Carolyn Reidy Dies: Simon & Schuster President And CEO Was 71
Carolyn Reidy, the powerhouse publisher who ran Simon & Schuster as president and CEO and edited seven Pulitzer Prize winners, died today of a heart attack. She was 71.
Simon & Schuster CFO Dennis Eulau confirmed the news in this memo to staff.
As a publisher and a leader,” he wrote, “Carolyn pushed us to stretch to do just that little bit more; to do our best and then some for our authors, in whose service she came to work each day with an unbridled and infectious enthusiasm and great humor.”
Read the full memo below.
Reidy joined Simon & Schuster in 1992 from Avon Books as President of the Trade Division and was named president of its Adult Publishing Group in 2001. Reidy was upped to president and CEO in 2007 to replace the retiring Jack Romanos.
She was named Publishers Weekly‘s Person of the Year in 2017.
During her tenure, Simon & Schuster published books by Pulitzer Prize winners Anthony Doerr, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Frank McCourt, David McCullough and Siddhartha Mukherjee. It also released works by such notables as President Carter, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Bruce Springsteen and Bob Woodward and bestselling novelists by the likes of Mary Higgins Clark, Vince Flynn, Stephen King, Jodi Picoult, Brad Thor and Jennifer Weiner.
She began her publishing career in 1974 at Random House, where she was publisher of Vintage Books and Associate Publisher of the Random House imprint. She later worked at William Morrow becoming publisher and president of Avon Books.
Reidy also appeared in Jonathan Demme’s 2007 documentary Jimmy Carter: Man From Plains, which won three prizes at the Venice Film Festival that year and earned a Gotham Award nomination.
Here is Eulau’s full memo to Simon & Schuster staff today:
It is with great sorrow that I must inform you that Carolyn Reidy, our President and Chief Executive Officer, died suddenly this morning after experiencing a heart attack. She was 71.
Carolyn was both an exemplary leader and a supremely talented and visionary publishing executive. Since joining Simon & Schuster in 1992 as President of the Trade Division, she has been a vital and energetic force within our company, leading us to unprecedented growth on both the domestic and international fronts, and steering us through the transition to publishing in the digital era.
As a publisher and a leader, Carolyn pushed us to stretch to do just that little bit more; to do our best and then some for our authors, in whose service she came to work each day with an unbridled and infectious enthusiasm and great humor. Her fierce intelligence and curiosity, and her determination to know everything about a given subject if it could help us to be better, were matched by her complete and total accessibility: she wrote congratulatory notes to employees when they were promoted, and colleagues in every corner of our company always felt that they had a first-person relationship with her, and that they could reach out to her to discuss any subject and receive a thoughtful response in return.
She was equally attentive, on a personal level, to our authors, to whom she sent handwritten notes when they received awards, made the bestseller list, or simply to let them know when she finished reading their books. The list of authors whom she championed to acclaim and success is legion and includes books by Pulitzer Prize winners David W. Blight, Anthony Doerr, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Frank McCourt, David McCullough and Siddhartha Mukherjee; world figures, celebrities, newsmakers and journalists including Hillary Rodham Clinton, Dick Cheney, Jaycee Dugard, Walter Isaacson, Phil Knight and Bob Woodward; bestselling novelists Mary Higgins Clark, Vince Flynn, Stephen King, Ruth Ware and Jennifer Weiner; works of practical advice from authorities including Ray Dalio, Angela Duckworth, Dr. Michael F. Roizen and Dr. Mehmet C. Oz, and Rhonda Byrne’s worldwide multi-million copy bestseller THE SECRET; and bestselling children’s and teen authors including Cassandra Clare, Shannon Messenger, Jason Reynolds, Rachel Renée Russell and Neal Shusterman.
Before joining Simon & Schuster, Carolyn was President and Publisher of Avon Books, after having worked at William Morrow and Random House, where she was publisher of Vintage Books and Associate Publisher of the Random House imprint. She began her publishing career in 1974 in the subsidiary rights department of Random House.
I have had the privilege of being a partner to Carolyn for 25 years. A fierce leader, loyal friend and passionate supporter, Carolyn inspired me and challenged me every day that we worked together. She had the rare combination of business acumen and creative genius that made her a once-in-a-lifetime publishing executive. She walked through life with an abundance of joy, and loved to celebrate the accomplishments and milestones of her colleagues and friends with great generosity and fanfare. That so many of us at Simon & Schuster have been friends and colleagues with her for many, many years says everything about the kind of person and leader she was, and we will all miss her terribly.
While this news is undoubtedly as much of a shock to you as it was to me, our thoughts and prayers in this time of grief are with Carolyn’s beloved husband Stephen, and her sisters and brothers and nieces and nephews whom she held dear.
Information about where donations may be sent will be announced at a later date.
Sincerely,
Dennis
