Random House

Westminster Planning and Zoning Commission rescued Westminster Rescue Mission last night.The panel voted to extend city water and sewer service outside city limits to part of the rescue mission's land on which the nonprofit group plans to build a 65-bed facility.Coliform bacteria has shown up at the site and the county Health Department has said it would withdraw approval for the new shelter, said David Bowersox, representing the mission."The rescue mission is looking at a significant possibility that we may not be able to complete the facility in the absence of water and sewer," he told the commission.

NEW YORK -- When the novelist Ralph Ellison died in April 1994, the status of his long-awaited follow-up to the 1952 classic "Invisible Man" was unclear.Eight short stories he had published since 1960 were pieces of a novel-in-progress, but a completed manuscript would have to be mined from his Harlem apartment. "I did have the impression it was close to being finished," Ellison's editor at Random House, Joe Fox, said at the time.But only now is the book finally ready for publication -- by Random House in June, under the title "Juneteenth," the name of a celebration marking the emancipation of Texas slaves on June 19, 1865.

Random House has come upon a truth: You do judge a book by its cover. On that principle, this venerable of American publishing has relaunched its sale of "A Civil Action," by Jonathan Harr (Random House. 500 pages. $25).That book went to market on Sept. 8, last year, with an entire poodle-and-Shetland show of publishing promotion. Then came great reviews, nomination for the National Book Award. Booksellers loved it and displayed it prominently.It didn't fall flat, but it didn't leap or soar either.

Random House deal benefits company, state and communityThe Sun's editorial "Giving state aid too randomly" (June 4) raised concerns about using public incentives to keep businesses in Maryland. I believe readers will benefit from some clarifications.Random House announced Nov. 5 that it had chosen Westminster over suburban Chicago as its national distribution center. This was after we received a conditional letter of agreement from the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development.

WESTMINSTER - Random House Inc., Carroll County's largest private employer, will release "The Plains of Passage" by Jean Auel Oct. 3 with a hardcover first printing of 1.4 million copies -- the largest first printing of any previous Random House title.To commemorate this event, the company is planning a weeklong celebration Oct. 1-5 at the Westminster Distribution Center.Activities will include free subs and make-your-own sundaes for all employees, T-shirt and sweat shirt giveaways, "dinosaur" egg decoration, and a guess-the-number-of gummy dinosaurs contest, in which four people who guess the closest amounts will win an extra day off at Thanksgiving with pay."

Award-winning children's author Robert Lawrence (R.L.) Stine of Goosebumps fame and four other nationally recognized authors will speak and sign books at Carroll Community College's eighth book fair this weekend. Wes Unseld, former Baltimore and Washington Bullets center, coach and a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, will be the honorary chairman of the event. "I'm looking forward to enjoying myself," said Unseld, a Carroll County resident. "I understand it's a fabulous event." Random House Inc., a publishing company with a distribution center in Westminster, partners with the college for the event.

Richard Scarry, a best-selling author and illustrator of children's books, died Saturday at Saanen hospital in Gstaad, Switzerland. He was 74 and lived in Gstaad.The cause was a heart attack, said his son, Richard Jr. of Gstaad.Mr. Scarry (the name rhymes with carry), who was born in Boston and moved to Switzerland in 1968, once wrote: "It's a preciousthing to be communicating to children, helping them discover the gift of language and thought. I'm happy to be doing it."Mr. Scarry's illustrations are noted for being crammed with details that toddlers find enthralling, especially children learning to talk.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton is the author of a new book outlining where he thinks the country ought to be heading.The president's contract calls for him to receive neither an advance nor royalties for "Between Hope and History: Meeting America's Challenges for the 21st Century."The book is coming out at the same time in the presidential election cycle as a book he and Vice President Al Gore wrote four years ago.That book, a paperback called "Putting People First," was a compendium of 1992 campaign promises.

A good children's book can be quite expensive, though never as much as a pair of jeans or a good dinner out. Some publishers offer bargain-basement prices on books for young children.* Golden Books. These are mass produced in several sizes with titles and designs that go back 50 years or more. Some have become classics. All are less than $2. Favorites are "The Little Red Caboose," "Little Toot," "Animal Daddies and My Daddy" and "Dumbo."* HarperCollins "I Can Read" Series. These are slightly more expensive titles, but each is still less than $4. The series features some of the best writers for beginning readers in a sturdy paperback form.

"Hillary's Choice" by Gail Sheehy (Random House, 389 pages, $23.95).Anyone who suffers from the delusion that President Clinton's wife is a simple or forthrightly understandable person has not being paying attention for the last seven years and more. Gail Sheehy makes no such error in seeking to present the full dimension of this complex and often contrary lawyer, mother, wife and candidate for the U.S. Senate for a state in which she has never lived. There will be millions of words more written about Mrs. Clinton in the next year -- or month.