SALT LAKE CITY — Ten years after her
kidnapping, Elizabeth Smart is preparing her story of being held captive
by a homeless street preacher, her improbable rescue after nine
months, and how she advocated for children after the ordeal.
St. Martin's Press bought the
rights to the memoir from the now 25-year-old senior at Brigham Young
University. Smart married a fellow Mormon missionary, Matthew Gilmour,
in February.
The account is being written
by Utah Congressman-elect Chris Stewart, who has authored books with
religious and patriotic themes. He was elected in November to serve in
the 2nd Congressional District, replacing Jim Matheson who was re-elected but switched to the newly-formed 4th Congressional District.
Stewart said Friday that Smart has made a surprising recovery from the brutal experience at the hands of her captor.
"She has taken a professional
outlook on this and is able to talk in an impressive way about these
things frankly," Stewart said, adding that parts of her book would
receive "appropriate" but not "salacious" treatment.
"She's not shying away from this story," he said.
Smart has said she waited for
the March 2011 sentencing of Brian David Mitchell before collaborating
on the telling of her story, which has been in the works for nearly a
year.
Mitchell, a onetime itinerant
street preacher, was convicted of Smart's kidnapping and sexual assault.
He is serving two life sentences at a federal prison in Arizona. He
snatched the then-14-year-old Smart from her Salt Lake bedroom at
knifepoint on June 5, 2002.
The book won't just be the
story of Smart's captivity but also will depict how she organized the
Elizabeth Smart Foundation and brought more attention and law
enforcement techniques to the cases of missing and abused children,
said her publicist Christopher Thomas.
"She started the foundation to get her message across, and book was another way to do it," Thomas said.
It will be the fourth book about the kidnapping that caused a national sensation.
The first was "Held Captive," a
quick treatment published months after police captured Smart walking
along a busy Sandy street with Mitchell and his wife Wanda Barzee, who
is serving a 15-year sentence.
Then came her parents' bestseller, "Bringing Elizabeth Home: A Journey of Faith and Hope."
A more revealing account was
"Plain Sight: The Startling Truth Behind the Elizabeth Smart
Investigation," by Deseret News photographer Tom Smart — the girl's
uncle — and News columnist Lee Benson.
Their book chronicled the
police and FBI investigation that initially ignored the eyewitness
account of Elizabeth Smart's 9-year-old sister, who was able to identify
the abductor as a handyman who had worked at the family's home.
The book also delved into Mitchell's disturbing religious beliefs.
"We never talked to Elizabeth
about our book," Tom Smart said. "We did not want to tell her story. We
want her to tell her story."
Source : http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865567381/Congressman-elect-writing-Elizabeth-Smarts-memoir.html?pg=all
