Word: mitchard
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Dates: during 1996-1996
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After a typically hectic working day in September, Jacquelyn Mitchard returned from her journalism job to her Madison, Wisconsin, house and found a phone message from Oprah Winfrey. Mitchard, a recently widowed mother of five, ages 1 to 21, did what any sensible person would do: she erased the obvious prank. "I have a friend who calls and says he's Richard Nixon," she explains. Two days later came another taped call from Oprah, followed by another erasure. Then a third, a day or so later, with the sign-off "This really is Oprah Winfrey...
...ever. When Mitchard finally returned the call, she learned that her just published first novel, The Deep End of the Ocean, had been chosen as the initial recommendation of Oprah's Book Club, a new once-a-month feature on America's most popular syndicated talk show. Mitchard had no idea what this news meant: "I was so surprised that it really was Oprah, because there is not much of a tradition of writers on talk shows. Even as a writer I wouldn't want to hear myself talk about fiction for an hour...
Here is what the news meant: Mitchard's novel, an account of the sudden disappearance of a three-year-old child, sold about 100,000 copies before Oprah recommended it to her 15 million to 20 million daily viewers. Now The Deep End of the Ocean has become entrenched at the top of the New York Times fiction best-seller list, ahead of works by Sue Grafton, Danielle Steel, Mary Higgins Clark, Scott Turow and Stephen King. As she watched her novel sweep past such household names, Mitchard says, "I felt I was having an out-of-body experience...
...disputes the power of OPRAH WINFREY to move merchandise. But is Oprah powerful enough to get people to turn off their TVs and read? She may be. The talk-show host recently announced that her show would conduct "the biggest book club in the whole world," and that Jacquelyn Mitchard's The Deep End of the Ocean would be her first discussion subject. That alone sent the novel to the top of bestseller lists around the country. And even though her semiannual book shows get low ratings, Oprah told the Washington Post, "I always feel if you do right, right...