John F. Baker, who worked at PW for 31 years and retired as editorial director in 2004, died October 24 in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. He was 93.
An Englishman, Baker joined PW as managing editor in 1973 after working at Reuters, Venture magazine, and Reader’s Digest Books. He was named editor-in-chief in 1980 and appointed editorial director in 1990. After retiring, Baker continued to contribute to PW, working on the Deals column, supplements, and occasional features.
During his time at the magazine, Baker was virtually synonymous with PW, covering major stories, attending all important industry events, and making appearances at the many parties publishers held back in the day. Most importantly, Baker was an inveterate reader and was well-known to walk to the office—or anywhere else—with his nose deep in a galley, often oblivious to his surroundings.
Baker oversaw PW’s editorial operations during a period of tremendous change and growth in the book publishing industry, a time that included consolidation among publishers and the expansion of the bookstore chains, often at the expense of independent booksellers.
As consolidation among publishers continued, Baker remained a strong advocate for the importance of independent publishing. "When we met in 1970, when small presses were not recognized, John encouraged the brand-new and unknown Pushcart Press and so many more independent publishers of the decades," said Bill Henderson, founder of the press as well as the Pushcart Press Prize, the series of annual collections of the best of small press publishing. "Hundreds of writers who would have been ignored owe John for finding publication."
As former PW co–editorial director Michael Coffey observed in PW’s 150th anniversary issue, Baker "was willing to step into the spotlight when the times demanded it, writing a controversial editorial criticizing the ousting of André Schiffrin at Pantheon, and speaking for the industry in the early hot days of the fatwa on Salman Rushdie."
Baker was also one of the few journalists who scored an interview with Jacqueline Onassis when she was an editor at Doubleday.
Thanks to his gift with words, Baker was drafted on many occasions to deliver toasts and tributes. Baker's many talents were appreciated by those who worked with him. "John brought invaluable virtues to an editorial setting—he was calm, steady, cheerful, deeply read, worldly; and, as the industry came to know, principled," Coffey said. "He was also the most veteran journalist to which any of us had been exposed, able to produce verbatim handwritten notes through interviews and press conferences and then, typing with two fingers, produce flawless copy on deadline. At those annual book conferences, so important to the business in those days, John reveled in the after-hour aspects of our trade, and hit the ground running in the morning. We tried to follow suit. His generous spirit will be missed by those who knew and worked with him."
Baker is survived by his wife, Barbara Braun, and his daughter Miranda and her family.
