Western Book Roundup
Two Montana Residents File Suit Against Greg Mortenson, While Others Defend Him
By Jenny Shank, 5-11-11
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The rather dispiriting saga of Montana writer and philanthropist Greg Mortenson continues this week, with two Montana residents, Jena Price of Great Falls, and Missoula Rep. Michele Reinhart, filing suit against the author of Three Cups of Tea in the wake of allegations on the news program “60 Minutes” that he fictionalized some aspects of the book and misused funds intended for his charity, the Central Asia Institute. According to the AP, the suit “claims Mortenson and CAI [his nonprofit, Central Asia Institute] committed fraud by inducing them to donate and buy his book.” The Missoula Independent reports Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock is investigating Mortenson and CAI.
Kim Murphy of The Los Angeles Times interviewed Bozeman residents about the controversy (“With philanthropist under attack, hometown comes to his defense”), and found most people still support Mortenson, including the owner of the Country Bookshelf:
“Ariana Paliobagis, owner of the Country Bookshelf bookstore in Bozeman’s upscale, Old West-style downtown, where Mortenson book signings have been a regular event, said, ‘All of my interactions with Greg have just shown him to be a hard-working person, throwing himself into this work with everything that he has.’”
Dennis Higman’s essay “The Greg Mortenson We Knew” for New West inspired some spirited remarks in the comments section.
• Okay, on to something a little bit happier: book prizes. The thirteen finalists for this year’s Indie Booksellers Choice Awards include The Lonely Polygamist by Boise’s Brady Udall and Matterhorn by Oregon’s Karl Marlantes. And let’s include the nod for The Singer’s Gun by Emily St. John Mandel, published by Colorado-based Unbridled Books. The winners will be announced May 23rd at Housing Works Bookstore in New York.
• The PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction was given to Deborah Eisenberg for The Collected Stories of Deborah Eisenberg last week. Laramie’s Brad Watson was a finalist for the prize, and he received $5,000 along with the other three finalists, Pulitzer Prize winner Jennifer Egan, National Book Award winner Jaimy Gordon, and Eric Puchner. Watson also won a Guggenheim Fellowship this year. (Look for New West’s interview with Watson soon.)
Another regional Guggenheim winner is Utah poet Kimberly Johnson. Ben Fulton of the Salt Lake Tribune spoke with Johnson about the honor. Fulton writes:
“Salt Lake City poet Kimberly Johnson runs for inspiration to find ‘physical expressions that find sonic counterparts in words.’ If she writes but one line of verse per week, she considers it a ‘fast pace.’
She’s as interested in ‘the slippage’ of what language can and cannot do. And the 40-year-old associate professor of English at Brigham Young University said she’s more interested in the hard work of ‘principles, theories or ideas’ than ‘gentle, little souls.’”
• The Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association is changing up its annual book award program this year, combining aspects of the Reading the West program with its usual prizes to form the Reading the West Book Awards. (I spoke to former MPIBA director Lisa Knudsen about the Reading the West program in 2009.) Booksellers, publishers, and others nominated several dozen books for honor, which are listed here. Booksellers will now read the nominees and announce a shortlist on May 20 and the winners on May 31.
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Comments
Once downloaded, proceed to page 25, Schedule J, and Mortenson's additional "Compensation Information." Note the two boxes checked 'yes' for CAI having paid for private jet charters for Mortenson and his "companions." Now go to page 10 where CAI lists its "Functional Expenses." Note now the $1.4 million spent on such 'travel' (line 17) for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30 2009. Think about that for a minute. $1.4 million of CAI's precious dollars, donated to help poor kids get an education, spent instead on private jet charter travel in support of Mortenson's book tour in just 12 months. And who benefits from the sales of all these books? By CAI's own admission, not one penny of the royalties from the sales of millions of copies of 'Three Cups' and 'Stones' comes back to the charity.
Want more? Check out page 29, where CAI notes that it spent more than $1.7 million on "book related expenses," promoting a book which the royalties from sales go directly into Mortenson's pocket.
Put simply, this is a form of theft called 'conversion,' in this case, Mortenson converted dollars donated to his charity into book royalties and appearance fees for himself. And in a tacit admission that this was so very wrong, CAI now says that in January of this year Mortenson began paying for his own book tour travel. Which of course begs the question: Is he still flying charter? (lol) And more seriously, will Mortenson repay the millions of dollars CAI has already spent promoting the books from which he personally receives the only direct financial benefit?
"Smoke and mirrors."
"I've got a bridge in Brooklyn you might be interested in."
"There's one born every minute."