Eddie Bell, former HarperCollins UK chairman and CEO, as well as co-founder of literary agency Bell Lomax Moreton, has died. He was 77.
The Bookseller reported that Bell left school when he was 16 to work in whisky-buying at Inver House Distillers. He "later moved into a sales role, selling Wicked Ladies and Baby Bubbly cocktails around the pubs and clubs of Scotland, before being recommended for a sales rep role in central Scotland at Hodder & Stoughton Publishers."
In 1973, Bell moved to for Hodder, where he became sales and marketing director, championing the acquisition of Jeffrey Archer's Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less. He also established Hodder's romance imprint Silhouette Books and was involved in publishing many bestsellers of the 1970s and 1980s including James Clavell's Shōgun, Noel Barber's Tanamera, Joan Collins's autobiography and The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel. In 1984, he was promoted to deputy managing director at Hodder.
In 1985, he was offered the role of managing director at William Collins, where he attracted authors like Archer (from Hodder), Jack Higgins, Sidney Sheldon, and Mikhail Gorbachev. The Bookseller noted that three years later, "following News Corp.'s acquisition of Harper & Row, Bell was asked to move to the U.S. to establish HarperPaperbacks, creating a successful mass-market imprint and assembling a highly respected publishing team."
He eventually returned to England to lead HarperCollins U.K. "through a period of significant change" as chairman and CEO. He also served as chairman of World Book Day.
Kate Elton, HarperCollins CEO, said: "We were sorry to hear of the death of Eddie Bell, who had a long and successful career in publishing and for a decade served as executive chairman and publisher of HarperCollins UK. Eddie was a huge personality, still fondly remembered by many current staff who worked for him in those years. He was a great champion of authors both as a publisher and latterly as an agent and our thoughts are with his family and friends at this time."
After his retirement from HarperCollins in 2000, Bell spent two decades at Haynes Publishing, first as non-executive director and then as chairman, helping secure the sale of the company. He established the Bell Lomax Moreton Literary Agency and shared his management experience with a number of other companies.