Henry Hubert, Pub Rep, Dies at 73

By Wendy Werris -- Publishers Weekly, 4/14/2009 8:59:00 AM

Henry Hubert, veteran publishers’ sales rep in the Rocky Mountain territory for over 35 years, died suddenly at his home in Denver on April 11. He was 73.

Hubert, who was born in New York and graduated from the University of Kentucky, began his career as a bookseller at the Scribner’s Bookstore on Fifth Avenue in 1959 and remained for several years before moving to Simon & Schuster to work in the sales department. He became a house rep for the publisher in the early 1970s, moving to and remaining in Denver for the rest of his life.

After 15 years at S&S, Hubert resigned in 1985 to become an independent publishers’ rep with I-5 Associates, a commission book group on the west coast. He represented Oxford University Press, University of Chicago Press, Adams Media, Human Kinetics, University of Hawaii Press, Kensington Publishing Group and many other houses until he retired in December 2008. The Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association honored Hubert with their Rep of the Year award in 2007.

A connoisseur of wine, food, opera and classical music, Hubert was beloved among booksellers in the Rocky Mountains and known for his old fashioned, gentlemanly manner. When other reps showed up for sales calls in casual clothes, Hubert invariably wore a jacket and tie. He authored the Monarch Notes edition of Tale of Two Cities. Joyce Meskis, owner of Denver’s Tattered Cover Bookstore, knew Hubert from the day she opened her store in 1974. “I loved Henry,” she recalled. “He was truly a bookman in the purest sense of the word, and never strayed from the course. He was devoted to the essence of good bookselling and good publishing and what they meant to the readers we all serve. Henry never lost sight of that.”

Hubert is survived by a son, two grandchildren and numerous friends. Memorial services are still being arranged