The Man in the Middle : How Will Michael Korda Edit Two Diametrically Opposed Books on the Reagans? Very, Very Carefully

Publishing sure makes for strange bedfellows. Strange and interesting bedfellows.

--Author Kitty Kelley

In his office on the 14th floor, Michael Korda fiddles with his pink power tie, swivels in a desk chair and stares out at the granite canyons of midtown Manhattan. The editor in chief of Simon & Schuster and best-selling author grimaces when told of Kelley’s comment, but then smiles and gestures expansively with his hands.

“I wouldn’t have used her exact words perhaps, but yes, I guess that’s true about publishing,” Korda says. “That’s certainly the situation I’m looking at here.”

The Situation.

It seems to dog Korda these days, even as he sets out on a national book tour to promote “The Fortune,” his latest blockbuster novel. Never mind that his influence at the nation’s largest publishing house continues to grow, or that his niche as New York’s flashiest and most successful editor seems more secure than ever. The question that’s got publishing powers wagging their tongues is: How is Korda, 55, going to edit Kelley’s decidedly unauthorized biography of Nancy Reagan while also editing the forthcoming memoirs of Ronald Reagan? How will he keep the peace with Kelley--whose gut-punching books about Frank Sinatra and Jackie Onassis have sparked intense controversy--and The Reagans, newly arrived in Bel-Air?

“Obviously the situation requires on my part a certain tact and decent behavior,” Korda says, choosing his words carefully.

“Because clearly, whatever Kitty would tell me about what she’s doing I would have to be absolutely sure not to pass it on to the Reagans. And vice versa, whatever the Reagans might tell me I’d be sure not to pass on to Kitty Kelley.”

Korda shifts uncomfortably in his leather seat and shoots a glance at several fat manuscripts piled high on a table behind his desk. When the phone rings, he tells a secretary to hold all calls except for author Larry McMurtry (of “Lonesome Dove” fame) and literary agent Irving (Swifty) Lazar. Slowly, with some reluctance, he returns to The Situation.

“Look, no doubt there will be problems. No doubt there will be tension,” he says. “To put the books by Ronald Reagan and Kitty Kelley in the same publishing house, and then under the same editor . . . well, no, you don’t see that every day.”

So far, the Reagans have declined comment on The Situation. And beyond her statement about the publishing industry, Kelley, too, refuses to discuss the matter. But her telephone answering machine provides a tantalizing clue of things to come: Before the beep, callers hear a few bars of Sinatra singing “Nancy with the laughing face.”

The problem surfaced last month, when Simon & Schuster announced a publishing coup: Without fanfare, the company had purchased the rights to Reagan’s memoirs and a book of collected speeches for about $5 million. The speeches are due out next year, with the memoirs to follow at some undetermined date.

Earlier, the giant publishing firm had acquired the rights to Kelley’s forthcoming book on Nancy Reagan. On each occasion, Richard E. Snyder, chairman of Simon & Schuster, announced that Korda would be editing the Reagan books.

The selection of Korda, a short, nattily attired wisp of a man with curly blond hair, came as no surprise. During a 30-year career, Korda has edited some of the nation’s biggest fiction best sellers and earned a reputation for spotting the Big Hit long before other publishing companies. As a rival editor put it: “When it comes to kitsch and the mass-market blockbuster, Michael is, quite simply, the best. No one is better attuned to what Americans will want to read.”

Or what they will buy.

During his climb to the top at Simon & Schuster, the English-born Korda has edited books by Jackie and Joan Collins, Harold Robbins, McMurtry, Mary Higgins Clark, Ted Morgan, Shirley Conran, Clive Cussler and Peter Forbath. He has worked on books by Graham Greene and Joan Didion, Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon, and edited Richard Rhodes’ “The Making of the Atomic Bomb,” which won last year’s Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.

At the same time, Korda has won recognition as a writer, uncorking self-help best sellers like “Power” and “Success” in the 1970s, and glossy, romantic novels like “Queenie,” based loosely on the life of actress Merle Oberon, which was made into a television miniseries. Born into the Korda family--a trio of wealthy and talented Hungarian brothers who produced successful motion pictures dating from the silent era--he also wrote “Charmed Lives,” a best-selling chronicle of his family’s career in show business.

As his press clippings have grown, Korda has become a New York celebrity in his own right. Unlike most editors, who are not well known, his name pops up frequently in gossip columns and he is a regular at trendy restaurants around town like the Four Seasons and Rao’s in Spanish Harlem. Although his passion for motorcycles has dimmed in recent years, Korda once posed for the cover of New York magazine in racing leathers with a cigar in his teeth. Nowadays, he spends weekends riding horses with his English wife, Margaret, on their farm in Upstate New York. They also have homes in Manhattan, West Palm Beach and Santa Fe, N. M.

Korda, who says his reputation for snaring best sellers obscures a private passion for books on history and poetry, has his pensive, brooding moments. But he is more often an animated raconteur who loves the sound of his own laughter. Asked about his life outside publishing, Korda zigzags in a breathless monologue from Central European politics to Truman Capote’s early years to a discourse on Hollywood’s inflated egos. Hands flapping, he concludes with a scathing impression of Merv Griffin when he was a television talk show host, and then laughs uproariously.

“Sometimes I talk too much, I do, I talk much too much,” he confesses. “I love to talk.”

If Korda’s flamboyant character has irritated some rival editors, it hasn’t hurt him at Simon & Schuster. When Snyder announced that his chief editor would be working on the new Reagan books, it seemed initially like two more feathers in Korda’s cap. But now, some literary observers believe that the joint assignments--glamorous though they may be--could become a publisher’s nightmare.

“I’d feel very uneasy about it, because it’s really unexplored territory,” said Aaron Ascher, publisher of Grove Press. “There could be a clash of loyalties, to the extent that an editor has to show loyalty to an author. Here, you’d have to show allegiance to two writers who are truly working at cross purposes. It might be difficult to pull this off.”

Another prominent editor, who asked that his name not be used, speculated that Korda--and Simon & Schuster--could experience difficulties if Kelley’s book comes out first.

“Let’s face it, Kitty Kelley’s book is not likely to be too flattering, if the past is any guide,” the editor said. “And if she’s into print first, saying awful things about Nancy Reagan, it could be awkward, especially if the same editor is working on the President’s book. The timing is key here.”

In a telephone interview, Lynn Nesbit, Kelley’s agent, said her client’s book would “probably” precede the President’s by a few years. While Korda insisted the timetable is not clear, he agreed there could be “complexities” if that happens.

“When it’s clear to me, it will either be a magnification of the problem or a simplification. I could give you many ideal scenarios and I could also give you one very un-ideal scenario,” he said.

Korda stressed that Simon & Schuster got involved with the Kelley book first. As he sees it, that makes all the difference in the world.

Already Owned Kelley

“No publisher would be stupid enough to become the President’s publisher for his memoirs and then go out and buy Kitty Kelley’s book,” Korda said. “That would seem like gouging an esteemed public figure in the eye unnecessarily. But, on the other hand, if you already own Kitty Kelley and you go out and buy Ronald Reagan, then you can’t be expected to not publish Kitty Kelley. I think everybody understands that.”

At rival Random House, which is publishing historian Edmund Morris’ authorized biography of Ronald Reagan, publisher Joni Evan declined to comment on Korda’s potential conflict. But other observers predicted he will manage the task with flair.

“Michael’s very professional, and I know he will be a good ambassador between both camps,” said Elaine Markson, a New York literary agent who has worked with Korda.

“As an editor, you’re sometimes like a priest in a confessional: You hear everything a writer has to say. But you don’t pass it on; you keep the confidence, and I’m sure Michael understands that. He’ll be able to do this without hurting anybody.”

Even Korda’s critics offer grudging praise. An editor who has clashed bitterly with him in the past said that if anybody can handle such a task, it’s the wunderkind of Simon & Schuster.

“I don’t think Michael’s very inhibited by convictions, and this is another glamorous situation for him, which he likes,” said the editor, who asked not to be identified. “He probably thinks he’s the only publisher in New York who can pull this off.”

Korda maintains it is not unusual for publishing houses to produce books with sharply differing viewpoints. Simon & Schuster, for example, published works by Henry Kissinger and William Shawcross, who hold deeply conflicting views on American involvement in the Vietnam War and Cambodia, he said.

Recently, the company had a reception for former President Richard Nixon, and Korda said it was entirely proper that executive editor Alice Mayhew, who worked on books like “All the President’s Men” and “The Final Days,” was in attendance. He says there was nothing unusual about the fact that he had edited books by Jackie and Joan Collins, despite a certain amount of sibling rivalry between the two women.

Still, Korda concedes that the Reagan books posed a different problem. Something new. A most peculiar situation.

“How it will work out, I have no idea,” he finally says, with a shrug. “I assume nobody cares, or nobody minds, or everybody simply says, that’s life.”