Andy Hughes, senior v-p and director of production and design at the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, and Altie Karper, managing editor for Pantheon and Schocken and editorial director of Schocken, will retire in December.
During his 44 year career (which, in addition to his Knopf Doubleday duties, includes his second job and 15-year stint as v-p, manufacturing for Random House Audio), Hughes "has elevated bookmaking into an artform and brought thousands of beautiful objects—our books—to life," Maya Mavjee, president and publisher of KDPG wrote to employees in a memo.
Among the many projects Hughes worked on all four volumes of Robert A. Caro’s The Years of Lyndon Johnson; President Bill Clinton’s My Life; and all of Art Spiegelman’s books. The Book Industry Guild of New York awarding Hughes first place at the New York Book Show three times for producing Building Stories by Chris Ware, The Fifty Year Sword by Mark Z. Danielewski, and MetaMaus by Art Spiegelman.
Karper started her career at KDPG in 1989, under André Schiffrin, as managing editor of Pantheon and Schocken. Authors Karper has worked with include Noam Chomsky, Marguerite Duras, Marjane Satrapi, Spiegelman, Studs Terkel, Elie Wiesel, and Charles Yu. As editorial director of Schocken for 23 years, Karper led the imprint to 17 National Jewish Book Award winners and finalists.
"Altie and I have spent one-half of our respective lives as near siblings, knowing for decades that we could count on each other being in the office on Sundays—she after her Shabbat observances, I after…(none of your business)," said Erroll McDonald, v-p and executive editor at Alfred A. Knopf. "She has been at once my relentless goad (a dependable source of annoyance) and my dependable friend (a relentless source of comfort). I have no intention of missing her, as she will perforce always be a part of my life."
A search for an editorial director to succeed Karper at Schocken has begun. Vimi Santokhi is joining Pantheon/Schocken as managing editor.
