Stephen King has attacked the recent axing of Woody Allen’s memoir, saying it makes him “very uneasy”.
It was announced this week that Allen’s upcoming memoir has been dropped by its publishers Hachette amid accusations that the filmmaker sexually abused his adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow.
Taking to Twitter, author King wrote: “The Hachette decision to drop the Woody Allen book makes me very uneasy.
“It’s not him,” he added. “I don’t give a damn about Mr Allen. It’s who gets muzzled next that worries me.”
The Hachette decision to drop the Woody Allen book makes me very uneasy. It’s not him; I don’t give a damn about Mr. Allen. It’s who gets muzzled next that worries me.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) March 6, 2020
“Once you start, the next one is always easier,” King added.
Once you start, the next one is always easier.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) March 6, 2020
In a statement posted on Friday (March 6), Hachette officially announced that they will no longer publish Apropos of Nothing, which was set to come out on April 7.
It came after staff members, led by Allen’s son and journalist Ronan Farrow, walked out of Hachette’s office in New York in protest of Allen’s book release going ahead.
“The decision to cancel Mr. Allen’s book was a difficult one,” the company wrote, adding that they “take [their] relationships with authors very seriously, and do not cancel books lightly.”
A statement from @HachetteUS. pic.twitter.com/KjYJm6EpTB
— Little, Brown and Co (@littlebrown) March 6, 2020
Following the announcement, Dylan Farrow shared a message of thanks with the companies on Twitter, writing that she is “in awe and so very grateful” to those who took a stand.
To all the employees of @HachetteUS, @littlebrown, and @GrandCentralPub who took a stand, I’m in awe and so very grateful. pic.twitter.com/Si4oXpudde
— Dylan Farrow (@RealDylanFarrow) March 6, 2020
In a thread of tweets, King added that it was “fucking tone-deaf of Hachette to want to publish Woody Allen’s book after publishing Ronan Farrow’s,” referring to Farrow’s investigative book Catch and Kill, an investigation into the #MeToo movement and the Harvey Weinstein scandal.
Let me add that it was fucking tone-deaf of Hachette to want to publish Woody Allen’s book after publishing Ronan Farrow’s.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) March 7, 2020
Upon the announcement that Hachette were set to release the Allen memoir, Farrow criticised the publisher for double standards.
