Herbert Alexander, Pocket Books Editor And Publisher, 78 (original) (raw)
Herbert Alexander, Pocket Books Editor And Publisher, 78
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- Nov. 24, 1988
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November 24, 1988
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Herbert W. Alexander, former publisher and editor in chief of Pocket Books, died yesterday at Mount Sinai Hospital. He was 78 years old and lived in Manhattan.
Mr. Alexander was born in the Bronx in 1910 and graduated from New York University in 1931. After holding a variety of jobs, including that of social worker, he was an editor of the New York Graphic Society from 1936 to 1939. He served four years in the Army Air Forces during World War II. A Revolution in Publishing
Mr. Alexander joined Pocket Books in 1947 as an associate editor. In 1948, he became editor in chief of the paperback house, and for the next 25 years he helped shape the revolution in publishing that was fueled by the growing availability and popularity of paperback books.
''He was considered by his colleagues and competitors as one of the shrewdest buyers of reprint rights in the paperback business,'' Lawrence Hughes, a former colleague who is now chairman of the Hearst Trade Book Group, said yesterday. ''Under his editorship, Pocket Books maintained its position as the largest mass-market paperback publisher despite the entrance of seven other aggressive companies into the field.''
Mr. Alexander built up a strong list of mysteries by acquiring reprints of books by Earl Stanley Gardner, Agatha Christie, Raymond Chandler, Ellery Queen, James M. Cain, Dashiell Hammett and Ed McBain. In 1950 he purchased Nelson Algren's ''Man With the Golden Arm'' for $25,000, a record reprint price at the time. He also acquired ''The Winds of War'' and ''War and Remembrance'' by Herman Wouk, ''Advise and Consent'' by Allen Drury and ''The Blackboard Jungle'' by Evan Hunter, as well as history books by Bruce Catton and Cornelius Ryan. Edited Robbins Books
After Pocket Books acquired hard-cover and paperback rights to Harold Robbins, it established Trident Press in 1961 to publish his novels in hard cover. Mr. Alexander became the president of Trident, as well as the editor of a number of Mr. Robbins's books, including ''The Carpetbaggers.''
He was also executive vice president of Washington Square Press, a reference and educational line established by Pocket Books in 1959, and a director and vice president of Simon & Schuster, which has owned Pocket Books since the late 1950's. After retiring on Jan. 1, 1974, Mr. Alexander served as a freelance editor for various companies, including Playboy Press and William Morrow & Company.
He is survived by a son, Thomas P. Alexander, of Manhattan.
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