Author Pat Conroy‘s pancreatic cancer advanced far more quickly than expected when he announced his condition to fans in mid-February, and he died Friday evening at his home in Beaufort, SC. His longtime editor and publisher Nan Talese said in a brief statement, “Pat has been my beloved friend and author for 35 years, spanning his career from THE PRINCE OF TIDES to today. He will be cherished as one of America’s favorite and bestselling writers, and I will miss him terribly.”
Penguin Random House has dedicated its sales conference, ongoing throughout this week, to Conroy. At Sunday night’s opening night dinner, ceo Markus Dohle said of Conroy: “I am grateful that all of us can be together this week, here in the South, to celebrate his life and his writing. Pat was a wonderful partner and friend to sales and to our booksellers. From the moment I met him, it was so clear, and so obvious to me why he was such a treasured member of our publishing family: his openness, his goodness, his warmth, and of course, his stories.”
NYT obit
Judy Rothman, 75, died February 9 in Annapolis, MD from cancer. She began her fifty-year publishing career at Fairchild Publications and subsequently worked at Prentice-Hall, Random House, Harper & Row, and SAGE Publications before becoming vp, director of the University Press of America and Hamilton Books, from which she retired in 2001. A memorial service is planned for later this spring.
In personnel news, Damon Reiss has been promoted to director of Bible sales at HarperCollins Christian Publishing.