Morris Philipson (1926-2011) was the director of the University of Chicago Press from 1967 to 2000 and the author of five novels and several scholarly books.

 

Born in New Haven, Connecticut, he received a B.A. and M.A. from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Columbia University. He worked at Random House, Pantheon Books, Alfred A. Knopf, and Basic Books before becoming director at Chicago.

 

Philipson took on ambitious scholarly projects, among the largest of which was The Lisle Letters, a six-volume work that the New York Times called “one of the most extraordinary historical works in the century” and that won the Carey-Thomas Award for creative publishing in 1981.

 

In 1982, Philipson received the PEN American Center’s Publisher Citation. For his efforts to bring the work of French writers to English readers, in 1984 the French Ministry of Culture awarded him the Commandeur de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He also received the Association of American Publishers’ Curtis Benjamin Award for Creative Publishing, an award given to those whose “creativity and leadership have left a lasting mark on American publishing.”