Cheney's Wife Halts Publication of Her Lesbian Romance Novel

Her husband Dick's administration may want a constitutional ban on gay marriage, but it looks like Lynne Cheney at one time wanted to promote love between a woman and a woman.

USA Today reports that Mrs. Cheney published a "historical romance" novel called Sisters in 1981 that includes "brothels, attempted rapes and a lesbian love affair."

Want to get a hold of the novel? Good luck. After New American Library, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA), was going to reprint it, Cheney's attorney fired off a cease-and-desist phone call, ostensibly objecting to the reprint because it was "not her best work."

Whether her work is Pulitzer-quality or not, I think this is an important piece of the gay marriage political puzzle. I, for one, would certainly like to know what Bush, Mr. Cheney, and their fellow anti-gay agendites think of the Second Lady's venture into "deviant" literary subcultures.
http://lawgeek.typepad.com/lawgeek/2004/04/cheneys_wife_ha.html


Publisher cancels reissue of racy novel by Lynne Cheney

NEW YORK (AP)

A publisher has canceled plans to reissue a racy novel by Lynne Cheney, wife of Vice President Dick Cheney, after she said the book did not represent her "best work."

New American Library, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA), was going to reprint Sisters, a historical romance published in 1981 that includes brothels, attempted rapes and a lesbian love affair.

"We felt interest was growing because it was an election year and we decided it could be a timely book," Liz Perl, executive director of publicity at New American Library, told The Associated Press on Friday.

But according to Cheney's attorney, Robert Barnett, she did not even know about the reissue until receiving calls last week from the media. Barnett then contacted the publisher, which agreed this week to pull the novel.

"I told them that she did not think the book was her best work," said Barnett, who represents numerous political leaders, including former President Clinton and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

"If there is a serious demand for this 25-year-old book, I am confident that America's used bookstores will be able to satisfy it," Barnett said.

Perl and Barnett said no legal action was threatened. Although New American Library had the rights to reissue the novel, Perl said, there was no desire "to put out a book that the author was not happy with."

Liberals have often mocked Sisters, noting that Cheney is a longtime conservative and that President Bush supports a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

Her novel was the subject of a recent satirical performance at the New York Theatre Workshop, with actors reading such passages as, "Let us go away together, away from the anger and imperatives of men. There will be only the two of us, and we shall linger through long afternoons of sweet retirement. In the evenings I shall read to you while you work your cross-stitch in the firelight. And then we shall go to bed, our bed, my dearest girl."

Sisters has long been out of print and is not mentioned in Cheney's biography on the White House Web site. In 2001, she told a New York Times reporter that she couldn't even remember the plot.

Cheney has been active in publishing over the past couple of years, releasing the best-selling children's book America: A Patriotic Primer, and sponsoring a literary prize, the James Madison Book Award, for the best history written for young people. She was a featured speaker in February at the Association of American Publishers' annual meeting.


http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2004-04-03-cheney-book_x.htm

http://dogbert.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?imagefield.x=27&an=Lynne+Cheney&cm_re=A*Search+Box*Form&tn=Sisters&imagefield.y=14