Spiegel & Grau Acquires Memoir By Augusten Burroughs’ Mother: Author to Tell ‘Her Own Story Her Way’

Leon Neyfakh — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 16:31:10 -0400

73-year-old poet Margaret Robison, who was controversially depicted as a negligent lunatic by her son Augusten Burroughs in the book Running With Scissors, has signed with Spiegel & Grau to write a memoir in which she'll tell "her own story her way," according to an announcement posted this morning to the Publishers Marketplace deal-wire.

The book, tentatively titled A Place to Come Home To, went out last week from agent David Kuhn and was sold to Spiegel & Grau in a pre-empt on Thursday, the day after the imprint was split from its home at Doubleday and attached to Random House's flagship division as part of a major company-wide reorganization.

The publicity department at Little Random followed the deal announcement on Publishers Marketplace with their own press release, which made note of the fact that Ms. Robison's book was Spiegel & Grau's first acquisition since moving divisions.

According to that press release, Ms. Robison "draws on years of journals and diaries" and "describes, in spare and moving words, the way she fought her way back from mental illness, near total paralysis and loss of speech to her present life in which she enjoys a hard-won ability to speak, write, and reflect on her journey."

Referring to Running With Scissors and Look Me in the Eye, the memoir written by Ms. Robison's other son, John Elder Robison, the press release from Random House says that Ms. Robison's book will add "a new dimension to the family portrait previously painted from the perspective of her two sons."

Augusten Burroughs’ Mother Margaret Robison Shopping a Memoir

Leon Neyfakh — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 21:56:33 -0400

Roughly two weeks after orchestrating a six figure book deal for one-time girlfriend of J.D. Salinger Joyce Maynard, literary agent David Kuhn is selling a memoir by Margaret Robison, the mother of Augusten Burroughs. Mr. Kuhn actually submitted Ms. Robison's book earlier this week, but calls to his office today went unreturned so we don't know if it's been sold yet.

Ms. Robison, a poet and a writer in her own right, was portrayed brutally in her son's 2002 book Running With Scissors as a self-obsessed, negligent mother. That book created more than a few bad feelings within Mr. Burroughs' family—both biological and adoptive—not to mention a lawsuit, as chronicled by Vanity Fair's Buzz Bissinger in 2007. (His work has also been closely scrutinized in the post-James Frey era by writers like New York Magazine's Sam Anderson.)

Ms. Robison has spoken calmly about her son's book it in interviews since, insisting that she does not hold her son's book against him but making clear that she has issues with certain facets of his account.

"I've had to forgive myself for many things," Ms. Robison told NPR in 2006. "To forgive my son. I have worked a long time with forgiveness." She also said that Running with Scissors "offered [her] the opportunity to grow spiritually in a way that nothing had" before.

"I'm grateful for that book... I'm grateful for the opportunity that it gave me to grow spiritually."

We'll see if Ms. Robison's memoir offers her son the same opportunity.

Observer » Augusten Burroughs

Spiegel & Grau Acquires Memoir By Augusten Burroughs’ Mother: Author to Tell ‘Her Own Story Her Way’

Augusten Burroughs’ Mother Margaret Robison Shopping a Memoir