Eisner’s Book on Camp Delayed a Year

A new book by embattled Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Michael Eisner on the lessons about life he learned at summer camp has been delayed for about a year, publisher Warner Books said Friday, adding that the book would be out for Father’s Day 2005.

“We just felt that we wanted to publish at a time when he was able to promote it properly,” Warner spokeswoman Emi Battaglia said.

Warner decided five days after Disney’s contentious annual meeting, at which Eisner’s reelection to the board was opposed by 43% of votes, that the plan for a Father’s Day 2004 launch should be postponed, probably for a year.

The book, “Camp,” is a fond look at Camp Keewaydin, the Vermont summer camp that Eisner attended as a boy and worked at as a counselor, and where Eisner says he learned lessons about teamwork and life.

Time Warner Book Group Chairman and Chief Executive Laurence Kirshbaum decided that there was enough material for a book after hearing Eisner give a talk in 2001 called “What I Did on my Summer Vacation.”

But Eisner has plenty of pressing issues to cut into potential book-tour time, from former board members calling for his ouster to the possibility that cable operator Comcast Corp will renew its bid to take over Disney.

Warner had planned a first run of 150,000 copies of “Camp” before the June 2004 launch.

Warner promised to publish the book no matter what might happen in the saga with Disney and Eisner, who has indicated he will donate his earnings from the book to charity.