true compass

Would You Pay $1,000 For Ted Kennedy's Memoirs?

Filed under: Books

My colleague Jared Paul Stern recently reported that Hugh Hefner's biography will run $1,300 a figure no doubt made more tempting by the inclusion of selections from Playboy magazine. But will readers pay $1,000 for Ted Kennedy's memoir, "True Compass?" The NY Times Media Decoder blog says that the publisher, Twelve, an imprint of Grand Central Publishing will issue a limited edition run of 1,000 leather-bound and electronically-signed versions of the memoir. The limited edition will include family photos that are not available in the standard hardcover. The edition will be sold through Hachette Book Group, the parent company of Grand Central of which Twelve is an imprint. Standard copies will sell for $35 and the book will be released in October.

Kennedy is said to have received $8 million for the book which he wrote with Ron Powers, an author of "Flags of Our Fathers." Kennedy is far from the first political figure with an expensive book. A limited edition of President Clinton's massive "My Life" sold for $350 and a leather-bound version of President Reagan's memoir "An American Life" was sold for $1,500 back in 1990.

Gallery: The Pricey Tomes