Susannah Hunnewell, publisher of the Paris Review "and a prominent member of its literary circles for three decades," died June 15, the New York Times reported. She was 52. Hunnewell joined the magazine as an editorial intern in the late-1980s, "when it was run out of an 8-by-14-foot office in the Upper East Side brownstone of its co-founder and editor George Plimpton." She was named publisher in 2015.
"She really cared about the possibilities of a literary magazine," said author Mona Simpson, a member of the board. "The Paris Review is known for its hysterically extensive masthead, and Susannah was the only person in the world who could coax all these founders, editors, associates, readers, contributors and board members not only to get along but to have wild fun together."
A tribute posted by the Paris Review mourned Hunnewell as a "friend, colleague, and luminous presence at the magazine." When she started, Plimpton "quickly recognized her literary precociousness, commitment to international literature, and 'herculean' work ethic.... Those early years at the magazine were fortuitous in another way: it was during her first summer in the cramped office on East Seventy-Second that she met Antonio Weiss, then the magazine’s associate editor, whom she would marry in 1993."
In 2000, Hunnewell and her family moved to Paris, and she became the magazine’s Paris editor in 2005. Last November, in a ceremony at the French Consulate, she "became a chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters for her contributions to literature (she also worked at George, Marie Claire, and the New York Times, and was a founding board member of the Albertine Bookshop)," the Paris Review wrote. "Among her many meaningful efforts on both sides of the Atlantic, it is her long engagement with the Paris Review that defines her literary career. Her three decades with the magazine, a span made better by her intelligence, kindness, and great spirit, have left an indelible imprint on the Paris Review."