Charismatic publisher who combined erudition with commercial savvy to turn Penguin Books into a global brandIn 1978 Peter Mayer, who has died aged 82, was drafted in from the US to rescue a moribund Penguin Books. He took the beloved but by then loss-making publisher and turned it into a global publishing brand, along the way transforming the publishing industry as a whole. Without doubt the greatest publisher of his generation, Mayer was also the most charismatic. Handsome, charming, witty and at times infuriating, he was also brave, defending to the hilt Salman Rushdie and his novel The Satanic Verses (published in 1988 by Viking Penguin) and refusing to go into hiding when a fatwa was issued against Rushdie, as he was advised to do.Mayer was a true intellectual but what made him unique was the combination of erudition with an overarching vision and commercial savvy. Among his first acts at Penguin, where he arrived amid the winter of discontent, was to put a pair of bare legs on the cover of Susan Isaac’s novel Compromising Positions and to pay a lot of money for MM Kaye’s Raj novel The Far Pavilions, publish it in a pricy new-fangled format called a trade paperback and pile it high in bookshops across the land. It was a very slow burn. There was outrage at a brash American defiling a British institution and it took some three years before Mayer’s work began to bear fruit, which it did, in abundance, as he reshaped the company, working with Peter Carson and Philippa... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2018-05-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The charismatic and profoundly influential publisher is remembered by Profile Books m.d. Andrew Franklin. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-06-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Charismatic publisher who combined erudition with commercial savvy to turn Penguin Books into a global brandIn 1978 Peter Mayer, who has died aged 82, was drafted in from the US to rescue a moribund Penguin Books. He took the beloved but by then loss-making publisher and turned it into a global... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2018-05-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publisher whose eponymous company changed the face of children’s nonfiction with its fact-filled illustrated booksPeter Usborne, who has died aged 85, created a publishing company that changed the look and feel of nonfiction books for children. Although they were widely used in schools, Usborne... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-04-14 15:02:43 UTC ]
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Award-winning author Julie Anne Peters, best known for her groundbreaking YA novels featuring complex LGBTQ+ characters navigating relationships and exploring issues of identity, died on March 21 following a long illness; she was 71. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-03-28 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Author of the Inspector Alan Banks series and welcome presence at crime fiction festivals around the worldPeter Robinson was the creator of the immensely popular Inspector Alan Banks crime series, set in Yorkshire – the books sold almost 9m copies in 19 languages and spawned a successful... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2022-10-14 16:44:04 UTC ]
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Peter Warner, the longtime president of Thames & Hudson, died on September 9 from complications due to myelodysplastic syndrome. He was 79. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-09-09 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Peter Quandt, a former president and CEO of Macmillan Book Clubs and the K-III Education Group, has died of cancer in Chappaqua, N.Y. He was 71. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-07-14 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Last week, New York's trade publishing community turned out in full force to hear speakers reminisce about the life of Peter Mayer, the iconic publisher who died May 11, 2018. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-05-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The late Peter Mayer is remembered as the man who made the Penguin Group 'the world’s most admired and successful publishing company.' The post At Peter Mayer’s Memorial Service: Appreciation for a Publishing Giant appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2018-12-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Some 200 friends of former Penguin CEO and Overlook Press co-founder Peter Mayer gathered in a ballroom at the Grandhotel Hessischer Hof in Frankfurt on Tuesday to remember the late publisher. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-10-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Overlook Press, cofounded by Peter Mayer, the former chair and CEO of the Penguin Group, in 1971, has been acquired by illustrated book publisher Abrams. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-08-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Tributes have continued to pour in to Peter Mayer, former c.e.o. of Penguin, who has died at the age of 82. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-05-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Peter Mayer, former Penguin CEO and publisher of Overlook Press, died on May 11, 2018. He will be remembered around the world for his zeal for book publishing and literature. The post Remembering Book Publisher Peter Mayer appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2018-05-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Peter Mayer in the late 1990s at the Overlook Press in Manhattan, where he published out-of-print books. “The real issue ought to be, is the book readable, is it valuable, is it good?” he said. “Who cares if it’s old or new?” Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2018-05-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Peter Mayer, whose legendary publishing career spanned both sides of the Atlantic, has died. Among his many accomplishments, Mayer turned around a money-losing Penguin into a worldwide publishing powerhouse. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2018-05-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The former v-p of national accounts at Hachette Book Group and Little, Brown sales liaison, who retired in 2008, died on May 25. He was 65. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2017-06-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A publisher of both prestige and pessimism, Peter Owen’s skill was in resuscitating neglected writers, says poet Jeremy Reed. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-07-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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I first met Peter Owen in the late 1980s, when he published some short stories that I had written about Saudi Arabia. I was invited to interesting parties at his house in Holland Park, west London, and at various embassies where he would launch the many translations of literary fiction he... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2016-07-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Publisher whose list of writers included 10 Nobel prizewinnersPeter Owen’s survival as a publisher across 60 years was against all commercial odds. In 1993 he described himself as “one of the few remaining independent publishers specialising in translation”, and at his death aged 89 his mission... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2016-06-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Writer Jeremy Lewis on the life of Peter Janson-Smith, a notable literary agent "of the old school". Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-05-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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