Justice Thomas memoir due in ’07

The memoir of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas will be coming to a bookstore near you -- just not as soon as expected.

Nearly five years after starting his autobiography, and three years after getting a $1-million-plus book deal, Thomas is still writing.

HarperCollins Publishers paid Thomas a $500,000 advance in 2003 and awaits delivery, which is behind schedule.

The book, detailing Thomas’ rise from destitution in tiny Pin Point, Ga., to the highest court in the land won’t be out until 2007, according to the New York publishing house. Initial reports had said the book would be finished in 2005.

Thomas succeeded Thurgood Marshall in 1991 -- like Marshall he is the court’s only black justice -- and is one of the group’s most intriguing members.

Thomas’ agent, Lynn Chu of New York, said that “there’s a lot of interest” in the book and the justice. “He’s going to talk about everything, quite openly,” she said.