Melville House Books

The woman who “ascended to the role of Putnam president” three years ago—when Phyllis Gran “left in a kerfuffle” with corporate partner Penguin and parent company Pearson—is herself, “walking out the door”—due to a “kerfuffle” with Pearson of her own, one source says in a Publishers Weekly report by Steve Zeitchik. According to Zeitchik, Carole Baron is also leaving her position as president of Dutton, the imprint “she was credited with reviving.” No one is saying why, however—at least not on the record. But one unnamed source tells Zeitchik Baron left because of “dissatisfaction” and that she “had reportedly been discussing her departure with Penguin for some time.” She’ll be replaced at Dutton by Brian Tart, and at Putnam by Susan Petersen Kennedy, current head of Penguin Group US—the person to whom Baron had reported, in “a chain of command that was memorialized at the time as the de-Putnamization of Penguin Putnam.” As for her future, Zeitchik reports “Baron was non-committal about her plans.”

Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.