in a nice, everyone-is-in-on-it way).

Long known as International Workers Day, May 1 has become a day for rallies nationwide in support of the Occupy movement, which has been lying low since protests last year. One is taking place in downtown Los Angeles.

The bookstore will be closed from 2 to 5 p.m. in support of the Occupy movement.

On its website, the bookstore writes:

Gather! Strike! Sing!...

Skylight is your labor hall for the day. Need a place to rest? Bring a lunch and a friend and stop by to check out our displays on labor history. We’ll also have a full roster of events that are happening throughout the city, so come find out how you can participate.

The store reopens at 5 p.m. At 7:30 p.m., singer Ross Altman -- he's a "labor troubador" -- will teach those assembled  songs from decades of labor movements, going back to the strikes of 1912.

Generally, bookstores maintain a neutral political stance, but Skylight is loudly declaring a strong, leftist ideology. But it is still a bookseller: If you want Newt Gingrich's latest book, they'll be sure to get it for you.

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Photo: A full house at Skylight Books for Slake in 2010; Mark Z. Danielewski reads. Credit: Carolyn Kellogg / Los Angeles Times

Stephen King wants to tax the rich -- including himself

Stephen King, who with his wife donates about $4 million per year to worthy causes, has said he should give more — that he should be mandated to, by the tax code. He thinks the wealthy should pay more in  income tax.

At the Daily Beast, King shows why charitable intentions don't do the same thing as the federal government (using spicy language):

What charitable 1 percenters can’t do is assume responsibility — America’s national responsibilities: the care of its sick and its poor, the education of its young, the repair of its failing infrastructure, the repayment of its staggering war debts. Charity from the rich can’t fix global warming or lower the price of gasoline by one single red penny....

Most rich folks paying 28 percent taxes do not give out another 28 percent of their income to charity. Most rich folks like to keep their dough. They don’t strip their bank accounts and investment portfolios. They keep them and then pass them on to their children, their children’s children. And what they do give away is — like the monies my wife and I donate — totally at their own discretion. That’s the rich-guy philosophy in a nutshell: don’t tell us how to use our money; we’ll tell you.

The Koch brothers are right-wing creepazoids, but they’re giving right-wing creepazoids. Here’s an example: 68 million fine American dollars to Deerfield Academy. Which is great for Deerfield Academy. But it won’t do squat for cleaning up the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, where food fish are now showing up with black lesions. It won’t pay for stronger regulations to keep BP (or some other bunch of ... oil drillers) from doing it again. It won’t repair the levees surrounding New Orleans. It won’t improve education in Mississippi or Alabama.

King, a prolific writer whose imaginings have often attracted the attention of Hollywood, regularly lands on Forbes' highest-paid authors list; in 2010, he was at No. 3. His net worth is estimated to be as much as $400 million — that's huge for a writer but small change when it comes to big finance. Warren Buffett, another tax-the-rich advocate, is worth about $4.4 billion.

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Photo: Stephen King in 1998. Credit: Los Angeles Times