William Miller; editor, publisher, literary agent
Hyfler/Rosner
Innovative editor, publisher and literary agent with a love
of the good life
David Peace
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/nov/24/william-miller-obituary
William Miller moved to Japan in 1979. He would, on
occasion, introduce himself as 'a Scot, a homosexual and a
socialist'
William Miller, who has died aged 75, lived a life of many
passions, but perhaps the most enduring of these was to try
to make "good books popular and popular books good". And,
first as an editor, then as a publisher, and finally as an
agent, that is what Miller did.
His first job was as an editor under Frank Rudman, the
pioneering paperback publisher, at Four Square. From there,
in 1962 he joined John Boothe as joint managing editor at
Panther Books. At the time, Panther was an independently
owned middle-range paperback publisher. William and John set
about challenging Penguin's supremacy, publishing new
writers such as Beryl Bainbridge, Len Deighton and Fay
Weldon, and bringing Jean Genet, Herman Hesse and Jack
Kerouac to a wider British readership. They also published
the first mass-market paperback editions of The Kama Sutra
and The Perfumed Garden.
In 1965, Panther was bought by Sidney Bernstein's Granada
Publishing and William and John were joined by Carmen Callil
and Patrick Janson-Smith, among others. The drive to
challenge Penguin continued, with authors such as John
Fowles, Antonia Fraser, BS Johnson, Ruth Rendell and Kurt
Vonnegut.
In 1972, William and John resigned from Granada and, along
with Ken Banerji and Brian Thompson, launched Quartet Books.
The unique vision of Quartet was to publish both hardback
and paperback editions under the same imprint, which at that
time was unknown. Quartet also invented a new format called
a "midway", a soft binding with a jacket and flaps, halfway
between a hardback and a paperback. The Quartet list
continued the tradition of writers that William and John had
begun at Panther and Granada, publishing Angela Carter and
Michael Moorcock, along with Maeve Binchy and The Joy of Sex
(which no other British publisher would touch and which had
to be printed abroad).
In 1976, the original four founders agreed to sell Quartet
to Naim Attallah's Namara Group. While he stayed on as an
editorial director, William was already searching for
something new. It was also in 1976 that William first met
Bamba Toshitani. This meeting, when he was 42, began a new
phase in William's life.
In 1979, he moved to Tokyo to be with Bamba and to manage
the English Agency Japan founded by Anthony Blond, Desmond
Briggs and Peter Thompson, along with William, to sell the
translation rights of British books to Japanese publishers.
The company began small, with just William and Junzo Sawa,
but gradually grew and established itself as one of the
leading literary agencies in Japan.
William would, on occasion, introduce himself as "a Scot, a
homosexual and a socialist". He was born of Scottish
seafaring stock in Kent. His father was a chief engineer on
the Clan Line who died when William was seven. William's
education was funded by the Marine Engineers Association
and, following national service in the Royal Navy (where he
took the Russian course), he read modern history at Lincoln
College, Oxford.
Towards the end of his time at Oxford, William briefly
edited, with Paul Thompson, the student magazine Isis, in
which they wrote a piece detailing the British government's
contingency plans in the event of a nuclear strike. The
publication of this piece was to have serious ramifications
for both of them. William had come across the information
through a contact in the navy. He had also, in the course of
his own national service, signed the Official Secrets Act on
a number of occasions. Upon graduation in 1958, he applied
for a job at the News Chronicle and, as an example of his
journalism, submitted the Isis piece. William did not get
the job, but the News Chronicle got a story.
The government reacted with fury and William and Paul were
sent to trial at the Old Bailey for breaching the Official
Secrets Act. Dennis Potter, who had by then taken over the
editorship of Isis, was among the most vociferous
campaigners on their behalf, but both were found guilty.
However Lord Goddard, then lord chief justice, described the
government's prosecution of the case as taking "a
sledgehammer to crack a nut" and sentenced William and Paul
to three months' imprisonment each, stipulating that their
sentences be served in an open prison.
In later years, particularly after a second bottle of wine,
William would often romanticise these experiences. But, in
truth, the case distressed him and would also cause him many
problems when travelling to the US (which then, in part,
encouraged his antipathy towards that country).
In 1959, William took up a post as a journalist on the
Financial Times, and it was also during this period that he
wrote a novel, Every Night and All, which was published by
Blond in 1961. William never wrote another book but, from
this moment on, he would remain in publishing. But the work
is only half the story; William was at his best in a bar or
a restaurant, in London or Tokyo. These were his courts and
his classrooms, where he both taught and learned. An evening
with William was always an education, but he himself never
lost his curiosity, his desire to meet new people, to
discover new books, films, plays and music. This last
summer, when he could hardly walk a foot without help, he
still travelled with Junzo to Lisbon, because he had never
been there.
And this curiosity, with his compassion, his kindness and
his love for everyone he met was, I believe, the reason he
was so trusted and loved and will always be an inspiration
to those people lucky enough to have met him. I was one of
those lucky people; I met William 12 years ago in Tokyo
and - as agent, editor, teacher and, most of all, friend -
he changed my life, and turned my world upside down; for he
truly was, in all he did, in how he lived, a radical.
Bamba died in 2001. William is survived by his sister,
Morag, and nephews Mark and James.
. William Miller, editor, publisher and literary agent, born
4 May 1934; died 5 November 2009