MAIN NEWS HEADLINES
February 12 – February 19, 2009 Edition
Random House
To Publish Memoir
By Diane Keaton
Random House will publish a memoir by Diane Keaton, it was announced today by Gina Centrello, President and Publisher of the Random House Publishing Group. Keaton, one of the most iconic actors of the past four decades, will write about her relationship with her beloved mother, Dorothy Keaton Hall, who died of Alzheimer’s in 2008. Random House editor-at-large David Ebershoff acquired world rights from agent Bill Clegg of the William Morris Agency, and will edit the book.
During her mother’s fifteen-year illness, Keaton began to look back at her mother’s life and her own, discovering the similarities and differences that defined their bond. After giving birth to Diane, Dorothy Keaton Hall started keeping a journal, filling more than ninety notebooks over the course of her life, writing about her four children, her marriage, her frustrations of being a housewife in the 1950s and 60s, and her dreams. In her mother’s final years, Keaton took to reading those journals back to her mother, connecting mother and daughter through personal history and the written word. Shortly after her mother’s death, Keaton began to write the first pages of what would become her memoir.
“From the outside looking in,” Keaton writes, “Mom and I lived completely different lives. She was a housewife and mother who dreamed of success, I am an actor who had a life that has been – in some respects – beyond my wildest dreams, but who made choices to make them come true. I was an ordinary girl, who became an ordinary woman, with one exception, Mother gave me extraordinary will. The profound love and gratitude I feel now that he’s left has compelled me to try to unravel the mystery of her journey. In so doing I hope to find the hidden meaning of our relationship and understand why realized dreams are such a strange burden.”
“Diane Keaton is the face of her generation,” said Centrello. “For decades we have come to know her through her many unforgettable performances. Now readers will get to know her even more intimately through her unforgettablemother. The story of their relationship is one that will resonate with mothers and daughters everywhere.”
Keaton is one of the most accomplished actors of her generation. Nominated for the Academy Award four times, she won Best Actress in 1977 for her legendary performance in “Annie Hall”. She has starred in more than thirtyfilms, including “The Godfather” (Parts I, II, and III), “Looking for Mr. Goodbar”, “Manhattan”, “Reds”, “Baby Boom”, “Father of the Bride”, “The First Wives Club”, “Marvin’s Room”, and “Something’s Gotta Give”.
Tentative publication date is 2012.
