A. Whitney Ellsworth Has Died

By Maryann Yin 

Arthur Whitney Ellsworth, the first publisher of The New York Review of Books, has passed away. He was 75 years old.

Ellsworth received his undergraduate education at Harvard University. Following six months of military service, he began his career in publishing at The Atlantic Monthly. After twenty-five years at The New York Review of Books, Ellsworth went on to work for Lakeville Journal Company and Amnesty International USA.

Here’s more from The New York Times: “As publisher of The New York Review of Books, Mr. Ellsworth expanded the journal’s presence abroad by publishing a British edition, distributed by a London cabdriver with whom he struck up an acquaintance. In 1979, taking advantage of a strike that halted publication of The Times Literary Supplement, he helped create The London Review of Books, published for its first six months as an insert in The New York Review of Books.” (via Publisher’s Weekly)