Audio Interview with the legendary Gordon Graham on his career, and what makes a great Publisher
W. Gordon Graham was born ninety some years ago in Scotland. He attended university in Glasgow and after graduation enlisted in the army; he was awarded the Military Cross and Bar for active service in Burma.
Graham started his postwar career as a freelance newspaper correspondent in Bombay writing for, among other publications: Business Week, Chemical Engineering Record, the Christian Science Monitor, and the Glasgow Herald. In 1950 he started augmenting his journalist’s income with part-time work as a College and Trade Traveller for the McGraw-Hill Book Company. Six years later he was appointed their International Sales Manager, based in New York. He subsequently moved to London to run McGraw-Hill’s European and Middle Eastern book business. In 1974 he left the company to become Chairman and Chief Executive of Butterworths, where he oversaw a tenfold increase in turn-over.
He ‘retired’ in 1990, at which time he became the founder-editor of LOGOS, The Professional Journal of the Book World. I recently had the privilege of interviewing Gordon Graham at his home in England. Among other things we talk about his legendary career, and those qualities he thinks best characterize great publishers. Please listen here:
This interview is part of our Book Publisher Series which focuses on the histories of important British, American and Canadian publishing houses, and how best to go about collecting their works.
Copyright © 2010 by Nigel Beale. www.nigelbeale.com
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January 13th, 2011 at 9:15 AM
Gordon Graham is a remarkable and inspiring individual; the publishing industry has been enriched with his dedicated involvement within it in various capacities.
I established the Society of Young Publishers Mentoring Scheme in recognition of his outstanding contribution to publishing fellowship.
May 14th, 2011 at 1:40 AM
Gordon Graham is my Cousin. His mother was my father’s eldest sister.
His MC citations are worth a read in particular the immediate MC {No 2}.
John
Colonel John M Hutcheson MC