War According to Yoo
Though former DOJ Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo has since become a law professor at Cal Berkeley, his influence continues to reverberate in White House policy, most recently in the controversy over phone tapping. He outlined his argument for a new approach to interpreting the Constitution in a book published by University of Chicago Press in October titled The Powers of War and Peace: The Constitution and Foreign Affairs. Now Grove/ Atlantic publisher Morgan Entrekin has acquired North American rights to Yoo's War by Other Means, which will be a more general, less academic treatment of these same issues, from Glen Hartley at Writers Representatives. The book will address Yoo's take on constitutional law, the current political climate and the war on terror. And while a book of this hawkish nature might seem incongruous on a list like Grove's, Entrekin praised the "interesting and important conversation" the book would engender, while also raising some controversy. A fall 2006 publication date is anticipated.
Gravity Theory
Agent Jodie Rhodes has just accepted a preemptive offer for U.S. rights to Canadian physicist John Moffat's A Matter of Gravity, from TJ Kelleher at HarperCollins's Smithsonian imprint, a week after a feverish Canadian auction culminated in a six-figure preempt by Thomas Allen & Son there. Moffat, a professor emeritus at the University of Toronto, developed a radical alternative in the early 1990s to Einstein's theory of relativity; his controversial theory has gained increasing respect within the scientific community with the publication in the journal Nature of a paper in 2002 based on Moffat's findings. A Matter of Gravity presents Moffat's provocative theory of gravity, one that replaces Newton's and Einstein's and aims to change the way scientists study the universe. A fall 2006 publication date is tentative; Rhodes is currently shopping Moffat's memoir, titled In the Company of Giants.
For the Sake of Honesty
Watergate buffs may recall Egil (Bud) Krogh, who served in the Nixon White House in capacities ranging from deputy counsel to the president to undersecretary of transportation. He subsequently served six months in prison after pleading guilty to his involvement in the Watergate scandals, but has since been reinstated to practice law and has written and lectured widely on the need for integrity in public policy. And he has now turned this argument into a book, On Integrity, which agent Laura Dail sold to Peter Osnos and Clive Priddle at Public Affairs. The book will provide an insider's view of high-level decision making and give readers the tools necessary to act and make decisions with integrity. The deal was for North American rights; a publication date has not yet been set.
Two Books, Seven Figures
Valerie Borchardt at the Borchardt Agency has just wrapped up an auction involving seven publishers for U.S. rights to two novels by new English author Diane Setterfield on behalf of Vivien Green at Sheil Land. Atria's Emily Bestler won rights with a substantial seven-figure advance. The first of the two books is titled The Thirteenth Tale and is the story of a famous, reclusive novelist as she tells it to her biographer. Setterfield, who is in her early 40s, is a former academic specializing in French literature. Atria plans to publish in September 2006, and rights have already been sold to Orion in the U.K. as well as in Germany, France, Holland, Italy, Norway and Brazil.
