Editor Quits Over Bush Book

The editor-in-chief of St. Martin's Press, the publishing house that recalled its new biography of Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush, has resigned in protest.

In a brief resignation statement issued Tuesday, Robert Wallace said he did not "in any way" want to be associated with the book, Fortunate Son.

"I didn't want to be associated with a book I have no control over," Wallace told The Washington Post in an interview appearing in Wednesday's editions. "I haven't even read the book."

Last week, St. Martin's Press recalled the book, which it published Oct. 19, after learning through published reports that the author, J.H. Hatfield, was paroled from a Texas prison in 1993 after serving time for a felony conviction. Hatfield has called his conviction a case of mistaken identity.

Citing anonymous sources, the book alleges that Bush, now Texas' governor, was arrested for cocaine possession in 1972 and that the matter was dropped after he performed community service arranged by his father, George Herbert Walker Bush, then U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

The younger Bush has called the allegations "science fiction" and "totally ridiculous."

St. Martin's issued a statement countering that Wallace had read the afterword to the book - the part containing the part about the alleged cocaine arrest "and advised on various aspects of the book's launch."

"At no time prior to its release did he object to the afterword or the publication of the book," according to an account of the St. Martin's statement published Wednesday in The New York Times.

Sally Richardson, president and publisher of St. Martin's Press, told the Times she spent four days trying to persuade Wallace to remain at the company, staying up until 3 a.m. on Tuesday as part of her effort.

"I don't understand why he's leaving a job over this," she told the Times. "He's clearly in pain. If you talk to him, he's miserable so it's sincere. But I'll never understand it."

Wallace acknowledged he had read the afterword but said he was "never given a copy of the manuscript or the book."

He told the New York paper his advice about publishing it was sought only days before publication in an eleventh-hour meeting on Oct. 15 after it became clear the Times would not publish an article about the book because it could not corroborate the book's more explosive accusations.

The book was publised under the imprint of Thomas Dunne Books, a St. Martin branch overseen by senior editor Thomas Dunne.

The Times quoted St. Martin employees as saying there had been tension between Wallace and Dunne, a longtime employee who had been passed over for the top editor's position when Wallace, a former ABC producer and Rolling Stone editor, was chosen for the top position, his first job in book publishing.