Rena Wolner, the former president of three mass-market paperback publishing companies, has died. Wolner succumbed to lung cancer in Florida at the age of 70.
“An acolyte of the paperback pioneer Oscar Dystel, who rescued Bantam Books from the brink of collapse, Ms. Wolner became president and publisher of Berkley, Pocket and Avon Books — the only woman to run three of the industry’s leading mass-market companies,” reports The New York Times.
Wolner worked as a consultant until 1994 when she retired, according to Publishers Weekly.