HarperCollins Publishers Acquires Rights to Three Major Literary Authors From Black Sparrow Press.

Business Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 2, 2002

Ecco Will Now Publish Main Body of Work by Charles

Bukowski Along With Complete Works of Paul Bowles and John Fante 

HarperCollins Publishers today announced that it has acquired Black Sparrow Press' rights to publish three major literary authors - Paul Bowles, Charles Bukowski and John Fante. The deal encompasses 49 backlist books by all three authors, as well as five yet to be published books by Bukowski. The agreement includes world rights for all of the yet to be published books and for the majority of the backlist titles.

The books, including novels, short stories and poetry, will be published by Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins. As a result of this deal, Ecco, which was already the publisher of a substantial set of Paul Bowles' works, will now publish the complete works of Bowles and Fante, as well as the main body of work by Bukowski. David Steinberger, President of Corporate Strategy and International for HarperCollins negotiated the deal with John Martin, Founder of Black Sparrow Press.

"We are very pleased to add these unique and important books to Ecco's list," said Jane Friedman, President and CEO of HarperCollins Publishers worldwide. "This is an opportunity to publish three exceptional authors and to build on the strength of our Ecco imprint, while furthering our global publishing strategy."

"I am delighted that we are bringing the two collections of Bowles' work together at Ecco," said Daniel Halpern, Senior Vice President/Editorial Director of Ecco. "It is an honor for us to be able to publish all three of these writers. Their books are modern classics that will continue to sell far into the future."

"I have been committed to these great authors for 36 years," said Martin. "I see this deal as a great opportunity for their works. I have the greatest respect for Daniel Halpern, with whom I have collaborated with for decades. Bowles, Bukowski and Fante's books will benefit from the global resources and distribution that HarperCollins can offer."

Paul Bowles, regarded as the epitome of the 20th Century expatriate writer, was born in 1910 and studied music with composer Aaron Copland before moving to Tangier, Morocco on the advice of Gertrude Stein. He remained in Morocco, which served as the inspiration for The Sheltering Sky published in 1949. This book was followed by The Delicate Prey, Let It Come Down, The Spider's House and Without Stopping, a memoir that describes his legendary associations with everyone from the Beats to Mick Jagger and Tennesse Williams. Bowles' prolific career included many musical compositions, collections of short fiction, and books of travel, poetry and translations. Ecco has published 7 books by Bowles that will now be complemented by 6 books from Black Sparrow Press.

Charles Bukowski, one of the bestselling poets of the 20th Century, achieved international fame with his prose and poetry, including the novels Post Office, Factotum and Women, and the screenplay for the film Barfly. He was born in 1920 in Germany to an American soldier father and German mother, and was brought to the United States at the age of three. He lived in Los Angeles for 50 years and died in 1994 at the age of 73, shortly after completing his last novel, Pulp. HarperCollins published Run With The Hunted, A Charles Bukowski Reader in 1993 and an audio book by Caedmon, Charles Bukowski Uncensored in 2000. Ecco will now publish 31 books by Bukowski, formerly published by Black Sparrow Press. In addition, over the next few years Ecco will publish five never before published Bukowski books.

John Fante, called "Laureate of the Los Angeles Underground" by the Los Angeles Times, was born in Colorado in 1909. He lived most of his life in Los Angeles where he wrote many novels, short stories and screenplays, including Full of Life, Jeanne Eagels, My Man and I and The Reluctant Saint. His first novel, Wait Until Spring, Bandini was published in 1938. Ask The Dust, first published in 1939, was out of print for decades, but is now widely recognized as an essential L.A. novel. Fante died in 1983 at the age of 74. In March, William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins, published The John Fante Reader. All 12 of Fante's books that were published by Black Sparrow will now be published by Ecco.

HarperCollins is one of the leading English-language publishers in the world and is a subsidiary of News Corporation (NYSE: NWS, NWS.A; ASX: NCP, NCPDP). Headquartered in New York, the company has publishing groups in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Australasia. Its publishing groups include the HarperCollins General Books Group, HarperCollins Children's Books Group, Zondervan, HarperCollins UK, HarperCollins Canada and HarperCollins Australia/New Zealand. The HarperCollins General Books Group is made up of four operating divisions: HarperTrade, Morrow/Avon, HarperInformation and HarperSanFrancisco. You can visit HarperCollins Publishers on the Internet at http://www.harpercollins.com.