Joan Mellen vs her editor....

So JJ, one of the writers, heard an author interviewed, was immediately intrigued by the book, and went looking for more info about it. Telling me about it, she said:

"Heard this gal on Jon Elliott's show. Sounds like a good book. She interviewed over a thousand people. Says New Orleans terrified her. Water rising even on sunny days -- but also afraid for herself because of the questions she was asking."

Here's a short description of author, book subject, and the reason she was worried about her own safety:

Biographer Joan Mellen met New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison in 1969. In 1997, Mellen started to work on the story of his life and his relentless search for the truth about what happened to President Kennedy. It turned into a new investigation of the assassination itself. She joins Jon Elliott to discuss the new book, A Farewell to Justice: Jim Garrison, JFK's Assasination, and the Case That Should Have Changed History

JJ also read a commentor's complaint about the arrangement of the footnotes, so used Mellen's
explanation during the interview to explain the problem:

Re the page references being off (shame on the editor!) and the notes. Mellen delivered a 1500 page mss. The information in what is now the notes was contained in the body of the mss. The publisher wanted the book but, bowing to the sales staff demands, asked her to cut the length which she did as much as she felt she could -- but it was still not enough.

So then someone (can't remember if she said who) suggested pulling this and that info out and putting it as supporting notes. Thus the mss. would be shortened but the info would still be there. The first version, she said, had the notes in print so small you literally had to work with a magnifier to read it. She wouldn't go for that, so they settled on whatever print the notes are in now -- still small, but, Jon said, legible.

She--and he--said not to ignore the notes because they tell a story that has now been pulled out of the text.

From everything Mellen had to say, and everything I read here in the reviews, I have to think she got it right. She certainly did her homework. I'm looking forward to reading the book. Am thinking it won't be an easy or quick read, but maybe an important one since now we have the advantage of looking at history from a far distance.

So that's my take.

Wrap...