NEW YORK ( Associated Press) – “Hillbilly Elegy” is the second book by author and US Senate candidate JD Vance The publisher told the Associated Press on Thursday that it was under contract with Harper’s.
The book, which is currently listed on Amazon.com and most recently on the HarperCollins Publishers Web site, is called “A Contextual Faith: Exploring a Meaningful American Christianity.” The imprint Harper never formally announced the book, listing over 320 pages and with different release dates on different sites, but confirmed that a deal had been agreed.
A spokesperson told the Associated Press: “Harper and Mr. Vance agreed not to go ahead with the previously contracted book a while back.” The publisher declined to say when or why the book was dropped.
Vance converted to Catholicism in 2019, saying he grew up without a strong attachment to any branch of Christianity, but “became convinced over time that Catholicism was true.”
A spokesperson for Vance did not immediately respond Thursday to a request for comment, including whether Vance might release the book through another publisher.
Vance, who prevailed in a bitter Republican primary for the US Senate in Ohio this week, became a national figure with the best-selling “Hillbilly Elegy.” Her memoir about growing up in the struggling Ohio steel mill town of Middletown and her roots in Appalachian Kentucky was signed by Harper in 2013 and published just months before Donald Trump’s surprise victory in 2016. But during and after the election, it was sought after by those who thought of Trump’s appeal to rural communities? Who ever voted Democratic.
In 2020, “Hillbilly Elegy” Directed by Ron Howard and starring Amy Adams and Glenn Close was made into an Oscar-nominated film.
Vance was a sharp critic of Trump, but changed his views and was endorsed by the former president during the primary, He will face Democrat Tim Ryan, a 10-time congressman, in the running for the general election to fill the seat vacated by retiring Republican Senator Rob Portman.
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