From what I have been able to work out, you've covered the publishing history well--although I am still confused. Brent Michalski was a co-author, with Kevin Meltzer, of
(2001) for which Lincoln Stein provided a foreword. Dave Cross has highly recommended the book in the past. I know of James Payne from the Python side of programming. However, he seems to have also been involved in providing information about Perl programming through Developer Shed in the past.