Start Publishing’s Viva Editions imprint will release Anne Heche’s memoir Call Me Anne on January 24. An award-winning actress, Heche died in August in a car crash in Los Angeles.
Start president Jarred Weisfeld said the memoir was largely finished before Heche’s death. The company is working with the Heche estate to complete plans for the book’s publication, Weisfeld said. Start acquired world rights to the book in an unagented deal.
Heche had published a previous book, Call Me Crazy, with Simon & Schuster’s Lisa Drew Books imprint in September 2001. Interest in the book soared following her death, but Call Me Crazy has been out-of-print for several years.
"Anne was an inspiration to the LGBTQ+ community and beyond," said Weisfeld. "This book deserves to be read by all of her fans. We are grateful to have the opportunity to share her message with the world. While we are very sad that Anne isn’t here to see the book be published we know it’s what she would have wanted."
In its promotional materials, Start calls Call Me Anne the sequel to Call Me Crazy. Start said the forthcoming memoir “consist[s] of personal anecdotes of her rise to fame: how Harrison Ford became her on-set mentor, her relationship with Ellen Degeneres, her encounter with Harvey Weinstein, her history of childhood sexual abuse, her relationship with God, her journey to love herself.”
In a epilogue to the book, Heather Duffy, Heche’s partner on the Better Together with Ann and Heather podcast, wrote: “[Heche’s] wish was that this book could help others get to the other side of pain and learn about her philosophy, which allowed her to remain in a life where she woke up each day looking for opportunities to find joy and spread kindness. So, in some ways, knowing her the way I do and knowing that spreading her message of kindness is what mattered to her most, she would be content that the last thing she worked on was this book.”
