He was an NBC network anchor, a face familiar to millions, with annual earnings in the millions of dollars. Then, a year ago, John Johnson suddenly dropped out of sight. A few weeks ago he returned, in an emotional and deeply moving appearance on the Today show in which he revealed he had been away nursing his dying father. Warner Books trade publisher Jamie Raab saw the show and was so touched that when Johnson's agent, Esther Newberg at ICM, told her a few days later that Johnson was working on a "powerful memoir," she was eager to see it. It was offered to only one other publisher, but Raab readily topped that bid with one Newberg described as "in six figures, and not low ones." Raab said that Johnson's mother had died some time before, and though he and his father had drifted apart, when his father became terminally ill, Johnson wanted to spend as much time together as possible; in the end father and son grew close again. When his memoir is completed, Johnson plans to return not to the TV limelight but to a longtime love: he's a talented painter. The book, so far untitled, is tentatively scheduled for spring 2000.