Publishers Lukewarm to New Hart Bio

“My involvement in public service spans a quarter century,” begins a 15-page proposal for a nonfiction book by former Democratic senator and presidential aspirant Gary Hart circulating among major publishing houses in New York. “ . . . My career, and the life of my generation, have seen more ‘downs’ than ‘ups’. . . .”

But enthusiasm for “Stepping Stones Across an Era: The Unfinished Story of a Generation” seems limited, with one high-ranking publishing executive who has seen the proposal dismissing it as “a high school valedictory address that he wanted to turn into a book” and another calling it “flatly written” and “boring.”

“I don’t think anybody will do it,” yet another top publishing executive said, “just on the grounds that it represents such a very superficial view of himself.”

Submitted by his New York agent, Bill Adler, to “a number of major publishers,” the projected book in no way resembles the planned Hart book canceled by William Morrow & Co. late last month. That book, Adler said, was to have been “more oriented toward the campaign” and would have included selections from Hart’s speeches as well as his campaign strategies.

Personal Elements

By contrast, Adler called Hart’s latest literary effort a “political/personal biography.” But he stressed that the personal elements of the book would not include intimate details of Hart’s life, such as the scandal with actress/model Donna Rice that prompted him to withdraw from the presidential race May 8.

“This is not the autobiography of a movie star,” Adler said in an interview. “It’s more oriented toward the world of government and international relations and the role that he’s played--the people he’s met and his observations about them.”

But Maria Guarnaschelli, a senior editor at William Morrow & Co. who has edited Hart’s four previous books and who would have worked as editor on the book Morrow canceled last month, said Morrow had chosen to pass on the new Hart book because “we just didn’t feel the timing was right.

“Despite the fact that it was a good proposal and a damned interesting one, we just didn’t feel it would find an audience,” Guarnaschelli said.

Guarnaschelli’s assessment, however, was far more generous than what some others in the publishing industry had to say about “Stepping Stones.”

“I’m just looking at it now,” Alice Mayhew, executive editor at Simon & Schuster, said. “It doesn’t seem to say much. It looks to me like something that was put together in sort of a hurry.”

Branding the book as “flatly written,” Mayhew said she was confident Simon & Schuster would not publish the proposed Hart book.

“We’re not interested, I’m sure,” said Mayhew.

“It’s an extended Rotary Club speech,” a high executive at another publishing house said, asking that neither he nor his company be identified by name. “It’s not going to fly.”

At Random House, associate publisher and senior editor Peter Osnos said the proposal from Hart was “not a book, as far as I’m concerned.”

At this time, Osnos said, “The only book (from Hart) that would be interesting would be a book that kind of bored deep into his soul, to explain the drive to be President and at the same time the inability to keep himself from destructing.”

A Shallow Portrait

Calling the proposal a “very shallow portrait of himself,” Osnos reflected that “in a way, it’s a commentary on our times. Here’s a man who just a month ago had to drop out in the midst of an embarrassing, humiliating scandal about another woman, who’s writing a proposal for a book as though it never happened.

“It’s sad,” Osnos said. “It pretends there never was a disaster. You really wonder whether Hart understands what happened.”

But Guarnaschelli, Hart’s longtime editor at William Morrow, said it was unlikely that Hart would reveal the most personal facets of his life in print. While the Hart/Rice story continues to fascinate the public, filling up pages and covers in People and Life, among other current publications, “Gary’s not the kind of author to write those kinds of things,” Guarnaschelli said.

Hart’s literary agent declined to speculate if a “tell all” book by Gary Hart would find a market.

“I have no comment,” said Adler. “I’m not a psychiatrist or an analyst. I just try and sell books.”

Adler said feedback on the proposal for the 80,000-85,000-word book had been “positive,” though no publisher had yet offered to buy the book. He would not discuss financial arrangements for “Stepping Stones,” but did say he had a “parameter figure” of what he and Hart expected for an advance.

Though some in the publishing community wondered if Hart had undertaken the book as a way to pay off campaign debts, Adler said his client’s financial situation was a mystery to him.

“I don’t have the foggiest idea what his financial status is. I can only tell you that he submitted the proposal for the book and that I thought it was excellent. I did not ask him what his motivation was.”

Adler said he hoped to sell the book by next week. He predicted that Hart would complete the manuscript within six to eight months.