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| Carmen Callil | |
Virago founder and author Carmen Callil, described by her agency RCW as "an incomparable and fiercely loyal friend who touched the hearts and lives of so many," died October 17. She was 84. The Bookseller reported that Callil, who was born in Australia but spent most of her professional life in England, "began her publishing career as a book publicist with Panther from 1967 and then worked for firms Antony Blond and Andre Deutsch. Inspired by the feminist magazine Spare Rib and deploring a lack of representation for women writers by publishers, she came up with the idea for Virago in a pub and founded the publisher in 1973. In June this year she celebrated the publisher's five decades at the British Library with a host of former colleagues and Virago authors."
"As well as an outstanding editorial eye, she had a genius for marketing and publicity and an amazing visual sensibility--the original green spines of Virago are still prevalent today," RCW noted, adding that Callil rediscovered a host of lost women's classics including works by Willa Cather, Henry Handel Richardson, Elizabeth Taylor and Edith Wharton as well as bringing new writers to the list such as Maya Angelou, Margaret Atwood, Pat Barker and Helen Garner.
Chair of Virago Lennie Goodings said: "I am devastated that she won't be part of the 50th celebrations next year for the imprint she loved and founded to 'change the world.' Champion of women's writing, outspoken critic, wonderful friend and utterly unique human being. A genius, really. She broke the rules and created Virago and changed the view of women in power and women's writing. So, so sad. She stayed in touch long after she left us--and encouraged our publishing until her end. I can't picture a world without her careering around it. But what a life. How few of us come and change the world and she did."
In 1982, Callil became the publisher of Chatto & Windus, where, among other accomplishments, she was the first publisher of Hilary Mantel. Clara Farmer, publishing director at Chatto & Windus, said: "Carmen's gleeful spirit and her fierce love of her books and authors contributed so much to making Chatto & Windus what it is today. Thank you Carmen--how we will miss you."
After leaving publishing, Callil had a successful career as a writer and critic, chairing the Booker Prize in 1996 and in 1999 publishing, with co-author Colm Toibin, The Modern Library: The Best 200 Books in English Since 1950. Her other works include Bad Faith: A Forgotten History of Family & Fatherland (2006) and Oh Happy Day: Those Times and These Times (2020). She was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2010, won the FRSL Benson Medal in 2017 and in the same year was awarded a damehood.
Bea Hemming, deputy publishing director of Jonathan Cape, noted: "We are deeply saddened to learn of the death of our author Carmen Callil. All of us in publishing, and all of us who love books, owe a debt to her publishing genius, and we are immensely proud at Cape to count her as one of our authors. She was a trailblazer, an inspiration, a lifeforce, a brilliantly determined researcher and writer, and a loyal friend. We will miss her enormously."
Baroness Gail Rebuck, writing on behalf of Penguin Random House, also paid tribute to Callil, observing, in part: "For all Carmen's many honors and prizes, from the Benson Medal in 2017 to becoming a Dame in the same year, Carmen must be remembered for her campaigning spirit and indefatigable anger and passion. She championed writers and the art of publishing, she railed against Britain's imperial past, she rooted out and exposed inequality, she campaigned against Brexit and she demonstrated against climate change. As her cancer developed and she received immunotherapy at Hammersmith Hospital, she railed against the cuts in the NHS that left her fighting over non-existent wheelchairs and she bemoaned the lack of local care in the community, acknowledging she was lucky enough to have friends who were constantly at her side and organized her care.
"But I will remember Carmen as a loyal, funny, caring, brilliant friend and mentor--a trailblazer in publishing and in life--an original spirit who will leave such a vast void in the world of books, and in the lives of all who loved her. She embodied courage and individuality and lived her life firmly by her personal ethical compass. I am sorry she did not live long enough to complete her personal memoir but the way she lived her life will light a path for generations of women to come."