Clinton book rights for China withdrawn ( 2003-12-24 11:20) (Agencies)
The U.S. publisher of
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's memoirs has withdrawn rights for the Chinese
translation, citing the Chinese publisher's unwillingness to restore tailored
passages.
"They no longer have the right to print or sell the book," Adam Rothberg, a
spokesman for Simon & Schuster, said Tuesday.
Simon & Schuster demanded an immediate reprinting of the complete,
uncensored text. In response, Yilin sent an apologetic letter, saying the
company had to rush the Chinese version to stores to compete with counterfeit
versions sold by street peddlers.
But after three months of negotiations, Simon & Schuster decided to
cancel the contract. Yilin's deputy editor in chief, Liu Feng, told The New York
Times that the company was still reviewing the situation.
Efforts by The Associated Press to reach Yilin officials for comment were
unsuccessful. A woman who answered the phone Tuesday at its publicity office
said all of its managers were at a conference. The woman, who wouldn't give her
name, said she didn't know anything about the book dispute.
Simon & Schuster has posted on its Web site the original versions of the
tailored sections, hoping to counteract the official action. A full translation
was also published in Chinese Taiwan.
"Living History," for which Clinton earned an $8 million advance, has sold
1.5 million copies in the United States alone, surpassing the mark for political
autobiography set by Colin Powell's 1995 "My American Journey." Rothberg said
that the Chinese translation had a first printing of 200,000 and that an
additional printing had been planned.