John Lyon, v-p and managing director of Time Warner Trade Publishing's international division, died in a Boston hospital May 29 after a long struggle with leukemia. He was 51. Born in England, Lyon spent nearly three decades developing international sales for a variety of publishers before joining Little, Brown in 1995. He began at Michael Joseph in 1974, became director of international sales there in 1982, and in 1985, when it was acquired by Penguin, he fulfilled that role for Hamish Hamilton and Viking as well. He moved to a new start-up, Sinclair-Stevenson, in 1990, and in 1992 joined Transworld for three years before moving to Boston to join Little, Brown.