Barnes & Noble to Bring a Classic American Novel Back into Print; Independent Film Stone Reader Inspires Bookseller to Republish Dow Mossman's The Stones of Summer.

Business Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 8, 2003

Dow Mossman's American novel The Stones of Summer has been out of print for more than twenty years and has become "rarer than rare" to find. Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS), the world's largest bookseller; Lost Books Club; and Jet Films today announced that Barnes & Noble will republish the book in hardcover in the fall of 2003. Copies of this long sought-after novel can now be pre-ordered on Barnes & Noble.com (www.bn.com).

Mark Moskowitz's Stone Reader, the non-fiction film that Mr. Mossman's book inspired, will go into national release in June 2003. The documentary has already won awards from the Slamdance Film Festival - "Audience Award for Best Feature" and "Special Grand Jury Honor" -- and wide critical praise.

"The concept of rescuing out-of-print books is something every bookseller understands," said Steve Riggio, chief executive officer of Barnes & Noble, Inc. "Barnes & Noble has reprinted books for many years, but The Stones of Summer is truly a major event for us. It is a great work of modern American literature and deserves to be back in print."

Mark Moskowitz finally read Dow Mossman's The Stones of Summer in 1998, after having "shelved" the paperback when he purchased it as a teenager. Finding the book to be an important work of literature, he began his film as a journey for Mossman, a reclusive 1970s unknown who had become a 21st century cult literary figure. Mr. Riggio, also a fan of the book, then became involved in the project.

"The minute I met Steve I knew this was a booklover who would put his heart and soul and resources behind the entire film project," said Mr. Moskowitz. "He understood the film's vision and became involved, like everyone who has helped, because of what the story personally meant to him."

"One cannot watch Stone Reader without wanting to go out and read Dow Mossman's book," said Mr. Riggio. "The film is a love letter about the joys of reading. It celebrates books and authors like no other film."

The Stones of Summer is the deeply moving, wildly funny saga of the irreverent and irrepressible Dawes Williams. The "fat, funny, touching, infuriating" novel, as one critic described it, spans three decades, and its author, Dow Mossman, was compared to James Joyce, J.D. Salinger, and Mark Twain when it was first published in 1972. "Reading The Stones of Summer was crossing another Rubicon, discovering a new sensibility, a brave new world of consciousness. It burns with a generational fire, moon fire, stone fire," wrote critic John Seelye in The New York Times. But the author, Dow Mossman, disappeared from the publishing world shortly afterwards, never writing again, and this mystery motivates the movie, Stone Reader.

Stone Reader, a cinematic quest for an author and his book, is an often funny, frequently touching paean to the transformative power and shared exhilaration that reading brings to Americans of all ages. It has been called "A great literary mystery. I've never seen a movie that paid more heartfelt tribute to the power of artistic invention," said J. Hoberman in the Village Voice. "Stone Reader reheats the fevers of the freewheeling, icon smashing 1960s. Anyone who gives a damn about the state of popular culture and the future of language will want to take heed," said Bill Gallo, in the San Francisco Weekly. And Peter Rainer wrote in New York Magazine, "A marvelous literary thriller that gets at the way books can stay with people forever. Director Moskowitz subscribes to the cult of the novel, and I suspect that most people who will love this movie do, too."

Some of the giants from the publishing world's fraternity of authors, editors, and educators who appear in the film are Robert Gottlieb, the editor of Catch-22; the writer Frank Conroy, head of the Iowa Writers' Workshop; and famed critic, Leslie Fiedler.

The formation of the "Lost Books Club" was inspired by a conversation Mr. Moskowitz had with one of his literary heroes, Leslie Fiedler. Mr. Fiedler suggested other "lost books," along with the idea that each lost book has a story all its own. The nonprofit foundation seeks funds to help bring other worthwhile works to the public's attention.

An excerpt from The Stones of Summer and a film clip from Stone Reader can be viewed on Barnes & Noble.com (www.bn.com). Upcoming openings of the film are posted on the film's official Web site at www.stonereader.net.

About Barnes & Noble, Inc.

Barnes & Noble, Inc. (NYSE: BKS) is the world's largest bookseller, operating 628 Barnes & Noble bookstores in 49 states. It also operates 258 B. Dalton Bookseller stores, primarily in regional shopping malls. The company offers titles from more than 50,000 publisher imprints, including thousands of small, independent publishers and university presses. It conducts its e-commerce business through Barnes & Noble.com (http://www.bn.com) in which it owns an approximate 38 percent interest.

Barnes & Noble also has approximately a 60 percent interest in GameStop (NYSE: GME), the nation's largest video-game and entertainment-software specialty retailer with 1,231 stores.

General financial information on Barnes & Noble, Inc. can be obtained via the Internet by visiting the company's corporate Web site: http://www.barnesandnobleinc.com/financials.