Hatfield was the author of
Fortunate Son, a book published in 1999 during the
George W. Bush presidential campaign, 2000 that made serious allegations about
George W. Bush. Published by the highly regarded
St. Martin's Press, the book was revealed as allegedly fraudulent and recalled by the publisher within days of publication. which – although purporting to be officially sanctioned by Glidrose, Bond's literary copyright holder – was a
vanity novel. Due to the revelations of Hatfield's criminal past and the damage to his credibility, in October 1999, Hatfield's publisher,
St. Martin's Press, recalled 70,000 copies of
Fortunate Son and left an additional 20,000 books in storage. Even so, the book had already reached the
New York Times bestseller list. Hatfield responded that before the Bush campaign brought pressure to bear,
St. Martin's had publicly stated that the book had been "carefully fact-checked and scrutinized by lawyers." The book was later republished by
Soft Skull Press. The relationship between Sander Hicks, founder of Soft Skull Press, and Hatfield was explored in the movie
Horns and Halos, an award-winning documentary film directed by Suki Hawley and Michael Galinsky. In one scene from the DVD extra disc, Hatfield says to the camera, "If anything happens to me, get it out to the press." == Death ==