John Hitchin, one-time Penguin marketing director and a president of the Booksellers Association, has died. He was 88. The Bookseller reported that Hitchin "joined Penguin Books in 1959 and remained there for 31 years, starting in the publicity department and then becoming its first European rep. He was made publicity manager in 1962, where he was responsible for innovations including the display dumpbin, and became the first educational marketing manager in 1967, launching Penguin Education. In 1973 he was made development director, launching the Puffin School Book Club."
After a stint in New York as v-p of Penguin Books USA, Hitchin returned to the U.K. in 1976 as marketing director. He opened the first Penguin Bookshop in Covent Garden in 1980, followed by nine more shops, becoming retail director in the process. In 1990 he organized a management buyout from Penguin, forming Phoenix Bookshops Ltd, where he was CEO. Two more locations opened in Lincoln and Hull before the sale of the shops in 1995.
Hitchin was appointed to the Booksellers Association council and served as president from 1992 to 1994. "He was a prime mover in introducing World Book Day to the U.K. and became an honorary life member of both the BA and the International Booksellers Federation," the Bookseller wrote. Hitchin was president of the European Booksellers Federation from 1993-99. In retirement he remained active, including campaigning for a new library for Hereford, where he lived.
"He was passionate about books, and loved the book trade," said former BA CEO Tim Godfray. "He felt he was so fortunate to have been in an industry which had so many interesting people and fabulous books. He wanted to give something back, hence the time he devoted to the BA and EBF.... He had that really valuable trait of being able to see things as a publisher and also as a bookseller. I got to know him really well and he became a personal friend. On the night John died he had four books by his bedside: the Odes of Horace, the Palliser Novels by Trollope, People, Power and Profits by Joseph Stieglitz, and Keats's Selected Poems. Typical John."