The $3-Million Book

Here's a nice little story that says there's still hope for a bribe-free, morally just society. I'll cut-and-paste it just as I found it at Avedon Carol's ("Interweaving the Internet").

Bookslut: In May 2005, Cary McNair told the St. Andrew's Episcopal School in Austin, TX that if they did not remove Annie Proulx's short story "Brokeback Mountain" from its 12th grade reading list, he would pull a donation of $3 million to the school's rebuilding fund. St. Andrew's board of trustees opted to leave the story on the reading list and let McNair keep his money. Board member Bill Miller said, "St. Andrew's has a policy not to accept conditional gifts, whether it's $5 or $500,000." The school's decision caught the attention of author Lisa Yee, who posted the story on a listserv for young adult fiction authors. Two other authors had the same immediate response. Jordan Sonnenblick said, "[Mark Williams] and I posted back at the same time, 'We need to all send books to that school to support them.'"

Posted on April 5, 2007 at 11.55 by jns · Permalink
In: All, Briefly Noted

2 Responses

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  1. Written by S.W. Anderson
    on Thursday, 5 April 2007 at 13.40
    Permalink

    This really is a good-news story in a time when integrity seems to be in desperately short supply.

    Good for that school, its administrators and trustees. That kind of money has to be hard to turn down, but they've provided their students, and maybe some other school officials, an outstanding example of putting principle before money.

  2. Written by Sam
    on Friday, 6 April 2007 at 03.04
    Permalink

    Wonderful news. Thank G*d integrity is not dead, otherwise after censorship there could be book burning, and we all know where that might lead!! As an Englishman, we hear often of the grim state of US corporate morality, (like here in the UK too). This story refutes that perception to a very considerable degree.

    Best Wishes

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