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Obituaries
-- 9/7/98
Tom Mori, the preeminent agent for Asian translation rights and chairman of the Tuttle Mori Agency, died in Tokyo, Japan, of cancer August 26. He was 52.
The Tuttle Mori Agency was founded in 1948 by Mori's uncle Charles Tuttle, the pioneering postwar publisher of Japanese and Asian material. Mori joined the agency in the 1960s. He is credited with aggressively opening up Japanese publishing to translations of Western literature and establishing the market for American books in Japan, China and Taiwan. He was particularly appreciated by colleagues for his intelligence, linguistic facility (he could pick up languages very quickly) and deep love of American culture.

Among the authors he represented are Tom Clancy, Don Delillo, John Grisham, Madonna, Toni Morrison and many others. He also represented most major U.S. publishers and literary agents for Japanese translation rights.

The Tuttle Mori agency will continue under the direction of his son Ken Mori and directors Yuji Takeda, Yoshi Iwasaki and Sakae Mino.

Virginia Rice, former worldwide director of book rights at Reader's Digest, died of cancer in Tucson, Ariz., on August 20. She was 53.

She joined the Reader's Digest Association at its New York City offices in 1968, clearing articles and books for the magazine and for the condensed books series. She was active in the Association of American Publishers and Literacy Volunteers of New York City. She retired from RDA in 1996.

A memorial service will be held September 14 at 1 p.m., at the Church of St. John the Martyr, 250 E. 72nd St., New York City. Donations may be made to the TMC Foundation Cancer Program, 5301 East Grant, Tucson, Ariz. 85712.

George Cleveland, director of marketing for the Lerner Publishing Group in Minneapolis, died August 15 at his home in Long Lake, Minn., after a year-long battle with lung cancer. He was 62.

Cleveland began his career in 1975 as sales director at Meadowbrook Press. He joined Chronimed Publishing in 1986 as publisher, and in 1994 joined Redleaf Press as marketing director. Since 1995 he had worked as director of marketing for Lerner.
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