Ann Spinelli, a former v-p and executive art director at Putnam Publishing Group, died on May 9. She was 77.
Spinelli served as an art director at Putnam from 1981 until her retirement in 2011. There, she designed and art directing books for both Putnam and Riverhead, including blockbusters by such authors as Tom Clancy, Dean Koontz, and Robert B. Parker to literary works by Alice Hoffman, Chang-rae Lee, Amy Tan, Kurt Vonnegut, and more. She also designed book covers for such celebrities as Ann-Margret, Bette Davis, and Elizabeth Taylor.
"She was responsible for many iconic jackets that sparked trends in the industry," Penguin Random House said in a statement announcing her death. "Ann was passionate about design, the authors and artists with whom she worked, and the colleagues with whom she collaborated."
Spinelli, the company added, served "as a mentor to the designers whose careers she launched and who are top talents in publishing today," and worked with such designers as Paul Bacon, Don Brautigam, Walter Harper, Larry Ratzkin, Tom Tafuri, and Honi Werner.
Memorial contributions in Spinelli's name may be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital or AnimalKind NY.
