USA Today is running a story on the recent decision by publisher New American Library to cancel plans to republish a novel (Sisters) featuring positive portrayals of proto-feminists, prostitutes and lesbians (Publisher cancels reissue of racy novel by Lynne Cheney). The reason the poorly-written book was to be republished was because of its author, Lynne Cheney, wife of the Vice-President. Of course, a book that featured an empowering view of the love that dare not speak its name would be an embarrassment to a White House seeking to ban homosexuals from equal protection of the laws. Amazon describes the book thus (Amazon.com: Books: Sisters):

Sophie Dymond had overcome nineteenth-century prejudices to succeed as publisher of a hugely popular women's magazine. But when she left New York to revisit her native Wyoming, where her sister had died mysteriously, she left her prestige and power far behind. Waiting for Sophie was a world where women were treated either as decorative figurines or as abject sexual vassals...where wives were led to despise the marriage act and prostitutes pandered to husbands' hungers...where the relationship between women and men became a kind of guerilla warfare in which women were forced to band together for the strength they needed and at times for the love they wanted. In her effort to grasp the meaning of her sister's life and death, Sophie discovers the secret that tainted her life and begins to understand the experience of the vast majority of silent, trapped women.

Be sure to read the readers' reviews.

In any case, although used copies of the book are going for more than your standard paperback, Cheney's lawyer had this to say, "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."

According to her bio, Mrs. Cheney "has loved history for as long as she can remember, and she has spent much of her professional life writing and speaking about the importance of knowing history and teaching it well." But not her history, apparently.

An English professor at Princeton looks at the novel, here: Lynne Cheney, Feminist Intellectual?.

An annotated WIKI of the novel would be a great idea, I think.

via LawGeek