Staff members of the Cobb County (Ga.) Public Library started the January 24 workweek with a barrage of phone calls from across the country about the absence of Hell to Pay: The Unfolding Story of Hillary Rodham Clinton in their collections.
According to the January 26 Cobb Times, the calls were precipitated by a January 23 story in the online Drudge Report that an East Marietta branch librarian had told a patron that CCPL wouldn’t acquire the title because it had been panned by critics. The Drudge Report also noted that the system had purchased Gail Sheehy’s Hillary’s Choice, which is more sympathetic to the first lady.
“We weren’t being political,” library Director Gail Rogers told the Times. However, she acknowledged that although “We didn’t think there would be much interest in it” when it first came out, the controversy had motivated officials to order the book for all 16 branches on January 24. “Everybody will want to know what this is all about,” Rogers said of the turnabout.
Posted January 31, 2000.