Notes from Bloomsbury

Wednesday August 18, 2010 / Spin, New York, NY.

George Gibson began his career in the book business in November 1972, as a clerk at The Old Corner Bookstore in Boston, which was then the oldest continuously running bookstore in America.  While working at the store, he got his first job in publishing, as assistant to the General Manager of Little, Brown’s trade division in Boston, where he worked through 1973.  He then joined David R. Godine, Publisher, in Boston, as Assistant Sales Manager, and stayed there for the next 11 years, becoming, in turn, Sales Director, Sales & Marketing Director, and also adding responsibility for Subsidiary Rights.

Gibson left Godine in February, 1985, and soon after became a Senior Editor at Addison-Wesley’s trade division, in Reading, Massachusetts.  After two years he became Marketing and Subsidiary Rights Director at Addison-Wesley, where he stayed until February 1991.  In 1990, Addison-Wesley published its first two national bestsellers, Friday Night Lights by H. G. Bissinger, and Iron John by Robert Bly.  After leaving Addison-Wesley, Gibson then took a full year off to study Italian and pursue independent projects, after which he became a consultant for the next two years.  During that time he was Acting CEO of Consortium Book Sales & Distribution in St. Paul, Minnesota, a distribution company for smaller publishers, and consulted to the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund and the Mellon Foundation, both of which had established programs to assist small presses.

In September 1993, Gibson moved to New York to become the Publisher of Walker & Company, a family-owned independent publisher originally founded in 1959.  Two years later he became President as well.  In 2005 Walker was acquired by Bloomsbury PLC and became a division of Bloomsbury USA, and Gibson remained its publisher.  In 2008 he became Publishing Director of Bloomsbury USA.  In addition, he is also publisher and editorial director for the Bloomsbury and Walker adult lists and has edited books by Dava Sobel (Longitude and Galileo’s Daughter), Michael Allin (Zarafa), Stephen O’Shea (The Perfect Heresy), John Steele Gordon (Hamilton’s Blessing), Ross King (Brunelleschi’s Dome, Michelangelo & the Pope’s Ceiling), Michael Meyer (The Last Days of Old Beijing), Larry Sabato (A More Perfect Constitution) and Andro Linklater (Measuring America).

(Photo NYT: http://nyti.ms/clnPfd)

From: DeGiglio, Peter
Sent: Tuesday, August 03, 2010 8:41 AM
To: ++BloomsburyUSA
Subject: Yankee Tickets for tomorrow

To all,

I have two tickets to tomorrow game, which as luck would have it is an afternoon game.  Upper deck near third base in the shade. Maybe you were planning the day off, or maybe you have family or an author (NO AGENTS!!), who might want them.  Maybe A-Rod hits his 600^th tomorrow?

In any event, if you want them please get back to me by 1:00 or so, so I can have a little time to peddle them elsewhere.  First response gets them.

Peter

Peter De Giglio

Chief Operating Officer / CFO

Bloomsbury Publishing Inc. 

175 5^th Avenue 8th Fl 

New York, NY 10010