New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg officially has declared Tuesday as “G.P. Putnam’s Sons Day,” in recognition of the publisher’s 175th anniversary. Bloomberg said: “The story of G.P. Putnam’s Sons has it all – entrepreneurship, determination, romance, big dreams. It is a classic New York City story, and on this wonderful occasion, today, we join Putnam’s extended family and many readers across the world in looking ahead to the next exciting chapter.”
Michael Foster, who bought control of the UK agency PFD and merged it with his MF Management in 2010 to form The Rights House, has sold his shares back to the company, the Bookseller reports. Co-chief executive Caroline Michel tells the magazine, “Michael decided he didn’t want to be an agent any more so he was a very happy seller and we were a very happy buyer.” Despite that, they write that “Foster is said to be taking with him a number of clients from his current list.” The Guardian says “it is understood Foster will take with him three or four clients from a portfolio of stars which includes Evans and Ali G star Sacha Baron Cohen.” Another investor, Matthew Freud, sold his stake in Rights House last year. The newspaper speculates that “the deal could also lead to a larger stake in the company for another of its shareholders and former chairman, broadcaster and ex-Sunday Times editor Andrew Neil.
The latest step in the long-running battle for control of Germany’s Suhrkamp Verlag has put the company into bankruptcy reorganization, a German correspondent tells us. Current management remains in place, but the court will appoint a supervisor to oversee major decision. The company owes over 8 million euros — to the two warring shareholders, the controlling Unseld-Berkéwicz foundation, and the dissident holder Hans Barlach, which the court required the company to show on its balance sheet, though it does not have the cash to pay them. The filing raises the possibility that another German publisher will step in and buy control.
The Australian Publishers Association gave out their annual book and trade awards, with ML Stedman‘s THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS winning Book of the Year (as well as prizes for literary fiction and “newcomer”). Allen and Unwin was publisher of the year for the fourth year in a row; Text Publishing was honored as small publisher of the year.
Swansea University is sponsoring the £30,000 Dylan Thomas Prize, which goes annually to an under the age of 30 writing in English (awarded most recently to Maggie Shipstead for SEATING ARRANGEMENTS).