Castro Book Blitz Marks Cuban as Publishing’s New Hot Topic

Nearly 27 years since his ascension to power on an island that has subsequently vaulted to prominence in hemispherical diplomacy, Cuban President Fidel Castro finds himself the subject--and more than likely, the author--of a series of books scheduled for publication in North America.

The spate of Castro books came to attention recently when reports circulated that Simon & Schuster was negotiating with Castro to publish three books under his name. The deal was reported to be carrying a $1.3-million price tag for Castro.

But Peter Minichiello, Simon & Schuster’s vice president for corporate communications, dismissed any dollar figures that had been attached to the Castro project.

“I don’t know where the dollar amount came from,” Minichiello said. “All I can tell you, and all we are saying at the moment, is that Simon & Schuster has indeed been talking to Castro about a book project.

“We’ve been talking (to Castro) for some months, but we’re just not ready to discuss it any further yet.”

Far more tangible were the Castro projects of William Morrow & Co. and Dodd, Mead. Dodd, Mead president and editor-in-chief Lewis Gillenson said his firm’s Castro book would be written by former Carter Administration special assistant Dr. Peter Bourne, and would be ready for publication sometime next year.

At Morrow, senior editor Lisa Drew said former New York Times writer Tad Szulc was currently in Cuba, completing a lengthy series of interviews with Castro and his associates.

“Our book is a full-blown biography written with the cooperation of the subject,” Drew said. “It is a full biography that will include his private life, his personal relationships, his relationships with his family, the Cuban government, his own administration and the military. So far as we know, Castro has never cooperated with a journalist like this before.”

Drew said the book originated from an idea Szulc brought to Morrow himself. But as for why her publishing house was joining in what seems to be a renewed interest in subjects pertaining to Latin America, Drew confessed she was mystified.

‘An Unsalable Subject’

“I think Cuba for a long time has been considered among publishers to be an unsalable subject--in fact I know it has,” Drew said. “Why this has changed all of a sudden, I really don’t know.

“I mean, you couldn’t sell Vietnam in 1979 and 1980 and now it’s a very salable subject.”

On the other hand, Drew said, “I do think Castro is of great interest to people, and I don’t think that’s particularly new.”

“Ten years ago,” Gillenson agreed, “if you said ‘El Salvador,’ they wouldn’t have known if you were talking about Coney Island or the outskirts of Mexico.”

“I think it’s obvious,” he said, “that there’s a surge of interest in things Latin in general.”

Gillenson said that when Bourne first broached the subject of a book on Castro several years ago, “what he said to me was, ‘Hey listen, this guy’s been around 25 years. Dictators don’t generally hang around this long,’ ” and the time seemed right for a major study of Castro. Gillenson agreed, reasoning, “For good or for bad, the revolution has been intact for 25 years in Cuba. And Castro has achieved a kind of international status that is astonishing for the head of an island country.”

Bourne, Gillenson said, “had gone to Cuba many, many times. He had met with Castro. They knew each other and they knew about each other.” Gillenson considered this a major plus in assigning Bourne the Castro book, since “Castro is not easy to see. For a long time, the borders were not that open--the State Department was not that open to people going back and forth--and Castro is egotistically a very difficult man.

“He’s one of the biggest egos in the world among leaders, a very complicated man. I think Peter believes he could have gone in many different ways in the early days of his regime.”

Morrow’s Drew said Castro, known to be “quite a night owl,” was prone to summoning Szulc for middle-of-the-night meetings. “He likes to drop in at 3 or 4 in the morning to chat and philosophize,” Drew said. “The two conversations that Tad had early on in his discussions with Castro were both at 2 in the morning, and they lasted until about 6.”

As Drew recalled, “What got to be rather exciting” about the Szulc project was “when he went down to research the book, very, very early this winter--January or February is my memory--to try and get information about whether he would get any cooperation from the Castro government. To Tad’s amazement and delight, he was told by Castro himself that he would cooperate.”

Elated, Drew said, Szulc “came back to New York and turned around and went back to live in Cuba.” But on his return, she said, “as he described it to me, Castro said, ‘now before I spend all this time with you, I want you to spend time with my Cabinet ministers, my advisers, going through my files, and so forth.’

Not a Brushoff

“And at first Tad thought, ‘Oh boy, the old brushoff.’ But in Cuba, what the president says is what you do.”

Castro, Drew said, “will have no editorial control over this biography at all, and he won’t see anything except the transcriptions of his own statements.”

Beyond Castro’s “quite magnetic personality,” Drew said several factors might work toward the success of the series of Castro books expected to hit the stores beginning next year. For one thing, she said, “one of the biggest foreign policy issues of the current administration is the whole question of Nicaragua, El Salvador and of Latin America in general.” However, “We’re still not sure this is going to translate into book sales. Whether this will translate into $17.95 over the counter is something else entirely.”

But for his part, Gillenson offered another possible explanation for the Castro book blitz. “It may be safe to say that the Castro people are making some kind of a move toward rapprochement, to get the American public a little more interested,” he suggested. Then Gillenson laughed. “Who knows?” he said. “Castro didn’t tell me any of this, so who am I to say?”