Obits

Diane Lomonaco, 67, former associate director, production, for Putnam, died on October 4 of early onset Alzheimer’s disease. Over the course of her career, she also held positions at Simon & Schuster, and Betty Crocker. Penguin Random House writes, “Diane was the ultimate professional, extraordinarily knowledgeable about all facets of bookmaking, and deeply caring of her colleagues and authors. She was a warm and devoted friend, sister, and aunt with a sharp and dry sense of humor who always found the right words to cheer and console. With a love for books and poetry, Diane brought her fondness for theatre […]

Philip Spitzer, 82, founder of the eponymous literary agency, died on October 5 in Southampton, NY. His clients included James Lee Burke, Michael Connelly, Alafair Burke, Andre Dubus, Andre Dubus III, Ken Bruen, Simon Van Booy, among many others. Spitzer began his career as an editorial assistant at NYU Press and got his starting in agenting in the 1960s, when he worked for John Cushman Associates, then the American affiliate of Curtis, Brown, London. In 1969 he formed the Philip G. Spitzer Literary Agency, representing a broad range of fiction and nonfiction writers, as well more than a dozen French […]

Former longtime Bantam Doubleday Dell salesman John Ziccardi died on Monday at 78. He worked in sales at Bantam for 30 years until 1998. Penguin Random House said, “John, in the opinion of one of his knowing contemporaries, was one of the greatest one-on-one salespeople trade publishing has ever known. A kid from Queens, who rose from a field rep to run the entire Bantam and then BDD national-accounts sales group, John was always out there, with his charismatic blend of title and account knowledge, charm, warmth, and sincere other-directedness. And he always got the title order he asked for.” […]

Melville House senior publicist Gregory Henry, 48, passed away unexpectedly on September 17. Before joining Melville House, Henry had worked at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Reagan Arts, and Harper Collins, as well as at Rare Bird, Apollo Publishers and Center Street. Melville House publisher Dennis Johnson wrote: “We’re still in a state of shock. We’d been trying to get Gregory to come work for us for years, and he finally joined us six months ago. I think the astonishing, industry-wide outpouring of grief and affection for him that we’re seeing on social media gives you some sense of how talented a […]

Former Sierra Club Books editor-in-chief Daniel Moses, 85, died on September 12. In a 35-year publishing career, he held positions at Prentice Hall, Simon & Schuster, and as editor-in-chief at Links Books and at Bobbs-Merrill. He founded and directed Earth Island Books at Earth Island Institute, where he published The Case Against “Free Trade,” which included essays by Ralph Nader, Lori Wallach, Jerry Brown, Margaret Atwood, Wendell Berry, and Vandana Shiva.

Adams Media editor Peter Archer died unexpectedly at home last week. He joined Adams in 2007 after teaching college history and working at Dungeons & Dragons publisher TSR, and worked extensively on Adams’s role-playing game books and other titles. VP publisher Karen Cooper said, “It’s difficult to imagine a more gentle-hearted, learned, or humble man than Peter Archer. Peter brought a lifetime—and a vast range—of knowledge to his position as development editor. His mastery of history, religion, and politics was matched only by his passion for Scottish knitting, the Beatles, and all things RPG. Peter would be the first to share […]