Bruce Nichols

Collins, a division of HarperCollins, agreed to pay legendary Celtics center Bill Russell, 74, over $1 million dollars to write a book about his old coach, the late Red Auerbach. Hard to know, as always, whether that figure is just someone's guess or the real thing. We heard it from two sources, but Collins publisher Bruce Nichols did not immediately return an e-mail asking whether it was high or low. 

Auerbach, who died in 2006, won nine NBA championships as coach of the Celtics, and seven more after he became the team's GM in 1967.

Mr. Russell's book will be called Red and Me; Collins intends to publish in spring 2009. Power-agent Flip Brophy of Sterling Lord Literistic brokered the deal. 

Adam Bellow, the conservative editor and author known for publishing books like The Bell Curve, David Brock's The Real Anita Hill, and Dinesh D'Souza's Illiberal Education, has left Doubleday for a senior position at Collins, the once quite invisible reference imprint of HarperCollins that has, in recent months, been taking aggressive steps towards recasting itself as a major player in non-fiction narrative.  read more »

Collins, the once-stale imprint of HarperCollins currently in the process of reinventing itself as a destination for major narrative non-fiction, has signed up Brandeis psychologist Irene Pepperberg to write a memoir about taking care of and studying Alex, the "world's most famous parrot."

Alex the parrot died in September after 30 years in Ms. Pepperberg's care. Ms. Pepperberg studied the bird extensively and believed it had the intelligence of a 5-year-old human being. Her research found that Alex could not only speak but understand what he was saying, and that he could grasp certain abstract concepts and distinguish between colors, shapes, and quantities up to 6 (including what reports have called "a zero-like concept"!).  read more »

Collins, a division of HarperCollins once known mostly for publishing reference books and how-to guides, announced two new editorial hires today: Bill Strachan and Serena Jones, both of whom specialize in narrative nonfiction.

Mr. Strachan was most recently a senior-level editor at the Avalon Publishing Group, a job he lost when Avalon was folded into the Perseus Books Group this past spring. Before that, he was at Hyperion, where he edited, among other things, a heap of history books and Chris Anderson’s The Long Tail.

Ms. Jones, meanwhile, moves to Collins from an associate editorship at Simon & Schuster, where according to Collins publisher Bruce Nichols, she worked with legendary politics editor Alice Mayhew.

Not long ago, literary agents shopping big narrative non-fiction wouldn’t have thought to submit to Collins. That changed this year, with the arrival of new president Steve Ross—who previously ran Crown at Random House—and Mr. Nichols, who had been an editor at Simon & Schuster’s Free Press for 15 years.

Mr. Ross, who had had enormous success at Crown during the ten years he spent at its helm, and Mr. Nichols, who had proved himself a master with books on politics, history, and current affairs, were charged with expanding Collins’ general non-fiction list, and in so doing, broadly recasting the shop in a new image.  read more »