Peter Michael Mayer (28 March 1936 – 11 May 2018) was a British-born

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independent publisher A small press is a publisher with annual sales below a certain level or below a certain number of titles published. The terms "indie publisher" and "independent press" and others are sometimes used interchangeably. Independent press is general ...

who was president of The Overlook Press/Peter Mayer Publishers, Inc., a Woodstock, New York–based publishing company he founded with his father in 1971. At the time of Overlook's founding, Mayer was head of Avon Books, a large

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–based paperback publisher. From 1978 to 1996, Mayer was

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Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.editorial An editorial, or leading article (UK) or leader (UK) is an article written by the senior editorial people or publisher of a newspaper, magazine, or any other written document, often unsigned. Australian and major United States newspapers, suc ...

marketing Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emph ...

, and production. During his tenure, he was credited with reviving the company into "the most formidable and admired publisher in the English language". Recently, Mayer financially revived both

Ardis Ardis may refer to: * Ardis (given name) * Ardis, Ottoman Empire * Ardis (retailer), a supermarket chain in Algiers, Algeria * Ardis Furnace, an abandoned experimental blast furnace in Michigan *Ardis Publishing, a Russian-English publishing compan ...

, a publisher of

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in English, and Duckworth, an independent publishing house in the UK.

Early life and education

Born to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

familyChan, Sewell
"Growing Up Jewish in Postwar Kew Gardens"
''The New York Times'', 22 April 2009. in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, England, on 28 March 1936, Mayer migrated to the United States in 1939. He was raised in

Kew Gardens, Queens Kew Gardens is a neighborhood in the central area of the New York City borough of Queens. Kew Gardens is bounded to the north by the Union Turnpike and the Jackie Robinson Parkway (formerly the Interboro Parkway), to the east by the Van Wyck Exp ...

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. His father, Alfred, from Luxembourg, later established a glove manufacturing business while his mother, Lee, who was from Germany, was a homemaker. A Ford Foundation scholarship enabled him to earn his BA degree in English literature at Columbia College, going on to read PPE at

Christ Church, Oxford University Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is unique ...

, where he graduated in 1954. He returned to Columbia in 1956 with a ''summa cum laude'' degree in English literature. He then served in the US Merchant Marine before being granted a graduate fellowship in comparative literature at

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universit ...

, and in 1959 earned a

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to study German literature at the Freie Universität Berlin.

Publishing career

In 1961 Mayer began work as an editorial assistant at Orion Press, followed in 1962 by a 14-year tenure at Avon Books, where he became Editor in Chief and Publisher. In 1971, during his time at Avon Books, Mayer founded his own publishing label,

The Overlook Press The Overlook Press is an American publishing house based in New York, New York, that considers itself "a home for distinguished books that had been 'overlooked' by larger houses". History and operations It was formed in 1971 by Peter Mayer, who ...

. In the late 1970s he was appointed publisher and president of

Pocket Books Pocket Books is a division of Simon & Schuster that primarily publishes paperback books. History Pocket Books produced the first mass-market, pocket-sized paperback books in the United States in early 1939 and revolutionized the publishing in ...

(

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publ ...

). From 1978 to 1997, he was chairman and CEO of the Penguin group, overseeing Penguin's companies in the UK, US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, the Netherlands, and India. During his time at Penguin, Mayer courted controversy as he agreed to publish

Salman Rushdie's Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie (; born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-born British-American novelist. His work often combines magic realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and W ...

1988 novel, '' The Satanic Verses''. The book led to a major argument with

Ayatollah Khomeini Ruhollah Khomeini, Ayatollah Khomeini, Imam Khomeini ( , ; ; 17 May 1900 – 3 June 1989) was an Iranian political and religious leader who served as the first supreme leader of Iran from 1979 until his death in 1989. He was the founder of ...

, the Supreme Leader of Iran, issuing a ''fatwā'' instructing Muslims to kill the author. Mayer himself also became the recipient of threats. After leaving Penguin, Mayer returned to his own firm, The Overlook Press, which he had been developing in his free time over the past few decades. His label aimed to be "a home for distinguished books that had been 'overlooked' by larger houses". The imprint was responsible for the resurrection of the Freddy the Pig series of children's books, returning them to print for the first time since 1958. Under his presidency, The Overlook Press experienced a period of growth. Most notably, in 2002, they acquired

Ardis Publishing Ardis Publishing (the name of the original company is Ardis Publishers, which is the correct name for the company up until 2002), began in 1971, as the only publishing house outside of Russia dedicated to Russian literature in both English and Rus ...

, an imprint dedicated to

. This acquisition was followed up in 2003 by Mayer's decision to purchase Duckworth, which had gone into

receivership In law, receivership is a situation in which an institution or enterprise is held by a receiver—a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights"—especially in ca ...

. He remained President of The Overlook Press until his death in 2018.

Awards

In 1996 Mayer was awarded the title Chevalier and Officier of the

Ordre des Arts et des Lettres The ''Ordre des Arts et des Lettres'' (Order of Arts and Letters) is an order of France established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture. Its supplementary status to the was confirmed by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963. Its purpose is ...

by the French Ministry of Culture.Peter Mayer biography
The Overlook Press. He also received many industry awards, including the Foundation of Indian Publishers’ and Booksellers’ Association Award for Outstanding Contribution to International Publishing (1996) and recognition as a Literary Market Place Most Distinguished Publisher. On 13 December 2007, the

New York Center for Independent Publishing The New York Center for Independent Publishing is located on New York's "Literary Row" at 20 West 44th Street in Midtown Manhattan. Formerly the Small Press Center, the Center was founded by Whitney North Seymour, Jr. in 1984. The Center's histor ...

(NYCIP) honored Mayer with the Poor Richard Award for his lifetime contribution to independent book publishing, which was presented to him by literary agent Ed Victor. Mayer was also given a Lifetime Achievement Award from the London Book Fair (2008), and the Russian "Big Book Prize" for Distinguished International Achievement (2011).

Personal life and death

Mayer was married to Mary Hall in 1980 but divorced in 1991. He died at the age of 82 in his home in

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, New York, due to complications related to

amyloidosis Amyloidosis is a group of diseases in which abnormal proteins, known as amyloid fibrils, build up in tissue. There are several non-specific and vague signs and symptoms associated with amyloidosis. These include fatigue, peripheral edema, weight ...

References

External links

* Page, Benedicte
"Former colleagues remember legendary Penguin chief Peter Mayer"
''The Bookseller'', 14 May 2018.
"Peter Mayer: How to Run a Sales Meeting"
in David Calvin Laufer, ''Dialogues with Creative Legends and Aha Moments in a Designer's Career'', New Riders, 2013, pp. 109–113. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mayer, Peter 1936 births 2018 deaths American book publishers (people) American book publishing company founders American people of German-Jewish descent American people of Luxembourgian-Jewish descent Columbia College (New York) alumni Deaths from amyloidosis Penguin Books people People from Kew Gardens, Queens