a man he learned to despise, sacrificing his family life, professional goals, and personal convictions. Tyson also pointed out the threats made by Chinese authorities to confiscate his house upon learning he was writing a memoir, following through with their threat in 1992. Reviewing the book for the Daily News of Bowling Green, Kentucky, historian Robert Antony described it as an "intimate, candid account of one of the most powerful men in the modern world" and "a haunting tale of intrigue and debauchery in the court of Mao Zedong, as could only be told by a member of the inner circle" and described Li's journey from an idealized patriot who idolized Mao, to a critic disillusioned by Mao's hypocrisy and philandering. In 2009 Wasafiri magazine included The Private Life of Chairman Mao on its list of 25 Most Influential Books published in the previous quarter-century. Academic reactions Positive According to Lorenz M. Lüthi, The Private Life of Chairman Mao "turned out to be a relatively reliable source" that he could verify through comparisons with other documents. Historian Frank Dikötter, wrote in his book, Mao's Great Famine, that Li is "a very reliable guide whose recollections can be verified, sometimes almost verbatim, in the party archives", although he notes that he has also been much maligned by some sinologists. Negative Several people have questioned the authenticity of the book. Li's memoirs weren't based on original records or personal diaries. During the Cultural Revolution, he burnt all of his original diaries and, as such, the book was based on restructured memories which might be wrong or fallible as Li's collaborator, Anne Thurston, admitted. Historian Frederick Teiwes accused Li of being "anti-Mao". According to Tai Hung-chao, who was the translator of the book, Random House, the company which published the book, wanted to add more "juicy bits" to the book such as Mao's sex life in order to attract a larger readership. Li disagreed with this line of approach, but eventually gave in to it. A statement protesting that many of the claims made in Li's book were false was issued soon after its publication, signed by 150 people who had personally known or worked with Mao, including Wang Dongxing, Li Yinqiao and Ye Zilong. Inconsistencies between Chinese and English versions Li, in one of his letters which appeared posthumously (1996), admitted that the Chinese edition of the book was not his original