James David Landis (born June 30, 1942) is an American author and a former publisher and editor in chief of

William Morrow and Company William Morrow and Company is an American publishing company founded by William Morrow in 1926. The company was acquired by Scott Foresman in 1967, sold to Hearst Corporation in 1981, and sold to News Corporation (now News Corp) in 1999. The ...

Early life and career

Landis was born in

Springfield, Massachusetts Springfield is the most populous city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States, and its county seat. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers: the western Westfield River, the ea ...

. He is the son of Russian/Polish Jewish parents Eve (Saltman), a teacher, and Edward Landis, a lawyer and amateur banjo player. He was educated in Springfield public schools, where he played football and was captain of the tennis team and won the Williams College Book Prize; and

Yale College Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...

, from which he graduated in 1964,

magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

and a junior-year

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, ...

and where he wrote for ''

The Yale Record ''The Yale Record'' is the campus humor magazine of Yale University. Founded in 1872, it is the oldest humor magazine in the United States."History", The Yale Record, March 10, 2010. http://www.yalerecord.com/about/history/ ''The Record'' is c ...

'', a humor magazine. While in high school he earned spending money playing the alto saxophone and clarinet in a jazz dance quartet. Landis became a book editor in New York City in 1966, for one year at Abelard-Schuman and for the next 24 years at

, where he advanced from Editor to Senior Vice-President, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief. As a book editor, he won the PEN/Roger Klein Award for Editing in 1973 and the Advocate Humanitarian Award in 1977 for his contributions to the advancement of gay writing and publishing. He retired from publishing in 1991. The writers he edited and/or published included Robert Pirsig, Leroi Jones,

Ken Follett Kenneth Martin Follett (born 5 June 1949) is a Welsh author of thrillers and historical novels who has sold more than 198 million copies of his works. His books have been sold in over 80 countries. Follett's commercial breakthrough came with ...

Pamela Des Barres Pamela Des Barres (; born Pamela Ann Miller; September 9, 1948) is an American rock and roll groupie, writer, musician, and actress. She is best known for her 1987 memoir, '' I'm with the Band: Confessions of a Groupie'', which details her experi ...

, Nicholas Delbanco,

James Clavell James Clavell (born Charles Edmund Dumaresq Clavell; 10 October 1921 – 7 September 1994) was a British and American writer, screenwriter, director, and World War II veteran and prisoner of war. Clavell is best known for his ''Asian Saga'' nov ...

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Jacqueline Susann Jacqueline Susann (August 20, 1918 – September 21, 1974) was an American novelist and actress. Her novel ''Valley of the Dolls (novel), Valley of the Dolls'' (1966) is one of the List of best-selling books, best-selling books in publishing his ...

Tariq Ali Tariq Ali (;; born 21 October 1943) is a Pakistani-British political activist, writer, journalist, historian, filmmaker, and public intellectual. He is a member of the editorial committee of the ''New Left Review'' and ''Sin Permiso'', and co ...

Morris West Morris Langlo West (26 April 19169 October 1999) was an Australian novelist and playwright, best known for his novels ''The Devil's Advocate (West novel), The Devil's Advocate'' (1959), ''The Shoes of the Fisherman (novel), The Shoes of the Fi ...

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John Irving John Winslow Irving (born John Wallace Blunt Jr.; March 2, 1942) is an American and Canadian novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter. Irving achieved critical and popular acclaim after the international success of his fourth novel '' Th ...

Salvador Dalí Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (11 May 190423 January 1989), known as Salvador Dalí ( ; ; ), was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, ...

, Whitley Streiber and Patricia Nell Warren. His books include ''Lying in Bed'', which won the Morton Dauwen Zabel Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, ''Longing'', which was a New York Times Notable Book, ''The Taking'', which was published in paperback under the title Artist of the Beautiful, ''The Last Day'', and ''Dagny: The Life and Death of Dagny Juel'' as Narrated by Her Lover W. E., which is available only in Polish translation as Dagny, Życie I ŚmierĆ (Dagny: Life and Death). He also published a book of poetry for children, ''Cars on Mars and 49 Other Poems for Kids on Earth.''

Personal life

J. D. Landis is married to Denise Landis, a longtime recipe tester for ''The New York Times'' and the author of multiple cookbooks.

Works

* ''The Sisters Impossible'' (1979, Knopf; / 1984, Bantam; / 1990, Random House Books for Young Readers; ) * ''Daddy's Girl'' (1984, William Morrow & Co; / 1985, Simon Pulse; ) * ''Love's Detective'' (1984, Bantam; ) * ''Joey and the Girls'' (1987, Bantam; ) * ''The Band Never Dances'' (1989, Harper & Row; / 1993, HarperCollins; , 1993, HarperCollins; ) * ''Looks Aren't Everything'' (1990, Delacorte Books for Young Readers; / 1991, Starfire; ) * ''Cars on Mars and 49 Other Poems for Kids on Earth, with illustrations by Denise Landis'' (2008, Publishing Works; ) * ''Lying in Bed'' (1995, Algonquin; / 1997, PHOENIX; ) * ''Longing'' (2000, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; / 2001, Ballantine Books; ) * ''The Taking'' (2003, Ballantine; / 2005, Ballantine, as Artist of the Beautiful; ) * ''The Last Day'' (2009, Steerforth; ) * ''Dagny, Życie I ŚmierĆ (Dagny: Life and Death) (2013, Bukowy Las; )

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Landis, J. D. 1942 births 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American editors American male novelists Living people Writers from Springfield, Massachusetts 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers Novelists from Massachusetts Yale College alumni