Oprah Chooses New Book

Measure is the first title Oprah has given her seal of approval to since James Frey's memoir, A Million Little Pieces, was exposed as partially fabricated and caused Winfrey considerable embarrassment. Oprah's Book Club has been a major boon to the publishing industry; her imprimatur on a title means gold at the checkout counter.

Originally published in September 2000, The Measure of a Man is Poitier's second memoir and recounts his rise from an impoverished childhood on Cat Island in the Bahamas to his Oscar-winning film career. The book includes meditations on integrity, commitment, faith and forgiveness and finding meaningful pleasures in life. The book sold 125,000 hardcovers and paperbacks in its first run, according to the publisher.

Winfrey was chastened when the Smoking Gun Web site revealed that Frey had faked significant portions of A Million Little Pieces, a book she heavily promoted through her club and initially defended. That book had gone on to sell some 1.7 million copies following her imprimatur and in excess of three million copies in all. Despite the scandal, Winfrey still managed to turn a revised edition of Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel's Holocaust memoir Night into a million-copy bestseller.

Mark Tauber, vice president and deputy publisher of HarperSanFrancisco, called Poitier's memoir "a great inspirational story about an authentic life. Oprah loves these kinds of stories," he added in a telephone interview today, "and she's never been shy about saying how much he's been important to her career. It makes a lot of sense."