Graham Greene obituary

Astute publisher and British Museum chair behind fundraising for the Great CourtGraham Greene, who has died aged 80, was one of the leading publishers of his generation, as well as giving huge public service in an impressive range of activities, usually unpaid. As managing director of Jonathan Cape from 1966 to 1988, he built this small, cottage-industry publisher into a top name for developing outstanding authors and publishing quality books, both fiction and non-fiction. Benign and genial in manner, Graham had a keen eye for literary talent and a managerial ability to soothe artistic egos. He nurtured young authors so that they would remain long on the Cape lists, and greatly appreciated the commercial and marketing skills of his charismatic partner, Tom Maschler; together they were a formidable team.Eventually, Cape was sold to the giant Random House. Graham retired from the business as he recognised that he was personally and professionally unsuited to the ruthless new publishing world, driven by accountant directors seeking to maximise short-term profits from illiterate celebrity authors who often did not read, let alone write, their ghost-written memoirs. He recently said that “in all my publishing career, I never asked myself how many copies a book would sell. I simply asked: is it good?” Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2016-11-01 00:00:00 UTC ]

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