Atria's Greer Hendricks got world rights (plus first serial and audio) to a book that explores the meaning of "cool" and "cutting-edge" in contemporary America, by two authors who epitomize it: Barney's Gene Pressman and DJ/music marketer Noah Kerner; it was signed with Linda Loewenthal at David Black.... An unusual auction involving no fewer than eight textbook editors (to whom auctions are foreign) ended in a win by Nicole Folchetti at Prentice Hall for a widely desired text on forensic science by expert Dr. Suzanne Bell; the agent who put it all together was Jodie Rhodes on the Coast.... Lawrence Leamer, author of books on the Kennedy clan, is turning his attention to California governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger for his next outing, signed by Diane Reverand at SMP. It will cover the actor's career, marriage (to a Kennedy) and campaign, and will be called Total Recall: The Irresistible Rise to Power of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Reverand bought world rights from agent Joy Harris.... Holt's John Sterling bought a new book by Pulitzer Prize—winning author Tony Horwitz (Blue Latitudes). It's a history of New World exploration that focuses on early Viking voyagers and tries to fill in the gap between the arrivals of Columbus and the Pilgrims. The world rights buy was from Kris Dahl at ICM.... Canadian agent Bella Pomer sold a new book by journalist and lecturer Katherine Ashenburg for U.S. rights to Becky Saletan at North Point Press. It's called Clean and is a history of human efforts at hygiene through the ages—including that 18th-century trough from which a duchess was heard to remark that she bathed a couple of times a year as an example to the peasants, "whether I need it or not."... Agent Linda Konner's name was misspelled in last week's "Deals."