THE GHOST AND MRS. CLINTON

EVEN BEFORE HILLARY CLINTON’S NEW BOOK, IT TAKES A VILlage, hit the stores, Washington heard the rumor: the book was ghosted. The charge so exasperated the White House that several journalists, including TIME correspondent James Carney, were invited to Mrs. Clinton’s private study to check the manuscript, including legal pads covered with her handwriting. Says Carney: “There is no doubt Mrs. Clinton wrote great parts of the book.”

But as the White House acknowledged last week, there had been a collaborator. Barbara Feinman, a veteran book doctor, was hired by publisher Simon & Schuster to help organize the book and draft several chapters. Mrs. Clinton liked the initial chapters, say sources on Feinman’s side. As the work progressed, Feinman stayed overnight at the White House and even accompanied the First Family to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, last summer. In October, according to Feinman’s side, Mrs. Clinton called the writer to say the work was fine. But after Feinman returned from a trip to Italy, the publisher told her the First Lady was unhappy. What changed? Sources say Feinman declined an offer to ghostwrite the First Lady’s syndicated column; it is also possible that Mrs. Clinton grew disenchanted with Feinman’s work during revisions. Whatever the reason, book-industry sources say Mrs. Clinton, whose profits go to charity, had aides suggest that Simon & Schuster withhold a fourth of Feinman’s $120,000 fee–a charge the White House denies.

The White House concedes that Feinman collaborated on about eight chapters, which they say the First Lady reworked. Under a confidentiality agreement, Feinman can’t comment publicly. Nothing, however, forbids Mrs. Clinton to cite her collaborator. But her acknowledgement page thanks no one by name.

–By Richard Lacayo. Reported by Ann Blackman/Washington