SCHWED, Peter 1911-2003

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born January 18, 1911, in New York, NY; died July 31, 2003, in New York, NY. Editor, publisher, and author. Schwed was a former executive editor and publisher for Simon & Schuster. He attended Princeton University for two years, but left in his junior year to help support his family during the Great Depression. Getting a job at the Provident Loan Society of New York, he rose to the position of assistant vice president there. During World War II he joined the U.S. Army and fought in Europe, earning a Bronze Star and achieving the rank of captain. He left the military in 1945 to join Simon & Schuster as an editor. At the New York publishing house he was promoted to vice president and executive editor in 1957, publisher of trade books in 1966, and chair of the editorial board in 1972. Schwed was chair emeritus from 1982 to 1984 before leaving the company. While at Simon & Schuster, he earned a reputation as an editor who worked closely with authors such as P. G. Wodehouse and David McCullough, carefully shepherding their books through to publication. As an athlete who enjoyed playing tennis, he also published many books on sports by such stars as Jack Nicklaus, Ted Williams, and Björn Borg. Schwed was also the author of over a dozen books himself, including Sinister Tennis: How to Play against and with Left-Handers (1975), Overtime!: A Twentieth-Century Sports Odyssey (1987), How to Talk Tennis (1988), Plum to Peter: Letters of P. G. Wodehouse to His Editor (1996), and Say, Could That Lad Be I? (1998). He also wrote the autobiography God Bless Pawnbrokers (1975) and the fiction work The Common Cold Crusade: A Novel Not to Be Sneezed At (1994).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Los Angeles Times, August 6, 2003, p. B11.

New York Times, August 5, 2003, p. C13.