Saul Bellow (far right) with his wife, Alexandra Ionescu Tulcea, at a Nobel Ceremony at the University of Chicago in 1977

While former super-agent Bill Clegg is making lots of money right now off his book about how he screwed his clients and business partners by being a complete derelict, Claire Howorth, in this report for the Daily Beast, tells the story of another super-agent — a real one — who also disappeared on her clients. And unlike Clegg, at least, she has yet to come back.

The agent in question is Harriet Wasserman, and among her clients were Saul Bellow, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, and Reynolds Price, Oscar Hijuelos, Richard Bausch, Alice McDermott, Reynolds Price, and Suzan-Lori Parks. And as Howorth reports, Wasserman was more than just an agent — she became close personally to many of her authors. Closer to some than others, according to one of them, author Ted Mooney: “She’d been Saul Bellow’s agent for decades, they used to talk at length on the phone every afternoon, and I’m certain that (besides just out-and-out adoring him) Harriet counted on his backlist to be her retirement fund.” According to Wasserman’s 1998 memoir, Handsome Is, they were also lovers.

Then Bellow left her, backlist and all, for another super-agent, Andrew Wylie. “When Saul, whom she just adored, left her for Wylie, she thought, f— it,” says Mooney.

Things deteriorated quickly, says Howorth: “Some of the writers began to notice that royalties were not being passed from the agency to them, though the various publishers had been cutting the proper checks, and someone had been cashing them.”

“I think she just got desperate. She mixed up her accounts, spent too much money, and wasn’t able to come up with it when she needed to pay us,” says Richard Bausch, one of several writers suing Wasserman for royalties that never got to him.

There’s only one difficulty in suing Wasserman, however: She closed down her agency in 2007 and hasn’t been seen since. According to Howorth, “Attempts to find her or confirm her whereabouts turned up sand.”

How much some things have changed since the 1996 publication of Nicholas Negroponte’s bestselling book, Being Digital, can be measured by a snippet from a contemporaneous review by Roy Johnson. Near the end of it, Mr. Johnson pokes a little fun at some of Negroponte’s more outlandish predictions:

However, if you can steel yourself against his breathless rush, one or two of the arguments can be made to tremble a little with some applied clear thinking. He [Negroponte] supposes for instance that writers would earn more if their work were distributed digitally (smaller profits, bigger sales). But would you want to download then print off a 500 page book to avoid the publisher’s price-tag? (This is already possible from databases such as Project Gutenberg.) Why have your edition of Moby Dick on 600 loose sheets of A4 when Penguin will supply a bound copy for less than the price of a gin-and-tonic? Nevertheless, this is just one small idea amongst many that he throws off in a series of elegantly catenated chapters.

Applying clear thinking to the future ain’t what it used to be. The idea that readers would forgo paper and ink to read Moby Dick on a Kindle, Sony Reader, iPhone, iPad, or a flood of competing devices was apparently not in plain sight at the end of the last century.

The hook in the Times’s weirdly anachronistic report on Friday, “Roll-Up Computers and Their Kin” –- “‘The paper book is dead,’ says the digital visionary Nicholas Negroponte” –- is less clairvoyant than it is an echo of today’s conventional wisdom.

And this prediction –- “Some computer developers envision tablet computers so flexible that you will literally be able to roll them up and slip them in your bag or pocket — just as you would do with a newspaper or magazine today — and then unfurl them on the train” — will strike even benighted technophobes (present) as similarly dated. The Christian Science Monitor reported in 2004 that “Next digital screen could fold like paper” and “They eventually could be made of a pliable, polymer backing that resembles paper.”

E-Ink, a pioneer of “smart paper,” has moved past the envisioning stage to begin creating the stuff, as this Inquirer report details

The Times closes with a quote from Clive Thompson, “science and technology writer and columnist for Wired magazine,” who “foresees e-book publishers offering single chapters of some books for 99 cents each, the price for which iTunes sells single songs today.”

Back to the future, indeed.

You can “start reading Moby Dick …on your Kindle in under a minute” via Amazon –- for precisely nothing ($0.00).

Raymond Scott and friend

Raymond Scott, rare book dealer from Tyne and Wear, England, has pleaded not guilty to the theft and handling and transporting stolen goods, telling the police that was being framed by corrupt university staff, according to the latest report from the Independent.

As the newspaper recounts,

Scott was arrested after he handed staff at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC a copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio, asking for it to be authenticated. The 53-year-old claimed to have discovered the stolen artefact in Cuba.

But staff at the world-renowned library recognised the folio as a unique first edition taken a decade earlier from Durham University’s library on Palace Green, and called in the British Embassy, Durham Police and the FBI.

Each copy of the folio, printed in 1623, was unique and could be identified by its dimensions and by characteristic marks and printing errors, a trial at Newcastle Crown Court heard.

Mobylives has been following the case of the theft (see here and here). Scott, a flamboyant character, who arrived at his hearing in a silver limousine, sporting a Panama hat and flashing victory signs at reporters, has told the court that experts desperate to recover the stolen Folio had conspired against him.

According to the Independent, “A jury heard how he told Durham Police detectives: ‘I am not saying that the experts are lying or that they are being deceptive but it rather looks as if their brief has been to compare the Cuban copy with known records of the Durham copy and look for similarities. It is all a very cosy world. It is sort of like a conspiracy; they are ganging up against me.’”

He also told the court,

“‘Do you seriously think I’m going to walk into the foremost Shakespeare library in the world and using my own name and address, with my fingerprints all over it, hand them a copy knowing and believing that it’s got a doubtful provenance? A book worth millions — that I’m going to walk into such a place with such a book and ask to see the head librarian?

There is no way if I had any knowledge that this was the Durham folio or a stolen copy that I would walk into the Folger Library, show the book to the head librarian and then leave all my bank details, my own name and address and show them my British passport.’”

Hmmmm…. does sound kind of foolish when you put it that way…. But the prosecution alleges that Scott stole the folio from a secured glass cabinet at an exhibition of ancient English literature at Durham University’s Palace Green Library in 1998, and was planning to cut it up and sell it off piecemeal on the open market to pay off his debts related to his long standing affair with a Cuban woman.

The trial continues.

“Automatic-translation software has long been treated as a joke because of how hilariously it mangles phrases,” notes Clive Thompson. “But in the past few years, something has shifted: The technology is now surprisingly mature.” In a story from the new issue of Wired Magazine, Thompson considers “How have the machines become so adept?”

According to Thompson,

Mostly by using new ’statistical’ techniques. Instead of trying to teach a program the rules of language, computer scientists locate massive corpora of online documents previously translated by humans — say, UN proceedings, which are routinely available in six different languages, or bilingual newspapers. Then they train cloud computers to recognize which words and phrases match up across tongues.

That’s why Google is leading the pack: It’s best at finding oodles of documents to train its cloud. This method also means that the more the Web grows, the better our multilingual machines will get.

This has some amazing possible ramifications: “For years, pundits have wondered which language will eventually dominate. Will English remain the lingua franca? Will Mandarin ascend? But maybe it’s no longer a competition. Machine translation could be good enough to obviate the need for a primary global language … Some academics predict that auto-translation could even save minor languages from extinction.”

On the other hand, it’s not exactly perfected. “Certainly, any activity requiring serious precision — legal proceedings, business discussions, diplomatic negotiations — will still need expert human translators.”

And for all you translators out there getting steamed, relax. As one expert tells Thompson, “Machine translation isn’t good enough to translate a book.”

Yet.

Today is the 50th Anniversary of what is now an American classic: Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. First published in 1960, Lee’s debut (and only) novel went on to be a national bestseller, win the Pulitzer, be made into an Oscar-winning movie starring Gregory Peck (sigh) and is now read by almost every elementary school age child.  Not to mention that the fact that its still in print fifty years later is a minor miracle by today’s standards (oh yeah, and its also been published in a zillion languages).

Another great American author, Stephen Colbert (and others) celebrate the novel tonight at Symphony Space, if you’re lucky enough to have gotten a ticket.  Otherwise, just read the book!  Or if you’re a bit lazy, watch the movie!  Although, unfortunately, you can’t stream it instantly on Netflix.  Visit a Blockbuster then? HA.

Harper Lee, who still lives in Monroeville, Alabama, granted a rare interview with the British newspaper the Daily Mail on Sunday.  In honor of the 50th anniversary… Lee offered these few words to the reporter:

“Thank you so much.  You are most kind. We’re just going to feed the ducks but call me the next time you are here. We have a lot of history here. You will enjoy it.”

It wasn’t a great day for Barnes & Noble yesterday, although it wasn’t exactly a disaster, either. According to this Reuters wire story,the company “reported a net loss of $32.1 million, or 58 cents per share for it fiscal 2010 fourth quarter ended May 1, compared with a loss of $2.1 million, or 5 cents per share, a year earlier. Excluding one-time items, the bookseller lost 89 cents a share.”

Definitely not good. And yet there were some interesting numbers buried beneath the loss. For one thing, actual print book sales were up slightly, and “Overall fourth quarter sales rose 19 percent to $1.3 billion.” What’s more, sales at its website, BN.com, sales increased a wopping “51 percent to $141 million during the quarter from the year ago. It said it expected it website sales to rise 75 percent to $1 billion in fiscal 2011.”

Still more interestingly, “Barnes & Noble Chief Executive William Lynch, who oversaw the development of the Nook and was named CEO in March, said in a statement that the retailer’s share of the e-book market now surpasses its share of the retail book market.”

So why the loss? According to CFO Joseph Lombardi, “spending on its e-book business explains a large part of the loss in the fourth quarter.”

In fact, as a Publishers Weekly report notes, B&N board chairman Len Riggio says the quarterly report has inspired the company to make a more significant investment in its digital efforts, particularly the Nook. “The explosive growth of digital books has created the most compelling opportunity in Barnes & Noble’s history,” he says. “We have found that Barnes & Noble Members, our best customers, have increased their combined physical and digital spend with us by 17% since purchasing a NOOK, and by a phenomenal 70% in total units.”

As for online sales — always weak against arch-rival Amazon.com — BN.com is “having easily the best year in its history,” says PW, and projections are that the site “could hit sales of $1 billion this year.”

Of course, as this Forbes article notes, Amazon also seems on target for a billion dollar ebook business, especially after cutting the price of the Kindle, making still more ebooks available, and making the Kindle reader available yesterday on Android-based devices.

iPad and Kindle go toe to toe

Dan Gallagher at the Wall Street Journal reports here that Amazon.com is having more and more difficulty holding onto its lead position in market share for e-readers, a struggle that took a dramatic turn yesterday: “Despite its early lead in the fast-growing e-book market, Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) faces growing competition from tech giants Google Inc. (GOOG) and Apple Inc. (AAPL), according to one analyst. Marianne Wolk of Susquehanna downgraded Amazon to a neutral rating on Monday. In a note to clients, the analyst cited ‘intensifying competition’ in the e-book market, which is creating more uncertainty around the company’s Kindle business.”

“Amazon sells the Kindle e-book reader as well as electronic versions of books for the device. Last week, the company cut the e-reader’s price to $189 from $259. The company has never disclosed specific sales data for the device, though analysts believe the Kindle accounts for about 60% of the existing e-book market,” according to the WSJ.

The Kindle is facing quite a bit of competition now (see above), with Sony, B&N and the mighty iPad coming on strong in the marketplace. The WSJ quotes analyst Wolk as saying, “‘With moves pending by Apple and Google, rising competition is raising the uncertainty regarding eReader, eBook, and Book profit growth rates, capping the contribution to Amazon’s valuation from these sectors. Thus, we are less confident in the multiple expansion we previously forecast.’”

Amazon shares were down 1.4% in trading Monday. The WSJ reports, “The stock is down about 20% since peaking at an all-time high above the $150 mark in mid-April, on a split-adjusted basis.”

Mother of God, is this the end of Ricco?

In his New York Times column, Nicholas Kristof notes that an “ugly paradox of the 21st century is that some of our elegant symbols of modernity — smartphones, laptops and digital cameras” and yes, some ebook readers — “are built from minerals that seem to be fueling mass slaughter and rape in Congo.”

As he explains,

I’ve never reported on a war more barbaric than Congo’s, and it haunts me. In Congo, I’ve seen women who have been mutilated, children who have been forced to eat their parents’ flesh, girls who have been subjected to rapes that destroyed their insides. Warlords finance their predations in part through the sale of mineral ore containing tantalum, tungsten, tin and gold. For example, tantalum from Congo is used to make electrical capacitors that go into phones, computers and gaming devices.

Electronics manufacturers have tried to hush all this up. They want you to look at a gadget and think “sleek,” not “blood.”

However, he notes that “now there’s a grass-roots movement pressuring companies to keep these ‘conflict minerals’ out of high-tech supply chains. Using Facebook and YouTube, activists are harassing companies like Apple, Intel and Research in Motion (which makes the BlackBerry) to get them to lean on their suppliers and ensure the use of, say, Australian tantalum rather than tantalum peddled by a Congolese militia.”

Here’s part of the effort, below.

Photo: Sam Weller, Ray Bradbury, and Black Francis. Photo by Nathan Kirkman.

Below, Sam Weller reports back from his recent appearance with Ray Bradbury and Black Francis at Glendale’s Mystery & Imagination Bookshop. Weller is the author of Listen to the Echos: The Ray Bradbury Interviews, which is out today from Stop Smiling/Melville House. More posts, and some great photos from the Bradbury archives, are available here.

Well. That was insane. I’m going on two hours sleep. Just got back to Chicago. I’m writing this on my iphone, something I find myself doing with increasingly alarming regularity.  Point in fact, I wrote much of the introduction to Listen to the Echoes on said mobile device, while in Western Kansas.

Anyway, I’ve done a lot of book signings in the last five years, but I’ve never seen anything quite like that!

The book launch at Mystery & Imagination in Glendale, California is now behind me. I’m not even sure where or how to describe this weekend.

Two rock concerts courtesy of Black Francis of the Pixies. Cute kids running wild everywhere. The undaunted Ray Bradbury leaving his home for the first time in three months. Copious wine. Copious books signed, sold, and delivered. Copious new memories made.

I was joined on my west coast pilgrimage by Stop Smiling Books co-publisher JC Gabel, the man with more energy than a nuclear reactor, as well as by uber-talented photographer and man of high-hilarity, Nathan Kirkman. These gents kept me laughing for 72 hours straight.

The legendary Black Francis of Pixies renown drove down from his home in Eugene, Oregon with his wife and kids to sign books at the event. The day before the bookshop bedlam, I toured them around Ray Bradbury’s home and then we sat with Ray and chatted. Ray told tales of old Hollywood, and treated us all to the ever-magical tale of Mr. Electrico, the carnival performer who so changed his life back in September, 1932.

Black Francis (aka Charles Thompson) and his lovely wife Violet are such generous, creative, fun, giving people. I can’t thank them enough for coming to L.A. and doing the book event.

As for the guest of honor, Ray Bradbury was in fine form as he nears the 90-year marker. He was hilarious, profound, ever-giving, and he even dictated two new essays to me so that I can type them up. I will post one this week on this blog—Ray Bradbury, guest blogger! The man started writing as a child, first on brown butcher paper, then on a toy typewriter, now he is blogging.

Finally, the event itself in Glendale. The little shop of horror novels (and other fantastic fables and ephemera) was jamming! We sold out of the limited edition hardcovers. Former students showed up. People brought guitars for Black Francis to sign. Ray Bradbury, much to my amazement, just kept on autographing books and books and more books. We drank wine and had a grand time. Thank you to Malcolm and Christine Bell and the staff at Mystery & Imagination for hosting this rock and roll extravaganza. Thanks to all around great guy, John King Tarpinian, for helping promote this event, and for helping get Ray safely to and fro!

Thanks to everyone who came out yesterday and contributed to the chaos and the carnival.

Sam Weller is the author of Listen to the Echos and The Bradbury Chronicles. He has lectured across the United States on the life and work of Bradbury. Weller is the former Midwest Correspondent for Publishers Weekly magazine. He has written for The Paris Review and NPR’s All Things Considered, and was a host for the Chicago Public Radio program Hello Beautiful! A frequent literary critic for the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times and Playboy.com, Weller is also a professor in the Fiction Writing Department at Columbia College Chicago.

The sixth annual Library Book Cart Drill Team Championship was held Sunday afternoon in Washington, DC. It is just one of the many events held during American Library Association’s annual conference. According to this report in the Washington Post, “Drill teams made up of library workers will perform themed dance routines with costumes and decorated book carts. This year’s competitors are from Delaware; Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania; the University of Pittsburgh; Midlothian, Texas; and Roselle, N.J.”

The library association’s site claims, “You don’t have to perform to enjoy the fun as librarians from around the country strut their stuff in choreographed dance routines featuring book carts! The teams design creative costumes for themselves and their carts, so this Championship is always a sight to behold.”

For a taste of the sport, below is a video of the winners of the 2008 Championship competition—the “Well Stacked Sci-Brarians” from the Santa Monica Public Library performing “Thriller”.