Laurie Hertzel introduces herself to readers as the new book editor at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune: “My plan, over time, is to revamp these pages, giving them a slightly broader focus — not just book reviews of the most recent offerings, but an engaging weekly homage to the joy of reading. We’ll still run reviews, of course — here on Sunday, as well as every Monday and Wednesday inside Variety. But we’ll also run newsy columns, essays, book excerpts and tons of recommendations — many, I hope, from you. “I want to cover not only the newest and most interesting and […]
Personnel
Child's Other File
Yesterday the CIA released a trove of historical documents from the organization’s predecessor, the OSS. Among the documents was Julia Child’s application to serve: “Child’s file shows that in her OSS application, she included a note expressing regret she left an earlier department store job hastily because she did not get along with her boss, said William Cunliffe, an archivist who has worked extensively with the OSS records at the National Archives.>AP
Random House Canada Chairman John Neale Retires
Neale, chairman of RH Canada since 1999 and a publishing industry veteran of over 30 years, will retire at the end of this year. A private reception to celebrate his career with Random House of Canada will be held in Toronto on September 30th. Random House Canada Brad Martin said in a statement: “John Neale is one of the great leaders in Canadian publishing. He has made an invaluable contribution to the industry, and has built a great company that my colleagues and I are proud to be a part of.”
Editor Solotaroff Dies
Ted Solotaroff, longtime book editor of such authors as Russell Banks, Sue Miller, Max Apple and Bobbie Ann Mason at Harper and founder of The New American Review–supported at first by NAL and later by both Simon & Schuster and Bantam–died Friday at home from complications of pneumonia. He was 80.NYT
Announcements
At Chronicle Books, Amy Treadwell has been promoted to editor, Food and Drink, and Ursula Cary has been named editor in the One and Others group, moving from Simon Spotlight Entertainment. Robert C. Nelson is joining Baker & Taylor as executive v-p, strategic business development, a new position. Previously he was president of UCT Forestry Group. Yale University Press has named William Frucht Executive Editor for Political Science and International Relations. Frucht joins from Basic Books, where he was VP and Executive Editor.
Announcements
Bertelsmann DirectGroup announced yesterday that Najafi Companies has completed the closing of its acquisition of the North American book clubs and that effective immediately, the company’s new corporate name is Direct Brands, Inc. Consumer brand names such as Columbia House and BMG will remain unaffected. Oxford University Press has appointed Scott Kuem as Senior Vice President and CFO. Previously he was with the Neilsen Company. Also at OUP, Peter Berkery will be joining as Vice President and Law Publisher from Wolters Kluwer, effective August 18, and Julie Marshall has been named Retail Sales Director of the company. At Rizzoli, David […]