Augusten Burroughs, who was born this day in 1965, became something of an overnight sensation when he published his memoirs, Running With Scissors, in 2002 - at the tender age of 37. It took his foster family, who were the subjects of the book, a bit longer than overnight to be outraged; in fact, it took them a couple of years to enter litigation against their former charge. Presumably they were waiting to see how well the sales went.
In 2005 the family who raised Burroughs took him to court, claiming defamation and invasion of privacy in addition to all sorts of other malfeasance on the part of the man who'd lived with them from for half a dozen years from the age of twelve. Feh! Go live with a writer. The case was settled in August 2007.
Fortunately, unlike Burroughs, I won't need to have truth on my side when I get around to publishing my memoirs; since I only have one family member left, and she's already admitted she's got a terrible memory, when the time comes I can pretty much say whatever I like.
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