TORONTO -- Publishers McClelland & Stewart Ltd. asked 1,200 dealers nationwide Thursday to halt all sales of Peter Newman's highly-touted book 'The Acquisitors' pending a ruling by the Ontario Supreme Court.
Carol Rapp, the wife of a millionaire Toronto businessman, has initiated a libel suit because of a reference to her on page 17 of the 517-page book on the nation's leading business executives.
Mrs. Rapp's lawyer, Aubrey Golden, has asked the court for an injunction prohibiting sales or further publication of the book with her name in it pending a decision in the libel suit.
The Ontario Supreme Court will rule Friday whether to grant an injunction ordering the book off the shelves.
In a brief telex to 1,200 customers Thursday, McClelland & Stewart said: 'Action has been taken in the Supreme Court of Ontario to restrain distribution of The Acquisitors. Do not sell this book.'
A spokesman for the major publishing company said the first print run of the hardcover book was 100,000 and he believed all copies had already been shipped across the country.
In his application for an injunction Wednesday, Golden told Mr. Justice W.D. Griffiths that the statements in the book about Mrs. Rapp were untrue and they held her and her family up to ridicule.
Julian Porter, lawyer for the publishers and Newman, the editor of Maclean's magazine, said he planned to prove the statements were true.
