Sheldon Meyer: Oxford University Press editor mourned

Oxford University Press is deeply saddened by the news that Sheldon Meyer, Oxford’s legendary editor, passed away on October 9 after a long illness. Our thoughts are with his family and friends. It goes without saying that Sheldon Meyer’s career inspires many of us here at Oxford; Sheldon was the Maxwell Perkins of American history publishing, an editor who published many of Oxford’s most distinguished titles over the last forty years and won many a Pulitzer and Bancroft Prize. He made equally important and innovative contributions in the fields of jazz, sports, popular culture, and African American studies, but he always maintained that he published authors, not books. Those authors’ respect for their editor was evident in American Places: Encounters with History (2002), a book that celebrated Sheldon’s career with essays on historical places by more than two dozen of the authors with whom he worked. In Sheldon’s memory, the OUP blog, http://blog.oup.com/oupblog/2006/10/mourning_sheldo.html, excerpts the preface to the book by William Leuchtenberg.

There will be a service to commemorate Sheldon's life and achievements at St. Michael's Church, 99th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, New York, at 2:00 pm on Friday, October 13.