Black’s book tour
The Globe and Mail has a story about Conrad Black doing some quick pre-publication publicity in early March for The Invincible Quest, his upcoming biography of disgraced amoral tragically misunderstood former U.S. president Richard Nixon, just before heading off to Chicago for his trial. The interviewers had to agree to stick to the topic of the book – which is just as well, since any mention of Black’s legal troubles would have likely resulted in an angry, multisyllabic tirade. The interviews also have to be held until after the book’s publication in May.
After outlining the particular challenges of publishing a 1,000-page tome by a man who could be facing serious time (“We went into this deal knowing that would be the case,” M&S president Doug Pepper is quoted as saying), the article then goes into some interesting territory – specifically the role Toronto lawyer Michael Levine played in getting the book published.
The Invincible Quest isn’t Levine’s first professional engagement with Black. That would be Black’s 1993 autobiography, A Life in Progress, which Levine got wind of through another of his clients, Peter C. Newman.
At that time, Newman was thinking of updating his 1982 biography of Black, The Establishment Man, and, as a courtesy, placed a call to Black, whereupon Black informed him that he was “working on a book of his own.” Newman at that point recommended Levine’s services as an agent.
The article also discusses Black’s review of Margaret MacMillan’s Nixon in China in the Literary Review of Canada, and his later apology for it (more here), and reveals that both the LRC and the Globe have asked MacMillan to review The Invincible Quest.
In the interest of full disclosure, Q&Q is considering putting in a call to U.S. attorney Patrick Fitzgerald to review the book. He may be a little busy.
