Former LAT book editor Steve Wasserman, now in New York as Managing Director at the compound-named agency Kneerim and Williams at Fish and Richardson, has gotten a preempt deal for Times staffer Anne-Marie O'Connor's book The Lady in Gold. It's the story of that Gustav Klimt portrait seized by the Nazis in Austria and recently slated for return to its rightful owners. O'Connor wrote about the case in 2001 for the Times' magazine and again last month. Alfred A. Knopf took the book.

Wasserman, incidentally, speaks Tuesday evening at a Zócalo lecture at the Central Library on "Do Books Have a Future in the Digital Age?" A sneak peek at his short answer: Yes, but there won't be any readers. Interesting take for a newly minted literary agent.

Previously:
Wasserman on LAT: No voice, no gravitas, no adults
Wasserman observed
Steve Wasserman resigns