A Skeleton's Tale
Harmony's John Glusman has acquired world rights to Lucy's Legacyby Donald C. Johanson and Kate Wong, via Sterling Lord. Johanson, director of the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State, has made numerous fossil discoveries, notably a 3.2-million-year-old skeleton designated Australopithecus afarensis, better known as Lucy. Some 363 specimens of A. afarensis have been collected to date. The book will explore a fossil icon's impact on the search for human origins, and will be published in 2008 to coincide with an exhibition sponsored by the Ethiopian government entitled "Lucy's Legacy: The Hidden Treasures of Ethiopia," which will tour Lucy's actual remains in the U.S. beginning late this year. Wong is editorial director of ScientificAmerican's Web site.
New Order
Charles Conrad at Broadway has acquired world rights to an untitled work of nonfiction by Dominique Moisi, founder of the French Institute of International Affairs and a professor at the Institute d'etudes politiques in Paris. The book will expand on Moisi's recent essay in ForeignAffairs titled "The Clash of Emotions: Fear, Humiliation, Hope, and the New World Order," in which Moisi argues that the West has become a culture of fear, the Arab world a culture of humiliation, and Asia the planet's new culture of hope. This deal was unagented, and Doubleday plans to publish in 2008.
New Fiction
Anton Mueller at Houghton has acquired two new books by Anchee Min; SandraDijkstra sold North American rights. The first is The Pearl of China, a historical novel about women's friendship set against the backdrop of 20th-century China and featuring author Pearl S. Buck; UncookedSeed, a memoir and sequel to RedAzalea, will move between Min's immigrant experience in the U.S. and her Communist upbringing in China. Dijkstra also sold U.K. rights to Bloomsbury; Houghton will be publishing Min's novel Last Empress in April.
MacAdam/Cage's Kate Nitze has acquired world rights to four new books by The Poet of TolstoyPark author Sonny Brewer; agent Amy Rennert made the six-figure deal. The first is to be a fictionalized memoir, called Cormac, about a dog's kidnapping, and will pub in fall 2007. The deal also includes Brewer's next children's book and two more unnamed novels. Brewer owns the Fairhope, Ala., bookstore Over the Transom.
New from the Duchess
Sally Richardsonand Hope Dellon at St. Martin's Press have bought world rights to Hartmoor, a historical novel by Sarah Ferguson, the duchess of York, in collaboration with novelist Laura Van Wormer. The deal was negotiated with Peter Sawyer of the Octagon Literary division of the Fifi Oscard Agency and Loretta Barrett, in association with Peter Grant and David Wiener of Grubman Indursky & Shire. Hartmoor opens in England in 1812 and will tell the adventures of an earl's daughter who undertakes a dangerous journey to America to rescue her kidnapped father. Previous books from the duchess include an autobiography, children's books and a series of lifestyle books with Weight Watchers. Scheduled publication is winter 2008.
Fathers and Daughters
Amistad's Dawn Davis has acquired Rachel Vassel's Daughters of Men: Portraitsof Successful African American Women and Their Fathers from Jacqueline Hackett at Watkins/Loomis, who sold North American rights. This is a collection of original essays and photographs about the roles fathers have played in the lives of women, based on interviews with, among others, singer Brandy, basketball player Alana Beard and BET founder Sheila Johnson. Michael Eric Dyson will write a foreword.
