The PW Morning Report, July 16, 2008

By Dermot McEvoy -- Publishers Weekly, 7/16/2008 5:35:00 AM

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

A daily round-up of the latest publishing news: Uncut First Circle; New Mandela From Stengel; More Bertelsmann Sell-Offs; Samuel Johnson Prize; B&N Likes OOP; and Joe Mitchell’s Old Hotel Gets A Face-Lift

Aleksander Solzhenitsyn’s The First Circle—Uncut—Coming from HarperPerennial, reports AP
Novel was first published 40 years ago in Russia and heavily edited because of content

Rick Stengel to Write Nelson Mandela Book for Crown, reports Keith Kelly in the New York Post
The magic number is in seven-figures and Mandela’s Way is due in 2009. Stengel collaborated with Mandela on Long Walk to Freedom

Bertelsmann to Sell Off European/Australian Book Clubs, reports AP
They will hold on to their Direct Group businesses in Germany, France, Italy, Portugal and Spain

Kate Summerscale Wins Samuel Johnson Prize, reports The Bookseller
The £30,000 prize for nonfiction goes to The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher

B&N Decides to Stay in the Rare and Out-of-Print Book Business, reports New York Times
Although they only sell 300 or 400 books a year, B&N decided to relocate their rare books department to the Upper West Side of New York when their Chelsea store closed

Joseph Mitchell’s Old Hotel Gets a Facelift, reports New York Times
The Fulton Ferry Hotel, made famous by Mitchell’s Up in the Old Hotel, is being renovated. If you’ve never read Mitchell, one of the great writers of the 20th century, pick up The Bottom of the Harbor, just published by Pantheon. You’re in for a literary treat