Obituary: H.B. Gilmour Dead at 69

-- Publishers Weekly, 6/24/2009 7:20:00 AM

H.B. Gilmour, a veteran publishing professional and bestselling author, died suddenly on Sunday, June 21 at her home in Cornwallville, N.Y. She was 69. Born in Brooklyn in 1939, Gilmour’s first publishing job was at E.P. Dutton, and in 1964 she joined Bantam Books as an assistant to the publisher in Oscar Dystel's office. Over the next two decades, Gilmour moved up the Bantam ranks through the marketing and editorial departments as a copywriter, editor, and copy chief. Gilmour was serving as an associate director of marketing/mass market when she left the company in 1992 and joined the book division at Scholastic. She left Scholastic in 1995 to write full-time.

As an author, Gilmour wrote or collaborated on more than 50 books for adults and young readers. Her first novel, The Trade (Warner Books, 1973), was an insider’s snapshot of working in the paperback business that sold 400,000 copies and led to commissions to write several novels based on screenplays. She may be best known for her novelizations of the movies Saturday Night Fever and Pretty in Pink, but was proudest of her first hardcover, So Long, Daddy, published by Newmarket Press in 1983. Other books include Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice nominee Godzilla (Scholastic, 1998), The Muppets Take Manhattan (I. J. E., Inc., 1984), and several titles based on the Clueless movie and television series (Pocket Books, 1990s). More recently she collaborated with Randi Reisfeld in writing the T*Witches series (Scholastic, 2001–2004), which spawned two hit movies on the Disney Channel.  

Gilmour married John Johann in 1999 and moved to Cornwallville, N. Y. In addition to her husband, Gilmour is survived by her daughter Jessi, two brothers, a stepbrother, four stepchildren, and four grandchildren.

Services will be held on Thursday, June 25 at noon at the A.J. Cunningham Funeral Home, 4898 State Route 81 in Greenville, NY (518) 966-8313. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests that those who wish make a donation to the charity of their choice.