Ann Patty
Patty grew up in Oakland, California. Her family was not literary. "I was raised on TV. My mother read Mickey Spillane and Reader's Digest Condensed Books." When her older brother went to college in Berkeley, a scant few miles north and a world away, he brought home books and words, which his younger sister devoured. "I used to make lists of new words and try to use them in sentences. 'Benevolent' was one of my favorites."
Patty went to Berkeley as well, in the turbulent 1960s. She majored in literature. "My form of rebellion was to become recherché. My father was always after me to take economics courses, so I'd be able to make a living... I didn't know the profession of editor even existed." Eventually, a New York boyfriend brought her to a beach house party where "there were all these editors talking about books. It was like a light bulb went off: That's what I'll do! I'll go to New York and be an editor!"
Patty started as an editorial assistant at Dell and became an editor at Pocket Books. Her commercial track record impressed her bosses so much that they made her, at 29, the founder, publisher and editorial director of her own imprint, Poseidon Press. Patty describes Poseidon as "an outrigger of Simon & Schuster," within which she enjoyed a newfound autonomy. "I was always interested in literary fiction. First you pay the rent with commercial books, then you earn the right to publish what you like."
She ran Poseidon until 1993, when her beloved imprint fell under the corporate axe.
