A little-known author has a filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging that former first daughter Chelsea Clinton stole his idea for her new best-selling feminist children's book, “She Persisted."
According to the Daily Mail, author Christopher Kimberly has filed a lawsuit against Clinton and Penguin Random House for copyright infringement. He is seeking $150,000 in damages, in addition to any profit the New York Times best-seller has earned.
The suit was filed Thursday in the Southern District of New York.
Kimberly contends that he sent a book idea titled, “A Heart is the Part That Makes Boys And Girls Smart,” to Jennifer Loja, president of Penguin Young Readers U.S., in May 2013 but never heard back. Kimberly believes Loja passed his idea along to Clinton, who then wrote and published the book on May 30.
"I am in disbelief,” Kimberly told the New York Post. "I did months of painstaking research on my book. Her version looks like a ninth-grade homework assignment."
Kimberly claims in his lawsuit that Clinton’s book features a number of “striking” similarities to his. Kimberly says that Clinton uses three of the same inspirational quotes from three women that he cited in his book. The "Quotable Questionnaire” section in Kimberly’s book pitch featured 15 quotes while a very similar section in Clinton’s book features 13.
According to the Post, Clinton's book hinges on those quotes. The book's subtitle aptly reads, "13 American Women Who Changed the World."
Kimberly says in his suit that he became aware of the similarities between his book and Clinton’s in April and immediately sent a cease and desist letter to Clinton and her publishing house. However, Clinton persisted, and the book’s publication went forward.
Clinton’s book has topped the New York Times’ best-sellers list for children’s picture books for the last five weeks.
The book's title is a reference to a meme adopted by the feminist movement after the Senate voted to silence Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) for breaking parliamentary rules during the Senate hearings to confirm then-Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) as attorney general. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) used the phrase "nevertheless, she persisted" when explaining why the Senate censured Warren. Since then, the line has been a rallying cry for feminists.
