Marking a Tragic Anniversary
by Daisy Maryles -- Publishers Weekly, 9/2/2002
Another September 11-related title is debuting on our list this week, and a second lands just below our top 15. Taking the #4 spot is Let's Roll: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Courage by Lisa Beamer (with Ken Abraham), the widow of Flight 93 hero Todd Beamer, who has become a prominent symbol of strength in the aftermath of the nation's tragedy. A Dateline NBC interview with Beamer, which aired on the book's pub date (August 20), was the program's highest-rated show ever, reports NBC. Later that week, the author did a full hour on Larry King Live as well as appearances on Today, The O'Reilly Factor, Fox and Friends and CNN American Morning. (An already taped, second appearance with King is set to air on September 11.) Book signings at Barnes & Noble stores in L.A. and New York have already drawn major crowds, and Beamer's tour continues into December. Three trips back to press have brought Tyndale's 700,000 first printing up to 900,000.
Also published on August 20 was Never Forget: An Oral History of September 11, 2001, in which columnist Mitchell Fink and his activist wife, Lois Mathias, present 81 interviews with people who lived through the tragedy. The Regan Books title, which carries endorsements from Tom Brokaw, Barbara Walters and Pete Hamill, has just over 60,000 copies after six printings. In his New York Post Page Six column, Richard Johnson said, "I tried to resist its pages but ended up sobbing and being absolutely knocked out by the experience." The book received a glowing review in Maxim—the only September 11 title reviewed by the magazine. The nonstop publicity has included Today, Access Hollywood, MSNBC's Nachman and Hardball with Chris Matthews, CNN's Weekend Manager, Headline News and Wolf Blitzer Reports, Fox News Channel's The Big Story with John Gibson and Fox and Friends, etc. The authors will donate a portion of their proceeds to the World Trade Center Worker and Volunteer Treatment Fund, established by New York City's Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
With reporting by Dick Donahue
