Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, January 9, 1995 TAG: 9501100037
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Titled ``I Want to Tell You'' and written in collaboration with Lawrence Schiller, the book was described Saturday as an effort by Simpson to respond to the more than 300,000 pieces of mail he has received since his arrest last June on charges that he murdered his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman outside her home in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles.
``One of the things O.J. said to me in my first meeting with him about the book was, `This is not my biography; this is my response to the public's response to me, to my pain, to my suffering,''' Schiller said.
Schiller, 52, collaborated with Norman Mailer on his Pulitzer Prize-winning ``Executioner's Song'' and Mailer's forthcoming ``Oswald's Tale: An American Mystery.''
None of the principals in the arrangements for the publication of the book would discuss how much Simpson was paid for it.
``That is something we cannot divulge,'' said Robert Kardashian, one of Simpson's lawyers and a longtime business associate who brought Simpson and Schiller together. ``It is confidential between the publisher and ourselves. I can elaborate a little bit to say the funds he is receiving are all going to his defense fund.''
Little, Brown said it was planning an initial press run of 500,000 copies.
Schiller said a so-called Son of Sam Law that took effect this month in California to prevent criminals from profiting from their acts would not apply to Simpson in the event he is found guilty at his impending trial in Los Angeles.
Even if Simpson is convicted, Schiller said, it was his understanding that it would not apply to contracts signed in 1994. ``Even the new law provides that anyone earning money, innocent or guilty, has the right to use the money first for their defense.''
Charles E. Heyward, the president of Little, Brown, said he had no moral qualms about publishing the book. ``As publishers, I think we have a responsibility to publish a broad spectrum of opinions and points of view,'' Heyward said.
``We recognized that Mr. Simpson had a very specific point of view and recognized his right to an opinion and thought that the manner in which it was going to be developed and presented would be a project with a lot of integrity.''
Simpson's book represents a sharp departure for Little, Brown, which has a reputation as one of the country's more literary publishing houses. Its authors have included Louisa May Alcott, Bruce Catton, C.S. Forester, John P. Marquand, Evelyn Waugh and Herman Wouk.
Kardashian said that ever since the killings, Simpson has been receiving 2,000 to 3,000 pieces of mail daily ``from people all over the world, every state of the United States,'' including elderly people and children who enclosed their allowance.
The book interweaves excerpts from some of those letters with Simpson's responses. Topics include racism, the judicial system and the news media.
by CNB