Viking editorial director Eleo Gordon retires

Editorial director for Viking, Eleo Gordon, has retired after nearly 50 years at Penguin.

Gordon began her career in 1967 in the African educational department of Longman, which later merged with Penguin, where she worked for seven people. She moved to the general division of Longman, working for the chief editor John Guest, from whom she inherited M.M. Kaye’s commercial bestseller The Far Pavilions.

Other bestsellers published by Gordon at Penguin include Jane Fonda’s Workout Book, The Little Book of Calm by Paul Wilson, as well as cookery books from Elizabeth David, Claudia Roden, Rick Stein and Nigel Slater and military history from Lyn Macdonald, Martin Middlebrook, Antony Beevor and Geoffrey Wellum.

Gordon's last book published by Viking in June was Hugh Sebag-Montefiore’s Somme: Into the Breach, which spent two weeks in the Sunday Times Top Ten.

A drinks party was held at 80 Strand on Wednesday evening (31st August) to mark her retirement, where Gordon said that she leaves Penguin "perfectly content not to have to wear a Penguin security pass around my neck any more, go on a slow No 9 bus or attend meetings. I will miss everyone at Penguin, all my authors and everyone in publishing, but I do plan to keep in touch".

Joanna Prior, m.d. of Penguin General, said: "It isn’t possible to sum up a career as long, varied and illustrious as Eleo’s in a short quote.  Her contribution has been immense, not just because of the remarkable books she has published but also because of her dedication to her authors, her kindness to her colleagues and her tremendous sense of fun. Rather like Penguin itself, Eleo found a way to publish serious and important books for the widest possible audience, less serious books in a clever way and yet never took herself too seriously in the process. We will hugely miss the inimitable Eleo."

Gordon's authors at Viking will be inherited by publisher Daniel Crewe.

She can be contacted at eleo@eleocarson.com.