John Majeska, retired longtime sales rep at Book Travelers West, died on January 24 at age 79 after a year-long battle with cancer. An obituary note from Imprint Group, which Book Travelers West merged with in 2023, said: "He will be remembered as the reliable sales rep who had the utmost respect for the freedoms of independent booksellers."
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At a Workman Party in NYC, August 2019: (from l.) Book Travelers West's Kurtis Lowe, John Majeska, Kevin Peters, Phoebe Gaston. |
Majeska's bookselling career began in 1971 at Pickwick's, then B. Dalton Bookseller, then the University of Pennsylvania as associate director of books. In 1976, he joined Baker & Taylor, selling trade books, and became a house rep for Scribner. In 1986, Tom Fritzinger of Book Travelers West hired Majeska to cover Southern California, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico, where he sold Workman, Ten Speed Press, Watson-Guptill, Abrams, Stewart, Tabori & Chang, Running Press, Heyday, and many others. After 34 years with BTW, he retired at the end of 2019.
Imprint remembered that "John was loyal to his friends and associates, generous and big-hearted. He was always ready to remind us that challenges were not ours alone, and that together, it would all work out. He defended everyone's right to their own opinion; to sell and to buy without excessive pressure or favor. 'It's their store!' he would say.
"He was a dedicated reader of Japanese fiction in translation, including all of the work of Haruki Murakami, his favorite novel being Woman in the Dunes (1962) by Kōbō Abe.
"John was a motorcycle enthusiast dedicated to Ducatis. He lived in Crestline, and stayed in his boat moored at Marina del Rey when he visited accounts in L.A. He knew when his work began and ended while doing a job that can consume most waking hours of a publisher sales rep."
Craig McCroskey, a former rep colleague, said, "I don't recall ever having heard him irritable or unkind in our years together. And he never complained of the pains that were likely to have followed his various encounters with the medical profession. He had no elevated ideas about what being a peddler of the written word involved, nor did he sell our function short. He just said, 'It's my job to entertain them while they make up their minds.' "
Former BTW Rep Phoebe Gaston wrote: "He always showed up, meeting after meeting, year after year, the ever solid presence, often the voice of reason, leveling our anxieties with the practicality that 50 years of experience offers. He was also silly, often goofing off with Craig, laughing at photos of flat-headed cats, shaking his head at ridiculous moments, telling us the hilarious thing that Ari said or did recently. He was a helpful ear and so sweet to me when he heard that my dad had a motorcycle accident, I'll never forget that. He suffered plenty but remained stoic, and always positive when it came to the industry. Open to any challenge, whenever a new publisher presented themselves, he was already thinking of the right stores for their books. John was just a very good person and a great friend. I feel lucky to have known him."
Majeska is survived by his wife, Carol Majeska, longtime owner of McCabe & Company Booksellers, which closed in 2014, and their granddaughter, Ari.