Sheila Levine, associate director and editorial director of the University of California Press until her retirement in 2011, died September 21 after a long struggle with ovarian cancer. She was 65 years old.
Levine spent 40 years at the press, working with authors such as Marion Nestle, Melvyn Goldstein, Morris Rossabi, Lila Abu-Lughod, and Paul Freedman. With UC Press’s former director James Clark, she created the Philip E. Lilienthal imprint in Asian studies. In 2001, Levine launched the first formal food studies program at a university press, working with series editor Darra Goldstein on California Studies in Food and Culture.
In the course of her career, Levine also acted as a bookseller, cofounding University Press Books, a Berkeley, Calif. bookstore devoted to scholarly titles, in 1974. She managed the store for 10 years.
Levine leaves behind her husband, Martin Kupferman, and two children, Jonah Kupferman and Rebecca Kupferman, as well as two brothers, Roberto Levine and Alan Levine.
