Memoir in Verse

It's not often that a work of poetry will prompt an auction, but that's what happened last week for Frances Richey's second book, The Warrior, which Paul Slovak at Viking bought from agent Molly Friedrich. Richey's son is a 1998 West Point grad who has completed two tours in Iraq, and she will explore, through 28 poems, the agonizing that goes on inside a mother's head as her only son prepares for and then goes off to war. Richey is the author of one previous book of poetry, The Burning Point; Nicholas Kristof wrote about her work in a June New York Times editorial. Viking has North American rights and will publish in April 2008.

Amy Einhorn just preempted her first fiction acquisition for her new imprint at Putnam. It is Kathryn Stockett's The Help, which follows three women in 1960 Jackson, Miss.—two African-American maids and one young white socialite who returns home from college with an awakening social conscience. The three produce an anonymous tell-all book that puts them all at risk. Susan Ramer at Don Congdon Associates sold world rights, and pub date is early 2009.

Marjorie Braman at Morrow bought North American rights to Todd Johnson's The Measure of Brightness, which describes the converging lives of four Southern women of different ages and backgrounds. Wendy Sherman made the sale, and a spring 2009 publication date is planned. Johnson was nominated for a 2006 Tony Award for best musical as a producer of The Color Purple on Broadway.

Holt's Sarah Knight bought North American rights to Kira Salak's States of Grace, which centers on a young female journalist who travels to Papua New Guinea in search of her idol, a reclusive Pulitzer Prize–winning war correspondent who may have faked his own death to escape a troubled past. Salak, the first woman to traverse Papua New Guinea, is a PEN Award winner in journalism and a contributing editor at National Geographic Adventure magazine. Aaron Priest handled the deal, and Holt expects to publish in fall 2008.

Carla Kaplan, Northeastern professor and author of Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters, has sold a new project, a biography of Jessica Mitford. Harper's Gail Winston, who is also publishing Kaplan's forthcoming Miss Anne in Harlem: The White Women of the Black Renaissance, bought world English rights from Brettne Bloom at Kneerim & Williams. Kaplan will be working with the cooperation of the Mitford family, and the book will draw on unpublished documents.

Amistad's Dawn Davis acquired world rights to Matt Birkbeck's Deconstructing Sammy, a revealing look at the forces that shaped the life of Sammy Davis Jr. as well as the tragic circumstances surrounding his death. The book draws on six years of investigation and includes never-before-granted interviews and newly discovered documents and photographs. Stephen Hanselman made the deal, and pub date is 2008.

Rick Wolff at Grand Central won an auction for world English rights to Jonathan J. McCullough's A Tale of Two Subs: An Untold Story of World War II, Two Sister Ships, and Extraordinary Heroism via agent Sorche Fairbank. The book recounts the story of the USS Sculpin and her sister ship, the USS Sailfish, drawing on McCullough's access to remaining living survivors, oral histories, never-before-translated Japanese war documents and interviews with Sculpin veterans. The book will be published in time for Father's Day 2008.

Edgar-nominated author Cornelia Read has signed with Les Pockell for the next two Madeline Dare novels via agent Amy Rennert, who sold world rights for six figures. Read's second Dare book, The Crazy School, is coming from Grand Central in January 2008; the two new novels will be published in 2009 and 2010.

Bestselling author Connie Briscoe will move to Grand Central for two new books, the first of which is titled Sisters & Husbands, a sequel to her debut novel Sisters & Lovers. Karen Thomas and Jamie Raab acquired world rights from Victoria Sanders, and pub date is May 2009.

Fantasy author Garth Nix has sold North American rights to three new YA books to Ruth Katcher at HarperCollins Children's via agent Jill Grinberg, who made the seven-figure deal. The three books include a prequel and a sequel to Nix's Abhorsen YA fantasy trilogy, which has sold more than two million copies worldwide. In separate deals, U.K. rights went to HarperCollins for substantial six figures via Antony Harwood, and Allen & Unwin bought Australian and New Zealand rights for another significant six-figure advance via Fiona Inglis at Curtis Brown Australia. The third book will be a standalone SF novel titled A Confusion of Princes, and will be the first to be published, in late 2009, with the others following in 2010 and 2011.

In another multibook deal, Trident's Scott Miller sold six novels based on the Speed Racer television series to Jon Goodspeed at Grosset & Dunlap/Price Stern Sloan. Each book will have a different author, and all six will be published in January. G&D has North American rights.