Little, Brown publisher Michael Pietsch has taken on another book by cultural critic Malcolm Gladwell, whose The Tipping Point was a surprise bestseller two years ago. It's tentatively titled The Intuitive Mind, and is about how people use that faculty in everyday decisionmaking. He bought world English rights from Tina Bennett at Janklow & Nesbit, and Bill Phillips will edit.... Susan Kamil at Dial paid over half-a-million to win a heated auction for a first novel called The Best and Last, by two friends, recent Ivy League graduates Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason. She bought it from Nick Ellison and Jennifer Joel at Ellison's agency and will publish probably late next year; it's about four Princeton roommates and a rare Renaissance text.... Toni Morrison and her son Slade will combine with Belgian artist Pascal Lemaitre on an illustrated retelling in a contemporary vein of half-a-dozen Aesop fables for Scribner. Editor-in-chief Nan Graham will edit the series, and the house bought world rights directly from the authors.... S&S publisher David Rosenthal bought a memoir by Marian Fontana, the widow of a fireman killed on September 11, who has been active in organizing survivors and relatives of victims of the disaster; he won U.S. and Canadian rights with a best-bid offer to agent Susan Golomb and will publish around second anniversary time in 2003.... Random's Jonathan Karp bought a first novel by Bonnie Marson called Sleeping with Schubert; it's about a woman lawyer who is invaded by the composer's spirit. Richard Pine made the North American rights sale.