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Trainwreck
Mar. 3rd, 2010 06:15 pmHaving just published some Manhattan Project history myself, I have been watching, with grim fascination, the unraveling of Charles Pellegrino's book Last Train to Hiroshima.
Here's a good roundup of events from Hillel Italie of the Associated Press.
On 19 January, the New York Times published a favorable review of the book along with an excerpt.
On 20 February, William Broad of the Times reported that some of the surprising claims in the book came from a witness who claimed to have been aboard one of the B-29s overflying Hiroshima, but wasn't.
That week, Pellegrino and his publisher began apologizing, and saying they would remove erroneous information in the next printing.
Sales of the book were apparently propelled higher by the revelations about falsehoods within it.
The Amazon page for Last Train from Hiroshima on Monday indicated a sales rank of 244, which is VERY low-- it was one of the best-selling of all Amazon's books.
That was the day Holt announced that it would no longer publish the book. They can't identify two other sources. They can't verify that Pellegrino really has a PhD.
Tuesday, the sales rank hit #23.
As I write this, it's still in double figures. Strange.
Pellegrino has often been involved in films with James Cameron, who was planning a film based on the book and hence has been catching some of the mud. Film-gossip sites are full of speculation, but I haven't seen anything worth linking to.
Interesting discussion from a publisher, Peter Ginna: Should publishers trust their authors?
Here's a good roundup of events from Hillel Italie of the Associated Press.
On 19 January, the New York Times published a favorable review of the book along with an excerpt.
On 20 February, William Broad of the Times reported that some of the surprising claims in the book came from a witness who claimed to have been aboard one of the B-29s overflying Hiroshima, but wasn't.
That week, Pellegrino and his publisher began apologizing, and saying they would remove erroneous information in the next printing.
Sales of the book were apparently propelled higher by the revelations about falsehoods within it.
The Amazon page for Last Train from Hiroshima on Monday indicated a sales rank of 244, which is VERY low-- it was one of the best-selling of all Amazon's books.
That was the day Holt announced that it would no longer publish the book. They can't identify two other sources. They can't verify that Pellegrino really has a PhD.
Tuesday, the sales rank hit #23.
As I write this, it's still in double figures. Strange.
Pellegrino has often been involved in films with James Cameron, who was planning a film based on the book and hence has been catching some of the mud. Film-gossip sites are full of speculation, but I haven't seen anything worth linking to.
Interesting discussion from a publisher, Peter Ginna: Should publishers trust their authors?
