Geoffrey Hill, "often hailed as Britain's finest living poet, whose dense, allusive verses ranged from dark meditations on morals, religious faith and political violence to rapturous evocations of the English landscape of his native Worcestershire," died June 30, the New York Times reported. He was 84.
"We're very saddened by the news of Geoffrey Hill's death, but also grateful to have worked with him and extremely proud to have published his Collected Critical Writings in 2008 and Broken Hierarchies: Poems 1952-2012 in 2013," Jacqueline Norton, Hill's editor at Oxford University Press, told the Guardian. "Both volumes gather a lifetime of brilliant work--much of it recent--and show what a very great poet and critic Geoffrey is. The acclaim poured in for these books. The critical writings won the Truman Capote prize in 2009 and reviewers of Broken Hierarchies recognized the depth of Geoffrey's poetic genius. His fierce intelligence will be much missed, as will his moral seriousness." Hill's books also include The Triumph of Love, Without Title and Selected Poems.
British poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy observed that Hill "was, in poetry, a saint and a warrior who never gave an inch in his crusade to reach poetic truth. In four words--'God is distant, difficult'--he could suddenly illuminate, like lightning over a landscape."
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Terry Kitson, former CEO of HarperCollins U.K. and Australia, died July 3, the Bookseller reported. After launching his career in the book trade as a sales rep with Corgi Books at Transworld in the mid 1960s, Kitson moved a decade later to Granada Publishing, where he rose from sales manager to managing director for Granada, which was acquired by William Collins in 1983.
He was named managing director for Collins Australia & New Zealand in 1986, and when HarperCollins launched in 1990, Kitson "managed the U.K. business as well as the ANZ business for a short period, when he succeeded Sonia Land as chief executive of Collins in March 1990, after which he became chairman for HarperCollins ANZ, before retiring in 1994," the Bookseller wrote.