Founder of the Booker Prize has died

We regret the delay in sharing the death of Tom Maschler, a key figure in publishing and literature.

Maschler was publisher and managing director of Jonathan Cape, in addition to creating the Booker Prize.

He died October 15 at the age of eighty-seven.

The New York Times credits Maschler’s purchase of the British rights to Catch-22 and his assistance in publishing Ernest Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast with launching his literary career.

Both it and the Guardian cite numerous authors whose careers he boosted — though other claims of his nurturing were somewhat exaggerated.

You can read more about Maschler in his obituaries in the New York Times and the Guardian.