Doubleday to add author's note to future Frey editions

Future editions of James Frey's hotly contested memoir A Million Little Pieces will include an author's note about the content, his publisher revealed Thursday.

A spokesperson for Doubleday Books declined to say exactly what the note will include or why it was being added to the book, which tells the story of the author's criminal past and his battle with addiction.

Although many memoirs carry a note to readers stating that names and events have been altered, Frey's did not.

Controversy has swirled around Frey and his book this week since the release last Sunday of an in-depth investigation into segments of A Million Little Pieces by the Smoking Gun website. Site editors alleged that Frey had fabricated or significantly exaggerated aspects of his past in the retelling.

During an interview Wednesday on CNN's Larry King Live, and at other times, Frey has admitted to embellishing parts of the story. However, he maintains that these alternations are common in the memoir genre. On the show, he defended the "emotional truth" of his work.

"The essential truth of [my] drug and alcohol addiction is there. The emotional truth is there," Frey told host Larry King. "I think you will find people who will dispute every memoir ever written."

Daytime talk show host Oprah Winfrey, who helped vault Frey's 2003 memoir into bestseller status last fall by selecting it for her book club, phoned in near the end of the King interview Wednesday night to throw her support behind Frey.

"What is relevant is that he was a drug addict … and stepped out of that history to be the man he is today and to take that message to save other people and allow them to save themselves," Winfrey said.