LDAP in general + SQL

[Scott Sipe <cscotts@mindspring.com>]

For the past two months I've been designing a large website backended by
MySQL for a publishing company.  The database contains author
information as well as book information.  It is necessary to have at
least some author information in the database for things like handy sql
joins.

Currently all that is in the sql database is name and a biographical
bit.  I would like to keep track of full contact information as well
(address, phone, fax, etc), and it would be nice to be able to access
this information in address book programs like netscape's.

Would I be better off storing all contact information in the sql
database and trying to write a gateway (proper term?) between the SQL
and LDAP server or doing something else?  Is keeping track of people for
addressing purposes something that LDAP would be very good for, or are
the benefits not worth the hassle?

Or am I looking at something totally wrong?  I know next to nothing
about LDAP so I hope this isn't a stupid question...

Thanks!
Scott