The sad news about Peter Carson, distinguished editor, publisher, translator and great friend, died at the age of 74 on 9 January 2013
http://www.profilebooks.com/peter-carson-distinguished-editor-publisher-translator-and-great-friend-died-at-the-age-of-74-on-9-january-2012/
This short tribute to Peter Carson is adapted from the speech given by Andrew Franklin at Peter’s leaving party on 28 March 2012. Obituaries of Peter will be appearing in the Guardian, Independent, Telegraph and Times in late January and early February 2013.
Peter was formative in the careers of many people. There are his authors, who benefitted from his shrewd editorial judgement, judicious corrections of their text, and in many cases, brilliant ideas for their next book. I don’t think I am giving away a secret in revealing that we have regular monthly ‘ideas’ meetings at Profile. Some us sit there like lemons, but Peter was effervescent with suggestions, specific and general, and of course his ideas were never confined to meetings. They bubbled up more vigorously than Etna or Vesuvius.
It was not only authors for whom Peter was the North Star guiding them on their true course through stormy waters; it was also many publishers internationally and everyone at Profile too. These are challenging and turbulent times in publishing and Peter’s values and principles – I never heard him articulate them explicitly but they inform everything he did at Penguin and everything he did at Profile – hold us all in good stead.
For Peter, more than anyone else, the test of everything in publishing was the quality of the book. How good is it? Is there anything special about it? For far too many people in our industry the test of a book is: is it marketable? Can I pass it off as something else? Is the author leggy? Never for Peter: for him it was always about the book and what we can do with it. It is the experience of reading that matters. Peter is the only editor I have ever met who would read the entire oeuvre of a published author before taking them. And read around the subject too.
But then he was also the only person I know who could read three (yup three) thrillers in an evening before topping off the night with some Roman Republican history. And then go to bed at 9 o’clock. Not long ago Peter told me that he had uploaded all of Trollope on his e-reader because he had never read all the novels at a stretch. His breadth of expertise: history, classics, crime, ‘the canon’, Russian and French literature, gardening books, fiction, trashy and literary – the categories go on – was amazing. He once said, no brag this, just a passing comment, that he had read everything – let’s pause there – that means every word ever written, in Latin and ancient Greek. So Peter was a truly great editor and an extraordinary reader. He was, I think, the best read person I have ever met. And in our line of work that is the highest possible praise.
Peter Mayer, the former chief executive of Penguin, Peter’s boss and a close friend, apparently used to ask people if they knew what was the largest thing in all British publishing.
Answer: Peter Carson’s brain. How true.
Peter was also a great teacher and mentor. Peter recruited me to Penguin in 1984 and I worked for him for eleven years until he got rid of me. We were reunited three years later and he worked at Profile for thirteen. During all that time he was my mentor and inspiration. Almost everything I know about publishing I have learnt from Peter (or the other Peter, Peter Mayer). And that was true for all of us at Profile. Profile was trundling along moderately successfully for three years before Peter came. His arrival was transformative. True, it more or less coincided with our publication of a little book about punctuation that he did not much take to, but everyone in the trade recognised that with Peter we had been incredibly lucky to land a very big fish indeed. And this fish brought with him shoals of authors who have made Profile what it is. Peter was a wonderful colleague. Brimming with brilliant ideas, a knowledge of almost everything ever published, but also endlessly supportive and encouraging to all of us, young and not, new and old hands. And with that wonderful, droll, reticent wit which enlivened his pithy emails as well as his conversations.
Peter represented the ideal of a publisher: he cared about authors, the illustrations, the details, the people and most of all the books. His memory is a constant challenge to us all to remember why we are in this business together.
Peter was a remarkable man and will be sorely missed by his friends, authors, the booktrade and all of us at Profile.
http://www.booktrade.info/index.php/showarticle/45006
Press Release: Miscellaneous Announcements
Peter Carson
Posted at 4:47PM Wednesday 09 Jan 2013
I am very sorry to announce the death of Peter Carson who died at home this morning after a long illness. Peter was Editor-in-Chief of Penguin's adult publishing through the 1980s and 90s, in which time among many achievements he oversaw the establishment of Viking as an imprint in the UK and the separation of the company's adult publishing into its General and Press Divisions.
His particular interests were history (he had begun his publishing career as a history editor at Longman) and the classics, and one of his lasting legacies is Penguin's formidable history list which grew initially under his direction and continues to thrive today. He remained to the last a consultant to Penguin Classics, where he was equally at home with the Ancient Classics as he was in the nineteenth century.
Peter was a much revered figure in publishing for forty years, a mentor and guiding light to generations of younger editors who appreciated the range of his enthusiasms, from American thrillers to obscure Russian novels, his extraordinary generosity to younger colleagues and his belief in Penguin as a great cultural and business enterprise.
Our thoughts and sympathies are so very much with his wife Eleo Gordon, herself a stalwart, of course of Penguin's publishing for four decades. Together they were a formidable, much loved pair.
Tom Weldon
http://www.thebookseller.com/news/peter-carson-dies.html
Peter Carson dies
09.01.13 | Joshua Farrington
The distinguished editor Peter Carson died today (9th January) following a long illness.
Carson was editor-in-chief of Penguin’s adult publishing division throughout the 1980s and 1990s, overseeing the creation of the Viking imprint in the UK and the separation of Penguin’s adult publishing into its current Press and General divisions.
His 40-year career in publishing began at Longman where he was a history editor, and he maintained an interest in history and the classics, remaining as a consultant to Penguin Classics even after leaving the company.
Carson moved to independent publisher Profile in 1998, where he worked until his retirement last year. At Profile, he built a list which included authors Mary Beard, Diarmaid Ferriter and Rodric Braithwaite.
Penguin UK c.e.o. Tom Weldon said: “Peter was a much revered figure in publishing for 40 years, a mentor and guiding light to generations of younger editors who appreciated the range of his enthusiasms, from American thrillers to obscure Russian novels, his extraordinary generosity to younger colleagues and his belief in Penguin as a great cultural and business enterprise.
“Our sympathies are with his wife Eleo Gordon, herself a stalwart of Penguin’s publishing for four decades. Together they were a formidable, much loved pair.”
Profile m.d. Andrew Franklin was first employed by Carson in 1984, and later worked with him both at Penguin and Profile. He said: “Peter was the absolute formative influence in my life, who taught me everything I knew about publishing. He was polymathic in his reading, polylingual, eclectic, and had an infectious sense of humour. He was one of the great publishers of his generation, if not the greatest – but completely self-effacing.”
A full obituary will follow inThe Booksellerat a later date.