Obits

Gary Urda, 59, senior vice president of sales at Simon & Schuster, died suddenly on the morning of June 24, after collapsing at the gym. Urda began his career at S&S in 1996 as vp for sales development at Pocket Books and held a series of positions in both Atria/Pocket Books and the sales division before becoming senior vice president, sales. S&S ceo and president Jonathan Karp writes, “Gary was the best kind of colleague – engaged, thoughtful, attentive, constructive, upbeat, humorous, warm, and always approachable, personable, and capable. He was a quintessential sales executive, with a deep knowledge of […]

Thomas J. McCormack, 92, longtime chairman, ceo, and editorial director of St. Martin’s Press, died at his home on Saturday, June 15. McCormack began his book publishing career as an editor for Anchor books in 1959. He became ceo of St. Martin’s Press in 1970, expanding the publisher from $2.5 million in annual sales to more than $250 million. The company writes: “McCormack was a legend in the industry. He inspired a generation of publishing leaders through his generosity of spirit and knowledge, business savvy, and deep passion for the work we do as publishers. Quite simply, he was one […]

Caleb Carr, 68, author of popular thriller The Alienist, died of cancer on May 23 at his home in Cherry Plain, NY. The son of journalist Lucien Carr, he published 11 books, including most recently the memoir My Beloved Monster, which came out in April. Carr’s editor at Little, Brown, Joshua Kendall, said, “Caleb lived his writing life valiantly, with works of politics, history and sociology, but most astonishingly for this historian, with wildly entertaining works of fiction. These were novels that used baroque canvasses to paint intimate scenes of beauty, suffering, intellectual bravery, and pain. Pain was his final […]

Alice Munro, 92, Canadian short story writer and winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize for Literature, died on Monday night at her care home in Ontario. Munro was born in 1931 and published her first short story collection, Dance of the Happy Shades, in 1968. She was awarded the Man Booker International Prize in 2009 for her lifetime body of work. Penguin Random House Canada issued this statement. CEO of Penguin Random House Canada Kristin Cochrane said, “Alice Munro is a national treasure—a writer of enormous depth, empathy, and humanity whose work is read, admired, and cherished by readers throughout […]

EVP and director of Business Affairs at Writers House Al Araneo, 53, died suddenly and unexpectedly on Saturday from natural causes. “A treasured and invaluable colleague, Al’s absolute professionalism, deep kindness, and generous and insightful counsel helped make Writers House a joy to work at,” said agency president Simon Lipskar. “He was a dear friend to everyone who worked with him, and we are all grief-struck by this terrible loss.” Araneo started the contracts department at Writers House in 2006 after working for 13 years at Penguin, Doubleday, and Bookspan, and oversaw the department’s growth. In 2020, he became director […]

Paul Auster, 77, died on April 30 of complications from lung cancer. He is the author of 34 books, including The New York Trilogy and 4321, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. His most recent book, Baumgartner, was published in November.