In a literary victory for the magazine we all read for the short stories, Playboy will publish 5,000-words of "The Original of Laura" by Vladmir Nabokov in December, one week before the novel hits bookstores.

The NY Observer reports on the fascinating bidding process as the magazine's literary editor Amy Grace Loyd pursued agent Andrew Wylie for the rights to the story. Knopf will publish the unfinished novel in the United States, and Penguin UK will handle the UK edition.

Here's more from the article: "'I'm happy to tell you we've never paid this much for a book excerpt before, ever,' Ms. Loyd said, adding: 'There are parts of it that are much more cohesive than others. But I found it fascinating in that way.'"