'Running With Scissors' Lawsuit Settled
By Rachel Deahl -- Publishers Weekly, 8/30/2007 10:15:00 AM
The defamation lawsuit filed against St. Martin’s Press and Augusten Burroughs by the Turcotte family for the author’s characterization of the clan in his bestselling memoir Running with Scissors has been settled, with both sides claiming at least partial victory.
Though financial terms of the settlement have not been disclosed—the Turcottes were asking for $2 million—St. Martin’s and Burroughs called the outcome "favorable" in a joint press release. The house and author have agreed to alter the language on the book’s acknowledgments page and author’s note. In the latter, the work will now be referred to as a “book” instead of a “memoir.” This despite the fact that on the cover the work will still be called a memoir.
Tyler Chapman, the Turcotte family's attorney, told PW in an email message, "My clients certainly regard this as not just a victory for themselves, but a vindication of their position with respect to the book." Adding that it's unusual for a publisher to make any changes to a book post-publication, Chapman said his clients also received a payment that covered their legal fees and beyond. "The publisher and author are welcome to characterize this settlement any way they want, of course, but my clients accomplished everything they set out to achieve when they filed suit in the first place which, needless to say, certainly feels like a victory to them."
The statement from Burroughs and St. Martin's outlined the new language on the acknowledgments page: instead of merely thanking the “Massachusetts family” portrayed, Burroughs will, in future copies, acknowledge that the family members portrayed recall the past differently and that both he and St. Martin’s “regret any unintentional harm” caused by the book’s publication. The statement also noted, repeatedly, that the use of the term “memoir” is a fair one.
Burroughs called the settlement “a victory for all memoirists." He noted that while slight changes are being made to ancillary parts of the book, the work itself is unchanged. “The text is exactly as I wrote it, intended it, and lived it.”
