Author Harlan Ellison to Speak at E-Book Conference.

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 14, 1999--

Harlan Ellison, considered by many to be the greatest living fantasist in the English language, will be a keynote speaker at the Electronic Book '99 conference sponsored by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Sept. 21-22 in Gaithersburg, Md.

Ellison will address the conference, whose attendees are largely in the technical and electronic fields, about the relationship of human values to technology.

The author, who chooses not to own a computer and composes all of his stories on a manual typewriter, "working at the level of technology that best produces my art, and not one grommet more sophisticated," nonetheless recently decided to release some of his books electronically.

Thirteen of Ellison's greatest works will be published exclusively in e-book format by E-Reads, an e-book startup whose Web site is scheduled for launch later in the year. Ellison's books will join some 600 classic titles in such genres as thrillers, fantasy, romance, science fiction and suspense that E-Reads' sister company, E-Rights, has recovered from a vast body of out-of-print books newly converted for electronic print-on-demand distribution.

The Ellison titles to appear on the E-Reads list are "Strange Wine," "Shatterday," "Sleepless Nights in the Procrustean Bed," "Over the Edge," "An Edge in My Voice," "City on the Edge of Forever," "Ellison Wonderland," "Approaching Oblivion," "Deathbird Stories," "Memos From Purgatory," "I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream," "Web of the City," and "Spider Kiss."

E-Reads was founded by Richard Curtis, Ellison's long-time agent turned e-book publisher. Curtis will also be addressing the conference. His speech, "Content Spoken Here," reminds the technical community that without good books, the e-book is nothing more than a fancy, but empty, shell.

The Maryland event is the second annual workshop on technical innovation and standards for the emerging electronic book industry, sponsored by the National Institute of Standards and Technology -- Information Technology Laboratory (NIST) and the National Information Standards Organization (NISO).

The workshop, "Electronic Book '99: The Next Chapter," will feature topics including handheld, paperless electronic books, Web-based electronic books, new technologies, progress on the Open Electronic Book Standards Committee, electronic rights management issues and novel applications for electronics books.

Among the speakers will be publishers, display manufacturers, storage developers, authors, end-users, software tool developers and educators. There will be an evening reception and numerous industry exhibits.

Confirmed speakers include Adobe President Chuck Geschke, NuvoMedia Chief Executive Officer and Cofounder Martin Eberhard, Softbook Press' Chairman and CEO James Sachs, Microsoft Vice President for Technology Development Dick Brass, and Carol Risher, Association of American Publishers vice president of copyright and new technology.

The event will be held Sept. 21-22 at the NIST Red Auditorium, Gaithersburg.

For information, contact Dr. Victor R. McCrary, group leader, Information Technology Laboratory (NIST), at 301/975-4321. To register, visit the conference Web site at http://www.nist.gov/ebook99.