Longtime NYT book critic — and author of over 4,000 book reviews — Christopher Lehmann-Haupt died Wednesday at 84, from complications of a recent stroke. He was the NYT’s senior daily book critic from 1969 to 1995, and a critic until 2000 (he retired from the NYT in 2014). “Readers and colleagues called him a judicious, authoritative voice on fiction and a seemingly boundless array of history, biography, current events and other topics, with forays into Persian archaeology and fly fishing.”
The paper notes that he had recently completed the manuscript for a memoir, “about his discovery of his Jewish roots while spending time in Berlin as a boy with his father.”
In People news, Julianna Haubner is moving over from the Simon & Schuster imprint to join Avid Reader as associate editor.
At Simon & Schuster Children’s: Rebecca Syracuse has joined as designer for Atheneum, McElderry, and Beach Lane Books (she was at Macmillan Children’s); Karyn Lee is junior designer for the same three lines; Gabrielle Chang has been hired as junior designer for Simon Spotlight and Little Simon; and Laura Eckes is designer for Simon Pulse (she was most at HarperCollins).
In promotions, Matt Adamec moves up to associate art director at Simon & Schuster Children’s; and Brittany Naundorff moved up to designer for Little Simon and Simon Spotlight.
At Random House Children’s, Casey Moses was promoted to designer and Regina Flath moved up to assistant art director.
Chronicle Books has hired Jon Glick as senior designer, entertainment (he was at Insight Editions); and Eva Avery has joined as assistant editor for Mark Tauber’s new imprint (she was an editorial assistant at Harper One).
Alice Quinn will leave her position as executive director of Poetry Society of America in June.
Awards
In France, Nicolas Mathieu won the Prix Goncourt for Leurs Enfants Apres Eux (Their Children After Them). It will be published by Other Press in the US at the end of 2019 under the title The Children Who Came After Them.