Publishers Lunch

Today's Meal

People, Etc.

Carole DeSanti will retire from Viking, where she is vp, editor-at-large, on June 1 after more than 30 years with the company "achieving a singular mixture of critical and commercial success and modeling the importance of the fierce editorial advocacy she offered all of her authors," according to Viking publisher Andrea Schulz. She added in the announcement: "Personally and professionally, I will miss Carole terribly – I have relied so much on the acuteness and the generosity of her editorial judgement, not to mention her excellent cold remedies – but I hope you will join me in wishing her well in this new chapter of her life. Please share this with anyone I may have missed."

DeSanti noted: "I came into publishing during the pre-Amazon, typewriter-and-carbon-copy era, imagining I’d stay for only a few years. I didn't plan on falling in love with our thorny, stubborn industry -- but that's what happened. It's been immensely challenging but also sustaining in such important ways, and I am especially grateful for the magnificent community of authors and colleagues, and the creative partnerships that have always been at the heart of Penguin. I will miss you all so very much, but look forward to exciting new projects, and to taking full advantage of the opportunities offered by the next phase of my career."

Alex Bowler will join Faber & Faber on September 3 as publisher for all adult publishing, reporting to Stephen Page, filling the position that Mitzi Angel is leaving to become publisher of Farrar, Straus. Bowler is currently executive publisher at Granta Publications. He says in the announcement, "I am immensely excited and profoundly honoured to be joining Faber, whose originality and courage, independence and extraordinary heritage have forever inspired me as a reader and publisher. I cannot wait to get to work on building the next chapter of that history with such an impressive, expert team."

Page adds: "Mitzi Angel leaves a brilliant publishing legacy as she heads back to New York, and in Alex we have found the perfect champion to build on her work and take the company to even greater publishing success."

At Macmillan Children's, Kelsey Marrujo has been promoted to senior publicist; Jeremy Ross moves up to marketing manager; and Caitlin Crocker becomes marketing coordinator.

Longtime literary agent Elaine Markson, 87, died on May 21. She is remembered by Alice Hoffman: "Everyone knows that if Elaine Markson was your agent you had a fierce and loving protector for life. I was Elaine’s second client, back when she was working out of her apartment where the windows faced Washington Square Park and her eleven-year-old son watched TV as we talked about books. I fell in love the first time I met her and she remained my agent and great friend for 40 years.... Elaine was the one agent in America who didn’t care about making deals. She was there for the authors, and I know that she was always there for me. She was excited to receive any new manuscript and got back to me the following day. She was my coach, my cheerleader, my truest believer. I would not have had the courage to become a writer without her."

Richard Peck, 84, the author of children's books A Long Way from Chicago and John Newbery Medal winner A Year Down Yonder, died on May 23.