Crown Preempts Little League Dad Book

Rick Horgan at Crown preempted North American rights to Jesse Katz's The Opposite Field via Jay Mandel at William Morris in a deal said to be worth major dollars. Los Angeles magazine writer Katz will describe his struggle to raise his son as a single dad, while at the same time nurturing the hopes and dreams of a multicultural Little League over which he presides as commissioner. Tentative pub is spring 2009.

Bantam's Philip Rappaport preempted North American rights to a new work of nonfiction by Francine Russo titled Twilight of the Family: Aging Parents, Sibling Storms and the Birth of the Next-Generation Family; Todd Shuster and Joanne Wyckoff at Zachary Shuster Harmsworth made the significant six-figure sale. This portrait of adult siblings facing their parents' aging is based on Russo's years of research and writing on boomers. Pub date is 2009.

John Parsley at Thomas Dunne Books has acquired U.S. rights to Genesis: Chapter and Verse, the rock band's autobiography, via Susan Howe at U.K. publisher Orion. The first creative collaboration of band members Tony Banks, Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel and Mike Rutherford in 20 years, the book will cover 30 years and 30 albums; the departures of three of the band's members; and include input and interviews with management, crew and entourage. This paperback edition will include 320 color photographs throughout, and will be published simultaneously in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. this September to coincide with the band's 2007 reunion tour this fall.

Agent Paul Bresnick sold world rights to John F. Baker Jr.'s The Washingtons of Wessyngton Plantation to Malaika Adero at Atria. Baker (not to be confused with PW's former editor-in-chief, John F. Baker) will describe learning, as a boy, that his grandmother was a descendant of slaves at Wessyngton, the largest tobacco plantation in America. He will re-create the story of his ancestors and of other Wessyngton slaves, as well as that of the owners and their descendants, via 30 years of research. Atria plans an early 2009 publication.

Bresnick also sold North American rights to a new book by Once Upon a Time author Harry N. MacLean to Chris Greenberg at Basic Civitas. In Finding Mississippi, MacLean will journey to the heart of the Old South for what may be the last murder case of the civil rights era, following the January 2007 indictment of a former Klansman for the murder of two young black men in 1964. MacLean will chronicle the trial while exploring the paradoxes of the modern American South.

Debi Lilly, who is known as Oprah's party planner, has sold her first book, A Perfect Event; Justin Schwartz at Wiley won an auction conducted by agent Linda Konner, who sold world rights for six figures. Lilly, president and founder of the 11-year-old Chicago-based company A Perfect Event, was behind Oprah's televised 50th birthday and has created numerous private events for Oprah and other celebrities. Oprah will write a foreword, and pub date is fall 2009.

Robert Pigeon at Da Capo acquired U.S. rights to Jo Marchant's tentatively titled Antikythera: Solving the Mystery of a 2,000-year-old Computer via Peter Tallack at Conville & Walsh in London. This is the story of a Greek computational machine discovered at the bottom of the Mediterranean and the 100-year quest to decode its secrets. Pub date is fall 2008; Heinemann will pub in the U.K.