PEOPLE
We will skip over the Thomas Middelhoff debacle, and move on to some moves that are less well covered, including that by a Middelhoff chronicler: The NYT’s David Kirkpatrick is leaving the Book Beat, to cover media, focusing on AOL Time Warner, along with Vivendi, Bertelsmann, and News Corp. His replacement will be named shortly.
Gerry Helferich resigned as VP Publisher of General Interest Books at Wiley to write Humboldt’s Cosmos. The proposal had been sold to Brendan Cahill, who was then at Grove Atlantic, but went to Bill Shinker’s newly named Gotham imprint at Penguin. The book stays with Cahill. Helferich may be reached at dusie54@hotmail.com.
Bob Morton, formerly of Abrams, has been named Editor-in-Chief at Aperture starting on August 1. Paul Gottlieb had been named Exec. Dir. of Aperture shortly before his death. . . Peter De Giglio, who had been Publisher of Princeton Review at Random, has moved to Holtzbrinck, reporting to Peter Garabedian, as VP Finance and Accounting. . . Andy Carpenter has gone to Rodale as Art Director. He had previously been Art Director at (little) Random House.
Frank Daly has resigned as Exec. Dir. of BISG, but the press release announcing his resignation and the name of the incoming Exec. Dir. had not materialized as of press time. . . Linda Biagi has left Little, Brown, where she was VP Sub. Rights Director. . . Ronni Stolzenberg has been hired as Marketing Director for Sterling. She was previously at the American Museum of Natural History. Robin Strashun has left the company (and may be reached at rstrashun@hotmail.com). . . Suzanne Green has gone to Zagat Survey, where she is in charge of New Business development. She handled special sales at NBN. . . Sid Albert is leaving Random House, after 24 years there, as is Jack St. Mary, VP Director of Sales for RH children’s book group, after twenty five years at the company.
Laura Mathews, who landed at Martha Stewart Living after leaving Penguin, is now covering books for Redbook, and says she welcomes manuscripts and galleys. Her phone number is (212) 787-3523, and email is delaurence@msn.com. . . Betty Kelly Sargent is moving into her new office at the Wallace Agency, where she will continue her work as a freelance writer and editor, and will agent for a small group of writers whom she worked with at Cosmo, Morrow, and HarperCollins. Her new phone number will be (212) 570-9093. Email bsargent@earthlink.net.
Robin Theunisson has been named Sales Manager for Modern Publishing. Formerly a book buyer for Kmart, she will be based in Michigan and will report to Richard Vreeland, VP Sales. . . Diane Naughton announced that Anne Stavola is joining HarperCollins Children’s Books as Executive Director of Publicity. She had worked on a freelance basis for New Line and Universal, and before that was Director of East Coast Publicity for Universal. . . Overlook has named former Continuum Publicist Corrie Schoenberg as Publicity Manager, replacing Bruce Mason, who has gone to Miramax. The press has also hired Sara Rosenbloom, previously of Grove, as a publicist. . . Carlisle & Company has announced that Diane Gedymin has become an “affiliate of the agency.” She had most recently been Publishing Dir. of HarperSanFrancisco.
Riky Stock will become manager of the German Book Office in New York. She replaces Dr. Andrea Heyde, who is now moving to Harcourt to take up an editorial position. Frankfurt Book Fair announced last week that Volker Neumann, who had been Managing Director of the Random House publishing group in Germany, has been named the new Director of the Frankfurt Book Fair.
PROMOTIONS
Candy Lee, former CEO of Troll, has assumed new responsibilities as President Consumer and Direct, for United Airlines Loyalty Services, under the iFormation Group. Lee went to iFormation last fall. . . Elise Howard announced that Susan Rich has been named Executive Editor, HarperCollins Children’s Books. Howard credits Rich with Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events, among other titles. . . Following the retirement of Frank Kozelek, who had been at the company for 27 years, Leslie Gelbman has announced the promotion of Rich Hasselberger to VP, Executive Art Director, Mass Market Books, overseeing both Berkley and NAL imprints. He continues to art direct for Dutton. Meanwhile Carole Baron announced that Lisa Amaroso will become Exec. Art Dir. for Putnam, Riverhead, Avery, and Tarcher. She had been Senior Art Dir. . . And congrats to everyone’s favorite mouthpiece, Stuart Applebaum, who’s been promoted to the newly created position of EVP Communications for Random House. Just in time, given the recent announcement about Thomas Middelhoff.
DULY NOTED
Doubleday is publishing September 11: An Oral History next month, and it’s comprised of first-person accounts of that day. One of those who’s contributed is Penguin Putnam’s Dick Heffernan, who tells the moving story of his search for his son Chris, who worked in the World Trade Center, a few floors below his friend, Pete O’Neill. Chris finds his father before he can get down to the burning towers, but Pete — who worked for his uncle at Sandler O’Neill — is not so lucky. Like all these stories, this is riveting stuff, best read in reach of a box of kleenex.
• Jeffrey Lependorf, Executive Director at CLMP (Council of Literary Magazines and Presses) reminds us that CLMP publishes a free, bimonthly Newswire on independent literary publishing news. To subscribe, e-mail rcasper@clmp.org with Newswire Subscribe in the header.
• Meanwhile in the August Fast Company, Peter Olson explains how he takes three-week vacations with no email or phone calls. “When I’m gone, I’m gone.”
• Rumors abound that Abrams has sold its college business to Prentice Hall. This includes Janson’s History of Art. Prentice Hall had been selling these books into the textbook market.
• Now that Scholastic owns Grolier, the push is on to sell Grolier’s and Scholastic’s mailing lists in one pitch. We were impressed by some of the numbers their list broker is touting: Scholastic At Home, the former mailorder portion of Grolier, claims 7 million active members in its clubs, 3 million of whom have young children (0-7), and 2.7 million of whom are “older families” (7-18).
PARTIES & EVENTS
Little, Brown’s party for Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones was held on July 30 at Flute on West 54th. Larry Kirshbaum hosted the event, and thanked everyone involved, including agent Henry Dunow (“Behind every good author is a good agent”), Sarah Burnes, and Sarah Crichton, who were responsible for bringing it into the house, and both of whom have since left. Kirshbaum announced that there are now over 1 million copies in print.
Nan Talese hosted a party in her elegant brownstone for first time author Adam Haslett (You are Not A Stranger Here) where other new young authors such as Benjamin Anastas, Gabe Hudson, Christopher Sorrentino, Shelley Jackson and Minna Proctor rubbed shoulders with the likes of Peter Olson, Jonathan Galassi, Luann Walther, Jill Krementz, VF’s Wayne Lawson, Salon’s Laura Miller, WSJ’s Jeff Trachtenberg and superstar Jonathan Franzen and his agent Susan Golomb. Haslett’s agent Ira Silverberg declared that the entire process of putting out the book restored his faith in publishing!
National Geographic hosted a panel discussion to celebrate the publication of Power Lines by Jason Carter, Jimmy Carter’s grandson. Both Carters spoke, as did the Ambassador to the US from South Africa, Sheila Makate Sisulu, and Jack Nelson, retired Washington bureau Chief of the LA Times. Afterward Nina Hoffman, President of the NGS book division, reminisced with President Carter about their long history together: Hoffman was at Bantam when it published his first book, Keeping Faith, in 1982.
MEMORIAL
A memorial service will be held for Len Shatzkin on Monday, September 23rd, from 3 to 5 at the Ethical Culture Society on Central Park West. Confirmed speakers include Tom McCormack, Philip Turner, Ruth Cavin, Chris Kerr, Ed Morrow, Bernie Rath, and George Blagowidow.
