MAIN NEWS HEADLINES
July 26- August 2, 2006 Edition
Pegasus to Publish
French Author Dumas's
Long Missing Novel
NEW YORK, NY/7/26/2007–Pegasus Books, the small New York publishing company founded in 2005 by Claiborne Hancock, has acquired U.S. rights to a long lost novel by Alexandre Dumas. The Last Cavalier, recently discovered and published in France in 2005, will be published in America by Pegasus in September.
Dumas, born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie (July 24, 1802 – December 5, 1870) was a novelist, playwright and journalist. He was best known for his numerous historical novels of high adventure, making him one of the most widely read French authors in the world. Among his best known works are The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers, and The Man in the Iron Mask.
The Last Cavalier manuscript was discovered in the National Library in Paris two years ago by scholar Claude Schopp. Pegasus publisher Claiborne Hancock, who was working with Dumas's French publisher on another project, pre-empted the work for a significant advance and plans an initial print run of 10,000 copies. The book, a story of revenge in the Napoleonic period, sold 250,000 copies in France.
Claiborne Hancock founded Pegasus Books after serving as senior managing editor and acquiring editor for the then $30 million Avalon Publishing Group before launching his own firm.
