A mammoth history of the impact, economic and spiritual, of whaling in America was bought by Norton's Bob Weil, whose bid bettered those of several other houses. The author is historian Eric Jay Dolin and his book, whose proposal alone took him a year and which will weigh in at 150,000 words, was bought for world English rights plus audio from Russell Galen at Scovil Chichak & Galen.... A book offering the dope on the role drugs play in baseball today was bought by Viking Penguin's Wendy Wolf. It's Juking the Game: Drugs, Money and the Fight for the Soul of Major League Baseball by Boston Herald sports reporter Howard Bryant. Wolf bought North American, first serial and audio from Deirdre Mullane at the Spieler Agency and will publish next year.... A young Thai author, Rattawut Lapcharensap, who just graduated from the University of Michigan writing program, has sold a story collection and a novel-in-progress to Elisabeth Schmitz at Grove Atlantic. The story collection is Sightseeing, offering a decidedly untouristy look at contemporary Thailand. The six-figure world rights deal was made by agent Amy Williams at Collins McCormick.... Another six-figure sale involved a series of four novels called CI: ArmyCounterintelligence, based on the real-life experiences of author David DeBatto. Todd Shuster at Zachary Shuster Harmsworth made the North American rights deal with Warner's Dan Ambrosio... Miramax made a book and movie deal for a series of three children's novels by British author Margi McAllister, called The Mismantle Chronicles. This was signed with agent Nancy Gallt, representing London agent Caroline Sheldon.