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Lynch book 1mil deal Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/books/09/02/jessica.lynch.book.ap/index.htmlhttp://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/books/09/02/jessica.lynch.book.ap/index.html
Lynch agrees to $1 million book deal
Rick Bragg to co-write work
NEW YORK (AP) --Jessica Lynch, the former prisoner of war whose capture and rescue from an Iraqi hospital made her a national hero, has agreed to a $1 million book deal with publisher Alfred A. Knopf.
"Many folks have written, expressing their support for me and for the thousands of other soldiers who serve their country," Lynch said in a statement issued Tuesday by Knopf.
"I feel I owe them all this story, which will be about more than a girl going off to war and fighting alongside her fellow soldiers. It will be a story about growing up in America."
Doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington have said it was unlikely Lynch would remember the events of her capture.
"I Am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story," co-written by Pulitzer Prize winner Rick Bragg, is scheduled to come out in mid-November with a first printing of around 500,000 copies, Knopf spokesman Paul Bogaards said.
Financial terms were not disclosed, but a source close to the negotiations said Lynch and Bragg will divide a $1 million advance. The source spoke on condition of anonymity.
"I feel a kinship with Jessica and her family, and am thrilled at the prospect of bringing this story to the wider world," Bragg said in the statement issued by Knopf. He has been granted exclusive access to Lynch and her family.
Lynch, 20, received a medical discharge from the Army last week. She suffered multiple broken bones and other injuries when her 507th Maintenance Company was ambushed in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah on March 23.
She was rescued on April 1 and returned home to Palestine, West Virginia, in July to a hero's welcome after a long stay at Walter Reed.
"I am feeling better every day, and all the good wishes of the many who have written have certainly kept my spirits up," Lynch said in the statement. "I am walking with crutches, but my doctors tell me that as I gain strength I will be able to walk on my own again soon. I am looking forward to those first steps."
Calls to the Lynch family home went unanswered Tuesday. Lynch's grandmother, Wyonema Lynch, who lives across the street, said she looks forward to reading the book.
"We don't talk about what happened to her over there," Mrs. Lynch said. "When she wants to tell me, she will."
She said her granddaughter's fiance, Army Sgt. Ruben Contreras Jr., 24, spent the weekend in Palestine and returned to Fort Bliss, Texas, on Monday.
"They seem to be an ideal couple," Wyonema Lynch said. "She's got her heart set on spending the holiday with his family in Colorado. She's doing so good I think she will be able to make it."
Bragg has written several books, including the memoir "All Over but the Shoutin'," and won the feature-writing Pulitzer in 1996, two years after he began working for The New York Times. He resigned from the Times in May after the newspaper suspended him over a story that carried his byline but was reported largely by a freelancer.
Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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