Mary Matalin's first book for her new S & S imprint, Threshold, has been announced, and it doesn't sound half-bad (unlike, say, her imprint's title). According to the NY Times, Threshold's pub debut will be a memoir by Mary Cheney, Lynne & Dick's lesbian -- and, until now, quite private -- daughter.

Carolyn Reidy, president of adult books at Simon & Schuster, said Ms. Cheney's book would be not only an account of the campaigns by a singularly highly placed insider but also "about her own role, about being thrust into the spotlight unwanted and her opinions about that."

Simon & Schuster said it expects to publish the memoir in May 2006, two years before Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney leave office.

Ms. Matalin said Ms. Cheney felt she could speak out now.

"She had to remain reticent and her parents had to remain very reticent until the 2004 campaign was over because she had a job to do. We all had jobs to do," Ms. Matalin said. "But she is highly articulate and opinionated and interesting, and she thinks for herself and wants to say it in her own words."

... Ms. Matalin herself has been associated with the Republican Unity Coalition, a group of gay and straight Republicans who hoped to make the party more welcoming to gay men and lesbians. Her friends said she privately opposed a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, although Ms. Matalin has also never commented publicly on that.