The nine Pennsylvania miners who survived the underground flood have been signed for a book-and-movie deal by the Walt Disney Company, with book rights going, naturally, to Hyperion; no agent was involved, but a team of lawyers acted for the men. No further details yet.... Annik LaFarge at Crown bought a book called The End of the Beginning: The Battle for the Future at AOL Time Warner by Kara Swisher, a columnist for the Wall Street Journal who has been following dot-com doings since 1994; LaFarge bought world English, first serial and audio, and will publish in 2004. The agent making the sale was Flip Brophy at Sterling Lord Literistic.... David Fusco at Algonquin won a three-way auction for a book called Hunting 'Sang, an account of the epic searches throughout the world and history for the herb ginseng; he bought U.S. and Canadian rights from agent William Clark.... Next month Alicka Pesek joins the Laura Dail literary agency as foreign rights director and agent; she began as a foreign rights associate at ICM, and was most recently foreign rights director with Nicholas Ellison. She will continue to represent her own clients.... Sonny Mehta at Knopf paid a "handsome" six figures for the next two literary thrillers by Peter Spiegelman starring PI John March to agent Denise Marcil for North American rights; the same pair also made strong sales in the U.K. and Holland.