Edward W. Knappman, longtime president of the literary agency New England Publishing Associates (NEPA), died on Thursday, March 10. He was 67 and had a MRSA infection of unknown origin--an infection resistant to antibiotics.
Only last year, Knappman and his wife, Elizabeth Frost-Knappman, sold NEPA to Roger Williams, managing director of the Publish or Perish Agency, and retired.
Before launching NEPA 20 years ago, Knappman was publisher and executive v-p of Facts on File, where, among other things, he moved the company from subscription services to reference book publishing and launched Facts on File's British operation.
Knappman also was an author; his titles included Great American Trials, Great World Trials, Sex, Sin and Mayhem: Notorious Trials of the 1990s and American Trials of the 20th Century.
In his 20s, Knappman was involved in the civil rights and antiwar movements. He went to the Deep South to help register black voters and was press spokesman for the Kennedy/Fulbright Committee, which sought to block President Johnson's renomination in 1968.
Contributions in memory of Edward W. Knappman can be made to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.