The PW Morning Report, May 1, 2008

By Dermot McEvoy -- Publishers Weekly, 5/1/2008 5:35:00 AM

Thursday, May 1, 2008

A daily round-up of the latest publishing news: Huffington’s Mission Accomplished; Walters Long Memory; Tricky Oprah; Ron Paul #1; Strawberry Memoir; Stephenie Meyer Goes Adult; Gentrification Books; McKellen in Hobbit; Bad French Mama; and Gary Snyder Wins Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize

New York Observer Profiles Arianna Huffington
The author of Right Is Wrong (Knopf) observes on this May 1—the day President Bush gave his infamous "Mission Accomplished" speech on the flightdeck of the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln—that Bush should have "immediately [been] clapped in irons, thrown in the brig, and charged with gross dereliction of duty." And there’s more from the liberal lightning-rod, a former conservative

Barbara Walters Has a New Memoir—and a Long Memory
Rush & Molloy relate stories about Harry Reasoner, Morley Safer and the late Gilda Radner, who did her famous "Baba Wawa" imitation, which Walters found : "extremely upsetting." There’s more where this came from in Audition, out from Knopf on May 6

James Frey’s Last Ever Interview—There’s Always Hope—in Vanity Fair Tells of Oprah’s Trickery
HuffingtonPost says Frey and his editor Nan Talese were tricked into going to confession on Oprah

Ron Paul’s Book #1 on Amazon, reports CNN
The Revolution: A Manifesto (Grand Central) is #1, but apparently bestselling books don’t make you president. Senator Obama, please note

Ecco to Publish Darryl Strawberry Memoir, reports AP
Ex-Mets slugger to tell all about wasting his baseball talent, beating cancer, and finding God

Stephenie Meyer Pens First Adult Book, reports AP
After four "Twilight" books, The Host, a science fiction title, will be released next week by Little, Brown with a 750,000 first printing

Books As Gentrification Agent
New York Times reports that Open Book has led to the revitalization of a Minneapolis neighborhood

British Actor Ian McKellen Back as Gandalf in Hobbit Film, reports UPI
"Yes, it’s true," said McKellen. "It’s not a part that you turn down. I loved playing Gandalf."

Be Nice to Your Mother—Or She May Write a Nasty Book About You!
Reuters reports it’s payback time in France. Writer Michel Houellebecq’s mother has written a new book that gets back at the son for calling her a promiscuous hippie. "My son can go and get screwed by whomever he wants, he can write another book, I don’t give a toss," she says. June Cleaver, this French momma ain’t

Gary Snyder Wins Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, reports AP
Former Beat Poet cops $100,000 prize