Birds of a Feather Books By Seven Stories Press
Left to right, top to bottom: Nut, Killer, Quisling, Liar
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY HAS SOME MORE DETAIL on disgraced Democratic booster and liar Micah Wright's cancelled book.
A couple of interesting facts in that little item. The first is the howler about submitting "fuzzy photographs" to publisher Simon.Seven Stories Cancels Book Over Author's False Claim
by Calvin Reid, PW NewsLine -- 5/4/2004A forthcoming anti-war book from Seven Stories Press by a popular comics writer has been cancelled after the author admitted that he lied about being a U.S. Army Ranger in both the introduction to a previous book and the biographical information of his new book.
Seven Stories publisher Dan Simon has cancelled If You're Not a Terrorist... Then Stop Asking Questions from the noted Micah Wright after being notified several times since last summer that Wright was lying about his background. Wright had maintained he was telling the truth, providing what Simon called "fuzzy photographs that were supposed to verify his military service," but when a Washington Post reporter last week informed Wright he was planning to expose his claims and reveal he was never in the military, Wright then admitted he was lying, according to Simon. The publisher then cancelled the book.
For his part, Wright said he came clean for reasons other than the possibility of exposure. "[F]rankly, I'm sick of it. I'm sick of lying to my friends, to employers, to my fans, to myself," he wrote on his site. "I haven't been able to sleep and I've just about given myself an ulcer. It's all become too much. I'm stopping the lies."
Wright's first book, You Back the Attack, We'll Bomb Who We Want, out in 2003, has sold about 20,000 copies. Simon said Seven Stories will continue to sell that book, but will remove the introduction if it goes back to press.
In his books, Wright rewrites the slogans on classic posters from World War II and transforms them into sly anti-war statements; his book has received contributions from Howard Zinn and Kurt Vonnegut.
Perhaps Simon could have asked for sharper shots, even formal ID photos since it seems to be a given that the Army and the Rangers take a lot of photos of their troops. But perhaps Simon didn't really want to ask. After all, why spoil a good thing until it walks into your office, lifts you out of your chair and sinks its fangs deep into your posterior.
Interesting also that Mr. Simon will continue to sell Wright's first book with the elimination of the Introduction. I suppose that means the log rolling boosts written for Wright by Howard Zinn and Kurt Vonnegut will stay.
One might ask what they are doing there in the first place? Why would writers with the stature of Zinn and Vonnegut weigh in on a book that only displays political bile photoshopped onto public domain images? In turns out that the logs do not roll far from the tree. Zinn and Vonnegut both have books published by Simon's grisley little house.
And what a house it is. While the 20,000 copies Simon claims to have sold of Wright's first book may seem like very small potatoes to any real publishing house, there's a good chance Wright might actually be the sales star of Seven Stories Press.
Other "hot" authors touted by this bastion of fine publishing include the recently disgraced Howard Zinn, the doddering Kurt Vonnegut, convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal, aging activist Angela Davis, the Huey P. Newton Reader, a collection of screeds by the quisling Robert Scheer, professional globe trotting meddler and dictator groupie Ramsey Clark, the Zapatistas (I don't mean Frank's), and the ever-popular reigning looney of left-wing fantasy land, Noam (Gen. O'Cide) Chomsky. Placed against that roster of leading anti-American Americans you can readily see why a mere pathological liar such as Micah Wright would, as they say, "add luster to the list."
It also shows that, barring the ability to get aging leftist authors to write Seven Stories into their wills, why the press would need Wright's sales. Compared to those other offerings, his book of posters is probably the most readable in the entire Seven Stories catalog.
Ironic that the entire catalog of this vermin packed house should showcase simultaneously the best of our Bill of Rights and the worst of American publishing.
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UPDATE: As to the "fuzzy photographs" Simon claims to have seen, it's too bad he didn't ask for Wright's Ranger Class Graduation photograph. It is to be found at: Ranger School Class Photos: Class 13-87 and seems crystal clear.
So the question becomes not just is Micah Wright lying, but is Simon lying as well?
Posted by Vanderleun at May 4, 2004 4:33 PMKinda off topic, but is that a gang sign the guy on the front row is flashing?
Posted by: ed at May 5, 2004 11:45 AMWestside, brother.
Posted by: jon at May 5, 2004 5:08 PMI wonder if he has any fuzzy photos of his Emmy and and Annie writing nominations?
Posted by: SarahW at May 5, 2004 7:47 PM
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