Webster Younce will join Free Press as senior editor on February 27. He spent the past two years in Berlin at Suhrkamp, where he oversaw the company’s English-language and international literature program. Prior to that he worked at Holt and Houghton Mifflin. The Paris Review has announced that Jeffrey Eugenides will join their board of directors. At Little, Brown Children’s, Lisa Moraleda has been promoted to associate director of publicity, and Jessica Bromberg moves up to publicity manager. The London Book Fair will present their ninth annual Lifetime Achievement Award in International Publishing to Jorge Herralde, proprietor and director of Anagrama in […]
Personnel
Algonquin Hopes to Have Rosset Autobiography Ready This Year
Algonquin Books released a statement expressing their sadness at the death of Barney Rosset on Tuesday. The house has Rosset’s autobiography THE SUBJECT WAS LEFT-HANDED under contract (Wednesday’s Lunch misstated it as a biography), and publisher Elisabeth Scharlatt says, “We are very sad that he won’t be here to see his book published, and hope to release it within the year.” Bradford Morrow was working with Rosset on the manuscript, which has been in the works “for quite some time” according to Scharlatt. Separately, president of Grove/Atlantic Morgan Entrekin had this to say about the former head of Grove Press: […]
On Barney Rosset
Vintage and Anchor art director John Gall reported informally online that legendary publisher Barney Rosset, 90, died. Bradford Morrow says on Twitter that Rosset passed away “last night after complications from heart surgery.” Morrow was working with Rosset on his autobiography for Algonquin Books, according to Algonquin’s Michael Taeckens. Charles McGrath wrote this profile of “the publisher who fought Puritanism and won” in 2008 when he received the National Book Foundation’s lifetime achievement award. Algonquin Books indicates on Twitter that they have a biography of Rosset under contract.
People, Etc.
Kent D. Wolf joins Lippincott Massie McQuilkin as an agent, moving from Global Literary Management. He will continue to represent literary and commercial fiction, select young adult, narrative nonfiction, memoir, pop culture, and lifestyle books. Jen Linnan has opened her own agency, Linnan Literary Management, specializing in graphic works and illustration, in addition to select adult and children’s prose authors. Previously, Linnan was an associate agent at Sanford J. Greenburger Associates, where she started in 2007 and handled international rights for several major agency clients. Perseus has added another new executive, hiring Patrick Kirk for the new role of vp, program office, “responsible […]
People: Coady Leaving Picador As Part of Editorial Restructuring
President and publisher of Picador and editor-at-large at Macmillan Frances Coady will be leaving the company as part of an editorial restructuring of the paperback imprint, according to a company-wide memo sent by ceo John Sargent late Thursday to staff (and confirmed to us Friday.) “Over time,” Sargent wrote, “the Picador list has largely gravitated toward FSG, and more recently Holt. At the same time, we have seen shifts in the distribution of Picador paperbacks. The structural/financial model, constructed in another time, has become less meaningful. So we need to change, and to reinvigorate Picador.” As a result, going forward […]
People
Co-head of ICM’s department selling books to the film world Nick Harris is among a group of agents whose contracts will not be renewed when they expire in March, according to multiple reports. Harris joined in ICM in late 2010 to lead the department alongside Josie Freedman. The agency is continuing to reshape itself as part of a transition to a partnership. Author and two-time Pulitzer-winning correspondent Anthony Shadid, 43, died on assignment in Syria, “apparently of an asthma attack.” NYT executive editor Jill Abramson wrote, “Anthony died as he lived — determined to bear witness to the transformation sweeping […]