Rather’s Stories Behind the Stories : Television: ‘I’m a reporter. I just don’t play one on TV,’ says the CBS newsman, whose latest book is ‘The Camera Never Blinks Twice.’

Oh, Dan.

Another book? Your second in two years. Fourth in your career. Maybe a couple more in the works. The words, the volumes, the memories. They just keep pouring out.

As a foolish king once said to Edward Gibbon, author of the voluminous “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” it’s always scribble, scribble, scribble, eh, Mr. Gibbon?

With Dan Rather, it’s always peck, peck, peck, eh, Mr. Rather? (He knocks out his books on a crusty old Royal in his office.)

Dan Rather: anchorman, reporter, author . . . roles, it would appear, that he assumes with equal vigor. In recent weeks, the anchorman has spearheaded a publicity blitz for “The Camera Never Blinks Twice,” the second volume of what someday could be a trilogy. Despite the interviews, talk shows and book signings, the book has yet to show up on any national bestseller lists. Still, publisher William Morrow says it has been a great success--but declined to provide sales figures.

One may reasonably ask: Doesn’t this man have enough to do already? Responds Rather: “I like to write and I like the feeling of having accomplished a book.” Of course, it’s not all that simple. Rather is a compulsive memoirist who feels a need to come to terms with his past. And he certainly has a rich past--brilliant, controversial, and at times bizarre.

“Twice” picks up where “The Camera Never Blinks” leaves off. (Rather wrote both with help by veteran ghost writer Mickey Herskowitz.) Like that surprise 1976 bestseller, this one’s filled with colorful tales of a globe-trotting newsman who has reported from some of the world’s hot spots of the last two decades. Perhaps mindful that some readers might accuse him of taking full credit for some of his reportorial triumphs, Rather also has published a 13-page addendum naming hundreds of CBS staff members who helped him along the way.

Rather, 63, does discuss the contentious 1988 interview with candidate George Bush and the six-minute walk-out on a set in Miami, but unfortunately, reveals little that was not already known.

Rather’s “sanctum sanctorum” at CBS News headquarters on West 57th Street in Manhattan looks as if it could easily be a writer’s warren. It is a dark, brooding, masculine place that is only dimly illuminated by the glare of stage lights from the newsroom below. Books are scattered about and a visitor has the distinct impression that if Hemingway had decorated this office, he, too, would have selected that rich brown leather couch or that fine oak desk.

On a recent day, Rather himself seemed unusually subdued--perhaps ground down by the demands of the book tour, or disappointed by the relegation of his cherished “48 Hours” to the worst time period on TV, Thursdays at 10 p.m. (He admits to being “stunned” by the move.)

But unhappy? No way, says the anchorman. “This year has been among the most satisfying years I’ve had in the business,” he says quite convincingly. “And I still think my best year is ahead of me.”

He cites a triumphant reporting trip to Haiti (he scooped his fellow anchors by landing an interview with strongman Raoul Cedras). He cites improved ratings for “Evening News” (indeed, it is livelier and has been in second place all fall).

And he cites a fine working relationship with co-anchor Connie Chung.

Yes. Chung. There has been a pervasive sense at CBS News that Rather has chafed under the arrangement, but he is quick to disabuse an interviewer of that notion: “I was happy and I am happy (with the dual anchor). I am here to speak up for Connie. I believe in her: I did yesterday, do today and will tomorrow.”

And in case lingering doubt remains, he adds, with emphasis, “You won’t hear a critical word out of my mouth about (the dual anchor format), no way, no how, no shape, no form.”

But if 1994 has been Rather’s year to beat all years, the book--more than anything--is the reason. Will Schwalbe, editorial director of Morrow, says that a big factor in its success has been Rather himself.

“He’s been extraordinary about promoting it,” Schwalbe says. “He’s agreed to do absolutely anything that we wanted him to, which is incredibly rare for a celebrity author.”

Naturally, there’s a lot at stake in this book for Rather. A couple of years ago, he wrote one about his youth titled “I Remember,” which was, to put it charitably, a flop. He hadn’t expected a bestseller, but it was a keen disappointment because his earlier efforts, especially “The Palace Guard” (about the Nixon White House, co-written with Gary Paul Gates) were winners.

But one suspects something more than pride is behind Rather’s motivation for making “Twice” a winner. For much of the past 13 years since he succeeded Walter Cronkite, Rather has been victimized by some of the most stunningly negative press that a leading anchorman has ever been subjected to. And how does Rather respond? With the exception of Bush-Miami, he does not.

Instead, “Twice” is suffused with a “Forrest Gump”-like theme: If you work hard enough, your intentions are pure and your mistakes are honest, then your enemies will be vanquished.

As such, “Twice”--perhaps unwittingly--emerges as an apologia for a brilliant career. The good-guy reporter (Rather) always gets his story and the bad guy (if he is even mentioned) is flummoxed by the forces of good.

Rather pointedly denies that “Twice” is a public-relations effort designed to polish, or even rehabilitate, his career. “There is no myth-making with Dan Rather,” he says. “In television, you’re either good or you’re gone, and you either do or you don’t. I’ve been on television most of the second half of the 20th Century. There is no place to hide, and I don’t want there to be.”

He says he has been a lightning rod over the years because “one, I work for CBS News, and two, I’ve been lucky enough and God has blessed me tremendously so that I’ve been at or near the top a long time. And three, I don’t do it the way other people do it. I’m a reporter. I just don’t play one on TV. Some people can’t understand that. Some people think they understand it, and it makes them insecure.”

If a third volume is ever published, Rather may one day write his own epitaph. And what will it say? “I think that part of the book on Dan Rather has to say, ‘What’s the record?’ Has he done it perfectly? No. Has he made mistakes? Yes. Has he been dependable? Yes. Has he been durable? Yes.”

And could anyone argue with that self-evaluation? No.