There are about 30,000 book publishers in North America. Eight months ago, we invited some 250 of them—those who publish books with some appeal to CT readers—to submit nominations for our 1990 Book Awards. Many responded, sending books for our judges to examine. Thus Sue Mole, CT’s editorial assistant, found herself cataloging 375 titles and handling the voluminous correspondence created by the awards.
Sue is only one of several normally invisible people who made this year’s awards possible. Dwight Walles, a former Hallmark Card illustrator turned free-lance designer, got the task of designing the awards logo. We gave Dwight the challenge to create something “classy” and “up-to-date,” but that would not look like other book awards. You can see the results of his work on page 27. We plan to publish the logo for years to come.
The troublesome task of counting our readers’ votes was performed by Doreen Barlow of CT i’s research department. The ballots, which were easy enough for readers to mark, were not designed with the tabulator in mind. Doreen’s husband, Tracy, came to the rescue, devising a template system to make the job manageable. Doreen recently left CT i. We hope the ballot counting wasn’t too hard on her. And Sue required a Caribbean cruise to recuperate. We trust Dwight is holding up well. But to all the “invisible people” who made this year’s awards possible, we say thanks.
DAVID NEFF, Senior Associate Editor
