Truthy

In 1980, there appeared a most interesting memoir--Amazons: An Intimate Memoir by the First Woman Ever to Play in the National Hockey League. Ostensibly written by Cleo Birdwell, its author is in fact Don DeLillo, and its subject never existed.

According to the article, "The Puck Stopped Here", published in BookForum, DeLillo's publisher at the time turned down the novel. But the book still managed to find its audience:

"Holt, Rinehart, and Winston picked Amazons up and proceeded to publish it with deadpan skill, slyly eliding the question of its factual nature. They hired a willowy model-actress to pose in full Rangers regalia for the four-color back-cover author’s photo. This game gal also consented to travel to Chicago for the Ameri­can Booksellers Association convention, where her appearance at the booth to sign galleys, again in a Rangers uniform, created an aisle-clogging sensation. As a result, Holt printed twenty thousand copies, roughly double DeLillo’s usual run, and had to go back for a second printing of five thousand copies."

Amazons is out of print, but you can still find copies online.--David E