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The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and Back Again)

In March 1974 Andy Warhol signed two book contracts with Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. One contract was for what would become The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and Back Again) and the other for a book that Andy planned to do on PAULETTE GODDARD's life.

Warhol agreed to give BOB COLACELLO half of the $35,000 advance to "get him going" on the proposal and outline. The books were to be titled The and Her ("and if and when Andy did an autobiography, that would be called Me", according to Colacello). (BC207)

The Paulette Goddard book never materialised (she wasn't very forthcoming with Hollywood gossip) and Pat Hackett ended up writing much of the Philosophy book. Bob Colacello gave her half of his advance. According to Colacello, Andy "absolutely refused to consider" giving Hackett a percentage of the book's future income and also "gave her a curt turnoff" when she asked for a credit - a byline - on the book. (BC208)

Pat Hackett:

"On the first book, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and Back Again), I did eight separate interviews with Andy on the basis of which I wrote chapters 1 through 8 and chapter 10. Then, using material from conversations Andy had taped between himself and Bob Colacello and Brigid Berlin, I wrote the introductory chapter and chapters 9, 11, 12, 13 and 14. It was the first major project Andy and I had worked on together, and after the book was published, in 1975, he asked me to co-author the second book with him - his memoirs of the sixties, which we decided to call Popism." (AWDXV)

Bob Colacello:

"I hadn't fully comprehended what I'd gotten myself into by ghostwriting the [Philosophy] book, until Andy was photographed for the cover of New York magazine, which had bought the first serial rights. They posed him in a closet, sitting at a typewriter, under a headline that read: 'Andy Warhol's Greatest Secret: He Likes to Write.' It finally hit me then - I was part of a big lie, and while it had lined my pockets, it robbed my ego of any hope of recognition. Pat Hackett probably felt even more ripped off: Nine chapters were wholly hers; four were mostly mine; one, 'The Tingle,' was Brigid's, and all three of us had worked on the prologue." (BC309)

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