Marilyn Malin
Marilyn Malin was a British literary agent, an editor and a publisher; she was the managing director of Methuen Children's Books. Early life and educationMarilyn's parents were Irene (née Littenberg) and Albert Malin; she was Jewish, and born and brought up in Golders Green, London.[1] She had at least one sister.[1] Marilyn attended North London Collegiate School.[1] She was awarded a state scholarship, which she took up at King's College London.[1][2] CareerMalin got a job as a secretary at the publishers Blackie and Son in the 1950s.[1] In the 1960s she joined Methuen Children's Books, first as an assistant to Olive Jones.[1] She became assistant children's books editor in 1965, and, towards the end of the 1960s, managing director.[1][2] With Charles Shirley, she "create[d] the separate entity of Methuen Children's Books. It was an outward-looking company whose sense of identity was enhanced by bright design, a keen marketing drive, and a strong European flavour".[3] Malin was described as one of the "eminent editorial directors of her time".[4] Her acceptance, in 1966 with Olive Jones, of The River Kings by Max Fatchen, has been described as the result of "a culture of calculated risk".[5] In the 1980s, Malin left Methuen to become a literary agent.[4] Malin was the UK editor for Astrid Lindgren, and for Ivan Southall.[6][7] She was editor for Rosemary Manning, and wrote about her for the journal Bookbird.[8] She published Michael Morpurgo's Warhorse, and books by Floella Benjamin, John Agard and James Berry.[1] She worked with Michael Palin on his children's book Small Harry.[9] Malin was the agent for Kjartan Poskitt,[10] She was a mentor to the illustrator Jane Pinkney.[11] Malin commissioned a book written by Alison Prince with 21 primary school children.[12] In 1986 Malin started her own publishing imprint, Marilyn Malin Books, in partnership with André Deutsch.[1][13] Personal lifeMalin died in 2022 aged 86.[1][4][14] Publications
References
See also |
||||||||||||||
