Farrar, Straus and Giroux announced Monday that Simon’s “Touched by the Sun” was scheduled for Oct. 22. According to the publisher, Simon and Onassis met at a summer party on Martha’s Vineyard and began an “improbable, but lasting friendship.” Simon, best known for such songs as “You’re So Vain” and “The Spy Who Loved Me,” said in a statement that Onassis became everything from a “protective mother figure” to a “mischievous pal.” Onassis died in 1994.

Simon has written a previous memoir, “Boys In the Trees.”