Anonymous, fictional memoir of alcoholic is a low-budget hit

By Hillel Italie

AP National Writer

NEW YORK

The fair-skinned man with the hoodie and dark ski cap sits on a bench outside McNally Jackson Books in downtown Manhattan, where neither patrons nor employees seem aware that he’s the author of a work so in demand at the store that it’s often out of stock.

Known to his growing fan base as “Anonymous,” he has given us one of the more unusual self-published successes: “Diary of an Oxygen Thief,” a 147-page fictionalized memoir, or autobiographical novel, depending on how much of this story of a recovering alcoholic and the damage he has inflicted and absorbed you care to believe.

“It has an unusual negative space,” says the author, who on email uses the names Tom Wilkinson and Stanley Easyday and prefers to be identified as O2Thief. “It couldn’t be more naked, but at the same time ... ‘Who the hell is it?’ I think it’s a very powerful place to write.”

Some books catch on immediately, others take their time, but “Oxygen Thief” has really followed the scenic route. First published by the author in 2006, the book has slipped on and off the charts ever since. “Oxygen Thief” has been such a homegrown operation that the author not only served as his own editor and cover designer, but has also sold the book in the streets and would personally ship it to retailers, sometimes taking on orders for thousands of copies.

His workload is about to lighten. This year, “Oxygen Thief” cracked the top 20 on both Amazon.com and iTunes, enough to interest literary agent Byrd Leavell and eventually a publisher, Gallery Books, a pop culture imprint of Simon & Schuster that plans to release an e-edition this week and a paper version in mid-June. (Film rights have been acquired by Gotham Group.)

“I monitor the Amazon top 100 regularly, and while many self-published titles make a brief appearance there, a persistent best-seller commands special attention,” said Gallery executive editor Jeremie Ruby-Strauss.

Douglas Singleton, a buyer and manager at McNally Jackson, said the store has sold more than 200 copies of “Oxygen Thief,” the in-house record for a “consignment order.”

Asked if he’s ever met the author, Singleton said he wasn’t sure. He thinks the man who delivers copies of “Oxygen Thief” is the writer of the book, but it’s been a couple of years since he’s seen him.

“We’ve often talked about the mysterious nature of the person who drops off the book,” Singleton said. “Sometimes I’ll contact him [by email] and say w’re sold out and we need another 20 copies. And I get no answer back. Then I’ll be walking behind the register one day and there’ll be 20 copies. And one of my co-workers will say, ‘Someone dropped off a bag and said it was for you.”’