FSG to Publish Waters’ Memoir

By Rachel Deahl -- Publishers Weekly, 7/26/2007 12:42:00 PM

Inimitable filmmaker and famed Baltimore native John Waters has signed with Farrar, Straus, Giroux to do what the house has dubbed a “self-portrait,” as opposed to traditional memoir. Role Models, which does not currently have a publication date—the manuscript is slated to be delivered in 2009—was acquired by FSG president Jonathan Galassi (who will also edit) from Bill Clegg at the William Morris Agency.

The book, according to FSG, will offer a portrait of the artist through profiles of his cadre of quirky friends and acquaintances, both famous and unknown. Personalities to be profiled in the work range from Miss Esther “owner of the scariest bar in Baltimore” to singer Johnny Mathis. According to the publishers, the collection of profiles will “hopefully inspire readers to their own devious hero worship and appreciation of the power of subversive inspiration.”