Obits

Bestselling author Melissa Bank, 61, who wrote The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing and The Wonder Spot, died on August 2, in East Hampton, NY, after a struggle with lung cancer.

Robert (Bob) Scudellari, 88, who was corporate art director at Random House in the 70s and 80s, died on June 3. Scudellari designed books jackets for John Cheever, Toni Morrison, Robert Caro, John le Carré, Anne Rice, and many more, as well as creating the overall design for Random House Modern Library and the black-jacket Library of America line. Erroll McDonald of Knopf said, “He was a lovely and hugely talented man renowned for his signature jacket designs, his enduring typographic branding of authors.”

Stuart Woods, 84, died at home in Connecticut on July 22. He was the author of more than 90 novels, beginning with Chiefs in 1981, and served on the boards of the Authors Guild Foundation since 2004. Putnam published his memoir, An Extravagant Life, in June, and will publish the next two books in the Stone Barrington series in August and October.

Marvin S. Brown, 87, a publishing executive who served as president at Atheneum, New American Library, Viking Penguin, and Penguin USA, died in his home in Boca Raton, Florida on July 15. Science fiction writer Eric Flint, 75, New York Times bestselling author of Alternate History, died on July 17.

Cook book author Dianna Kennedy, 99, author of 1972 cookbook The Cuisines of Mexico, as well as The Tortilla Book and My Mexico, died on Sunday. Book publisher Merloyd Lawrence, 89, died in Cambridge, MA on June 27 of congestive heart disease. She was the co-founder of Seymour Lawrence and over the course of her career worked at Addison-Wesley, Perseus Publishing, Da Capo Press, Basic Books and Hachette. A memorial will be held at King’s Chapel in Boston, with a date in October to be decided.

Sophie Castille, 51, director of Mediatoon Foreign Rights as well as co-founder and managing director of Europe Comics, died on July 11. A tribute page has been set up for friends and colleagues to contribute memories.