Conrad Black
Publication of Conrad Black's new memoir has been postponed until after the U.S. Supreme Court concludes deliberations on the former press baron's appeal on the three fraud convictions for which he is imprisoned in Florida.
Douglas Pepper, president of Toronto-based publisher McClelland & Stewart, announced yesterday that the company is cancelling its plans to release the memoir, titled The Fight of My Life, this September in Canada and the U.S.
Black was granted leave last month to appeal to the Supreme Court. With a hearing not expected until January next year and a decision months later, "we wouldn't want to do anything that may influence that," Pepper said. It could be late 2010 or early 2011 before the book is issued, with portions rewritten to accommodate Black's changed circumstances.
The decision to postpone was made by Black, who turns 65 in August, in discussions with Toronto-based literary agent Michael Levine. "I consulted with my own client who has been consulting with his own counsel and I personally had chats with certain of his counsel in detail … and I let them make the final decision," Levine said Monday.
Running more than 500 pages, the book reportedly covers Black's life from 1993 onward, picking up where his last memoir, A Life in Progress, concluded, and includes material on his 2007 trial, conviction and 61/2-year prison sentence as well as life with Barbara Amiel, whom he married in 1992. In earlier promotional material, M & S described the new memoir as "unflinchingly revealing," with the author writing "without reserve about the prosecutors who mounted a campaign to destroy him and the journalists who presumed he was guilty."
The decision to hold off publication marks the third time M & S has done so. The company, which published Black's last book, The Invincible Quest, a biography of disgraced U.S. President Richard Nixon, announced in May, 2008, that it had acquired rights to The Fight of My Life, setting publication for October that year. However, a few weeks later M & S said publishing the manuscript would be delayed until spring 2009 to permit additional editing. The book was then advertised in the company's summer 2009 catalogue, cancelled again as Black awaited word on appeals, then relisted in its fall catalogue. M & S was prepared for these developments "from the moment we acquired the rights. … We hope and trust booksellers will understand … why it needs to be delayed again," Pepper said. "Obviously, the conclusion will have to be changed."