Publisher Held Afraid to Issue Rushdie’s Novel in Paperback

Author Salman Rushdie’s publisher has balked at issuing a paperback version of “The Satanic Verses,” fearing that to do so would be “throwing petrol on (the) dying embers” of the controversy surrounding the novel, according to a magazine report circulating Tuesday.

Mother Jones magazine, in its April issue, quotes what it says are internal documents from Viking Penguin Inc., Rushdie’s publisher, to show that the firm has received corporate pressure to prevent the paperback publication, which normally would have occurred this winter.

The magazine quotes a Sept. 11 letter, which it says was written by an unidentified member of the board of directors of Viking Penguin’s parent company, Pearson PLC.

In that letter, the board member tells Viking Penguin President Peter Mayer that to publish a paperback version of “The Satanic Verses” would reignite the controversy that exploded about the work and forced Rushdie into hiding last year.

“People often forget that common sense is more important than principles,” the letter states. “Some principles have to be fought to the death, but I am quite clear this isn’t one of them.”

Paul Slovak, a Viking Penguin spokesman, who noted that the hardback edition of Rushdie’s work still is in print, said the publisher was “declining to make any comment on the Mother Jones piece. We’ll let people know if there is a date for the paperback edition.”

Rushdie was forced into hiding in February, 1989, after the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran issued an order urging Muslims to kill the author and others involved in publication of the novel. Khomeini contended that Rushdie’s novel blasphemed Islam. His anti-Rushdie decree triggered bomb attacks and threats against bookstores in the United States and abroad.

It also sparked a fiery debate in the publishing industry and among intellectuals, many of whom issued pleas for authors and publishers to show courage in the face of what they saw as a blatant attempt to limit the author’s right to speak freely.

The threat of terrorism remains high despite Khomeini’s death last June, Mother Jones reports, also quoting other internal documents to show that Mayer, as of last fall, was unwilling to proceed with the Rushdie paperback.

In a Feb. 12 interview with Newsweek magazine, Rushdie said he felt strongly that the failure to publish his work in paperback would mean he and the publishers “will in some sense have been defeated by the campaign against the book.”