Stephen King backs Woody book
After publishers axe Allen’s memoirs amid row over his ‘abuse’ of adopted daughter, top author hits back
BESTSELLING author Stephen King has hit out at a publisher’s decision to cancel the release of Woody Allen’s memoir.
The autobiography, Apropos Of Nothing, has been heavily criticised due to allegations by the 84-year-old director’s adopted daughter that he molested her as a child.
After staff at Hachette Book Group in New York walked out at the end of last week in protest, the firm said it would not go ahead with the publication. But The Shining author Mr King said he felt ‘very uneasy’ about the decision.
He wrote on Twitter: ‘It’s not him; I don’t give a damn about Mr Allen. It’s who gets muzzled next that worries me. Once you start, the next one is always easier.
‘If you think he’s a paedophile, don’t buy the book. Don’t go to his movies. Don’t go listen to him play jazz. Vote with your wallet... by withholding it. In America, that’s how we do it.’ Jo Glanville, the former director of writers’ group English PEN, also described the decision as ‘worrying for writers and for readers’.
The Allen family has been bitterly divided since Dylan – Allen’s adopted daughter with the actress
Mia Farrow – accused the Annie Hall director of molesting her in the early 1990s.
Allen denies the allegations and was not charged following two separate investigations.
Hachette had worked with Allen’s son Ronan on his acclaimed book
Catch And Kill, which explored how powerful men such as Harvey Weinstein avoided punishment for sexual crimes. In a statement last week, Ronan criticised the publisher and hinted he would no longer work with them.
However, Jo Glanville said: ‘When
Hachette bought Woody Allen’s autobiography, they no doubt expected it to be controversial. And no doubt they expected it to be a commercial success.
‘I am always afraid when a mob, however small and well-read, exercises power without any accounta
bility, process or redress. That frightens me much more than the prospect of Woody Allen’s autobiography hitting the bookstores.’
Writing for the Observer, she added: ‘The staff at Hachette who walked out last week clearly thought that they were doing the right thing morally. But, as has been repeated many times, Woody Allen was investigated on two occasions and has never been charged.
‘ Nothing has been proven. There is in fact no acceptable reason for not publishing Woody Allen’s book. The staff at Hachette who walked out were not behaving like publishers, they were acting as censors.’ Allen left Mia Farrow, his partner of 12 years, for her adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn in 1992. He and Soon-Yi, 49, who is 35 years his junior, are still married.
Ronan Allen has accused Hachette of not fact- checking the memoirs, saying that Dylan, 34, had not been contacted to respond to ‘any denial or mischaracterisation of the abuse she suffered at the hands’ of her adoptive father. A statement from Hachette said: ‘The decision to cancel Mr Allen’s book was a difficult one.
‘At HBG we take our relationships with authors very seriously, and do not cancel books lightly.
‘We have published and will continue to publish many challenging books.
‘As publishers, we make sure every day in our work that different voices and conflicting points of views can be heard.’
Allen’s book was scheduled to come out next month.
After the publisher’s announcement, Ronan tweeted: ‘I’m grateful to all the Hachette employees and authors who spoke up and to the company for listening.’
But an editorial in the New York Post hit out at him, saying: ‘He claims to stand against abusers of power – but he has just flagrantly abused his own.’
‘They were acting as censors’