'Harry Potter' among those missing from e-library

NEW YORK -- The latest J.R.R. Tolkien project lasted six years, more than half as long as the author needed to complete his "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.

Getting permission to release a book in electronic form can be as hard — or harder — than writing it.

"The Tolkien estate wanted to be absolutely confident that e-books were not something ephemeral," says David Brawn, publishing operations director at HarperCollins UK, which announced last week that the late British author's work — among the world's most popular — would be available for downloads.

"We were finally able to convince the Tolkien estate that the e-book is a legitimate, widespread format."

Tolkien's addition to the e-club fills a major gap, and, with e-books the fastest (and virtually only) growing sector of publishing, other authors and their estates have softened. Former holdouts Tom Clancy and Danielle Steel have allowed their books to be digitized and John Grisham will reportedly do the same. Grove/Atlantic Inc., which has published William Burroughs, Samuel Beckett and Malcolm X, expects many of its older works to become available.

"We're getting less resistance every day," says Grove associate publisher Eric Price.

But you could still build a brilliant collection with the books that remain off-line. They include, most notably, the "Harry Potter" series, and countless other favorites: "Catcher in the Rye" and "Catch-22"; "Lolita" and "To Kill a Mockingbird"; "Atlas Shrugged" and "Things Fall Apart"; "The Outsiders" and "Fahrenheit 451."

No e-books are available from such living authors as Thomas Pynchon, Guenter Grass and Cynthia Ozick, or from the late Studs Terkel, Roberto Bolano and Saul Bellow. Only a handful, or less, have come out from Paul Bowles, Hunter S. Thompson and James Baldwin.

The reasons are legal, financial, technical and philosophical.

_The author or author's estate simply refuses, like J.K. Rowling, who has expressed a preference for books on paper and a wariness of technology. And don't expect to see "A Streetcar Named Desire" or any other Tennessee Williams play on your e-reader.