S&S Looks at Cy Country
Agent Andrew Blauner sold world rights to John Thorn's Cy Young's America to Simon & Schuster. Bob Bender bought the book, which is the second title by Thorn he's acquired, after the just published Baseball in the Garden of Eden (Mar.). Thorn, the official historian for Major League Baseball, looks at the life of the titular pitcher whose record of 511 wins remains unbroken. Going beyond the impressive stats, Blauner said Thorn examines how Young exemplified the changing face of baseball as the game evolved "from country sport to national pastime." The book is scheduled for 2013.
Bradbury, Revisited
Ray Bradbury biographer (and former PW Midwest correspondent) Sam Weller sold his third book about the sci-fi author, Live Forever: An Anthology of All New Stories in Honor of Ray Bradbury. Agent Judith Ehrlich brokered the deal for Weller, selling world English rights to William Morrow's Jennifer Brehl at auction. Bradbury is writing the introduction to the book, and Weller is co-editing the title with Mort Castle.
CP Gets Cooking
Clarkson Potter's Rica Allannic pre-empted North American rights to two books by Amy Thielen, a 2011 James Beard Journalism Award nominee and former cook at Bouley and Cru. Agent Janus Donnaud represented Thielen who, in the first title, a cookbook, will present more than 200 recipes for dishes that exemplify her Midwestern roots. The second book will be a food narrative in which Thielen delves into her life cooking and raising a family in a cabin in her home state of Minnesota. CP said this title will look at "preserving old food traditions and making new ones" and Thielen's place in "a long line of great cooks and eaters in the region."
Corn on Obama
Henry Ferris at William Morrow took North American rights to David Corn's currently untitled book about President Obama. Corn, who is the Washington bureau chief for Mother Jones, will focus on this year of Obama's presidency, a year that the publisher said will be a decisive one as the commander-in-chief starts ramping up his bid for re-election. Corn's previous books include The Lies of George W. Bush (2003) and Hubris (2006); the Obama book is scheduled for April 2012. Agent Gail Ross, at Ross & Yoon, represented Corn.
LBYR Goes to the ‘Dogs'
Little, Brown Books for Younger Readers' Julie Scheina bought North American rights at auction to a new middle-grade series by Christopher Holt called the Last Dogs. The deal, for four books, was brokered by Michael Stearns and Ted Malawer at the Inkhouse. Holt has published 10 novels under various names. The series, which was pitched as a work in the vein of The Incredible Journey, is about three dogs that set off on an adventure in a barren world looking for their owners. Book one, The Last Dogs: The Vanishing, is scheduled for 2012.
Knopf Nabs 'Pinneberg'
Closing the U.S. sale to a buzzed-about book at the London Book Fair, Knopf's Diana Coglianese bought U.S. rights to British screenwriter Rhidian Brook's The House at Kreis Pinneberg for six figures at auction. The novel was sold by London-based agent Caroline Wood, at Felicity Bryant, to Viking UK in a six-figure deal before the fair and follows a British colonel in Hamburg during 1946 who relocates his son and wife to Germany while he works on the rebuilding of the city in the post-war aftermath. Stephanie Cabot at the Gernert Company handled the U.S. sale for Wood; the novel, which is based in part on the author's own family history as well as her film script Love in the Zero Hour (commissioned by Ridley Scott's company, Scott Free Films), is slated for 2013.
Briefs
Agent Gareth Esersky, of the Carol Mann Agency, just closed on three yoga books. Esersky sold two books to Jennifer Y. Brown at Sounds True—he sold world rights to Lorin Roche's The Radiance Sutras and Shiva Rea's Tending the Sacred Fire. In the third sale, Esersky sold world rights to Meta Chaya Hirschl's Vital Yoga to Matthew Lore at The Experiment.
