Whitney Houson's mother, Cissy Houston, has signed a deal with HarperCollins to pen a book on her late daughter's life.
The book, which is yet to be titled, will be coming out in February 2013. It is said to have fetched Houston an advance rumored to be in the seven figures. Part of the proceeds from the book will go to the New Hope baptist Church in Newark, N.J., where Whitney started singing as a young girl and where in March her funeral was held.
HarperCollins has revealed that Cissy will discuss most aspects of the Whitney Houston story including her painful and tumultuous history with drug addiction and her rocky relationship with singer Bobby Brown. The publisher's statement on the upcoming book included the following: "ultimately, Cissy will go behind the headlines to show the true, human side of this strong, successful yet complicated musical icon, capturing the dramatic depths and soaring range of an extraordinary woman, along with the pain and heartbreak of a grieving mother as she struggles with impossible loss.''
Cissy Houston, an accomplished singer herself, will also discuss the musical icon that Whitney Houston was and her rise from a gospel singer in her church choir to a world famous voice that set an unprecedented bar for music around the world. Cissy will also write about the profound grief that she's felt over her daughter's death.
In a statement about the book, Cissy said she wrote the book for Whitney's fans. "When I lost my daughter Nippy (Whitney Houston's nickname), the world lost one of the most beautiful voices and an extraordinarily beautiful and charitable woman,'' Cissy Houston said in a statement released by HarperCollins. "In sharing our story in this book, I hope to give her fans something to treasure, the way we all treasured Whitney. We are still receiving thousands of letters each day from her fans, and I hope reading this book will provide a deeper understanding into my daughter's true story."
Whitney Houston was found dead in a hotel bathtub in Beverly Hills in February. She was 48-years-old.