Hershey is suing Simon & Schuster for the cover design of an upcoming biography of Milton Hershey, founder of the Hershey Chocolate Company, entitled Hershey: Milton S. Hershey’s Extraordinary Life of Wealth, Empire and Utopian Dreams by Michael d’Antonio.
Personally, I’m excited that someone is finally doing a real biography of this interesting figure in American candy making and philanthropy. Of course I agree with the Hershey Corp that the cover design is cleary using tradmarked materials for their own benefit. As some of my loyal readers know, my masters thesis was a biographical play about Milton S. Hershey which I researched there in Hershey during my grad school days. I was lucky enough to interview some people who knew and worked for Milton Hershey but was sadly not able to access the extensive Hershey archives at the time because they were in the process of moving during my grad school days. I’m hoping Mr. d’Antiono did get more access than I and can discuss some of the more fascinating and less-known aspects of Hershey the man and the paternalistic Utopian society he tried to create.
The book comes out next month and you can be sure that I’m adding it to my birthday wishlist.
You can read more about the case here: Herald Tribune: Hershey Sues Publisher Over Cover Image.
UPDATE: Hershey has settled the suit with Simon and Schuster:
The New York publisher agreed to add an image in the upper left corner of the front cover stating that Hershey: Milton S. Hershey’s Extraordinary Life of Wealth, Empire and Utopian Dreams is “neither authorized nor sponsored by The Hershey Company.”
link to article in Star Telegram.
It was interesting to read (in the publishers release of course) that this is the first full length biography. Can that be true? If so that is the real crime here.
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