Agency Deals Articles

Jonathan Hansen’s GUANTANAMO BAY AND THE MAKING OF MODERN AMERICA, the first full history of Guantanamo’s transformation from bay to U.S. naval base to prison camp, Guantanamo’s role in transforming the United States from isolated colonial outpost to global superpower, and Cuba’s attempts to realize its independence from U.S. imperialism, at auction, to Dan Crissman at Hill and Wang, in a very nice deal, by Wendy Strothman of The Strothman Agency.

Non-fiction: Science : Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and senior associate in neurology at Children's Hospital Boston Frances Jensen, M.D., with Amy Ellis Nutt's THE TEENAGE BRAIN, the latest scientific research to unlock the secrets of adolescent behavior and explain what is happening at the interface of a teenager's brain and the world, to Claire Wachtel at Harper, in a major deal, at auction, by Wendy Strothman at The Strothman Agency (World).

CHOKE author Dr. Sian Beilock's second book, about embodied cognition, again to Leslie Meredith at Free Press, in a good deal, by Wendy Strothman at The Strothman Agency (World).

Non-fiction: History/Politics/Current Affairs:  Brown University professor Michael Satlow's HOW THE BIBLE BECAME HOLY, to Jennifer Banks at Yale University Press, in a very nice deal, at auction, by Wendy Strothman at The Strothman Agency (World).

Debut author Jodi Meadows's trilogy, beginning with ERIN INCARNATE, about the only girl who is "new" in a world where everyone is perpetually reincarnated, and her quest to discover why she was born, and what happened to the person she replaced, at auction in a good deal to Sarah Shumway at Katherine Tegen Books by Lauren MacLeod at The Strothman Agency. (World English)

Angela von der Lippe at Norton took world English rights, at auction, to Marlene Zuk's Paleofantasy: How the Pace of Evolution Affects Our Lives.  Zuk, who teaches biology at the University of California, Riverside, sorts myth from fact in this examination of the recent claims, by slow-food advocates and self-help gurus (among others), that people can improve their health by adopting a far simpler lifestyle, more akin to the way our ancestors lived. Wendy Strothman, of the Strothman Agency, brokered the deal, which marks a move for Zuk, whose last two books were published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Kathryn Miles' All Standing:  The True Story of Hunger, Rebellion, and  Survival Aboard the Jeanie Johnston, about the Irish famine and the legendary coffin ship who shuttled thousands of people to safety. Sold to Hilary Redmon at Free Press by Wendy Strothman at The Strothman Agency, LLC. (North American)

Harper Perennial, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, today announced the acquisition of The Complete Plays of Sophocles, in a new translation by poets and playwrights Robert Bagg and James Scully, for publication in August 2011.

The new translation preserves the intent of the original Greek, while bringing into the text meanings and implications, dramatic tension and momentum, that previous translations have not captured.

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Richard Wilbur said of the new translation, “I have often taught Sophocles in my humanities courses at Harvard and Wesleyan, and I know that these accurate, colloquial and vigorous translations would seize the imaginations of students, as indeed of the general reader. Many respectable renderings of Sophocles exist, but too often their themes and passions are muffled by a too ‘...

Joel Greenberg tackles the disappearance of the passenger pigeon in his new book, A Feathered River Across the Heavens, which Walker & Company's Jacqueline Johnson bought world rights to at auction. Greenberg, an avid birder and research associate at Chicago's Field Museum, examines how the passenger pigeon, once the most common bird on the planet, became extinct after decades of being hunted. Wendy Strothman brokered the deal, and Walker is planning a September 2014 publication.

Keep up to date with author Christopher White at ChristopherWhiteBooks.com

Children’s/Middle Grade: Hélène Boudreau’s REAL MERMAIDS DON’T WEAR TOE RINGS, about an aquaphobic mer-girl trying to balance the drama of two-legged teenage life with her quest to rescue her mermaid mother from really scary mer-dudes, to Rebecca Frazer at Jabberwocky, for publication in Fall 2010, by Lauren MacLeod at The Strothman Agency (World).

Learn more about Hélène and her other books at http://www.heleneboudreau.com . Read her blog post about the sale here.

Ashe Book to S&S

Free Press’s Martin Beiser won, at auction, world rights to Ray Arsenault’s Arthur Ashe biography. Arsenault (Freedom Riders), who teaches Southern history at the University of South Florida, will discuss the tennis great’s life as well as his contributions to civil, and overall human, rights. The S&S imprint is planning a 2012 publication, timed to that year’s U.S. Open. Agent Wendy Strothman did the deal.

Hélène Boudreau’s I DARE YOU NOT TO YAWN, an anti-bedtime story testing the theory of whether yawns are contagious, to Mary Lee Donovan at Candlewick, by Lauren MacLeod at The Strothman Agency (World).

Read Hélène's blog post about the sale here: "When I was 9..."

Yale Law School professor Michael Graetz's THE END OF ENERGY, which recounts the legacy of failed 1970s approaches to energy policy and what we must do to create effective policies for the future, to John Covell at MIT Press, by Wendy Strothman at The Strothman Agency (World).

Brown University neuroscientist Seth Horowitz's OF SOUND MIND, showing how our sense of hearing manipulates the way we think, consume, sleep, and feel, and why some sounds make us cringe while others make us happy, to Benjamin Adams at Bloomsbury, by Wendy Strothman at The Strothman Agency (World).