Sept. 11 Author Reinvited To Square

Less than two weeks after WordsWorth Books cancelled an appearance by controversial 9/11 author William Langewiesche, the bookseller announced yesterday that it has reinvited him.

WordsWorth owner Hillel Stavis said that logistical concerns—not an aversion to controversy—forced the original cancellation and that he remains committed to bringing Langewiesche to Cambridge.

Langewiesche is the author of American Ground: The Unbuilding of the World Trade Center, a book that has angered firefighters for its critical assessment of their role in recovery efforts at Ground Zero. Firefighters say they object to allegations in the book that they participated in looting and did not cooperate with other rescue workers at the scene.

WordsWorth has come under fire for its cancellation, which critics said amounted to censorship. The store did not comment at the time, but representatives of a Massachusetts firefighters union claimed victory in bringing about the cancellation.

Yesterday, Stavis said security concerns over planned firefighter protests torpedoed the event.

“We obviously want to be sensitive to everyone’s feelings, but we are a bookstore, and we’ve never practiced censorship, and we’re not going to begin practicing it now,” he said. “It was a matter of logistics.”

According to Stavis, the bookstore was unprepared to deal with the magnitude of the protest that firefighters had planned. But he said WordsWorth has always planned to hold the event.

“We certainly have every intention of hosting him and the book,” he said.

According to Stavis, WordsWorth has contacted Langewiesche’s publisher to re-extend the invitation. Stavis said that if the author accepts, the store will be ready for protests.

Representatives of the firefighters union could not be reached for comment yesterday.

But Robert B. McCarthy, president of the Professional Fire Fighters of Massachusetts, has said the union would protest future appearances by Langewiesche.

“We’re going to boycott every place we can and call him a liar,” McCarthy said at the time of the cancellation. “We don’t want people buying his book.”

This is not the first time WordsWorth has rescheduled an event due to security concerns, Stavis said.

Salman Rushdie was scheduled to appear in 1989 one week after a fatwa, or death sentence, was pronounced against him. Rushdie did not appear at the time but did visit later—under heavy police guard.

“We had to schedule a whole contingent of Cambridge police,” Stavis said.