William Jovanovich (1920 – 4 December 2001) was an American publisher, author, and businessman ofMontenegrin descent. He served as the director of the publishing firmHarcourt, Brace & World from 1954 to 1991, renamed Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich in his honor in 1970. He also ownedSeaWorld marine parks, and wrote both fiction and non-fiction.
William Jovanovich was born Vladimir Jovanovich inLouisville, Colorado in 1920, the youngest child of aPolish mother and aSerbian father fromMontenegro, who worked as acoal miner. Educated inDenver elementary schools and theUniversity of Colorado, Jovanovich served in theUnited States Navy duringWorld War II.[1]
In 1943 he married Martha Evelyn Davis, with whom he had three children.[citation needed]
Unable to complete graduate study after the war, he joined the publisherHarcourt Brace and Company as a college textbook salesman. He rose quickly through the company's management ranks. In 1953 he became head of Harcourt's school division and the company's president the following year (1954) at the age of 34, only seven years after starting work as a $50 a week textbook salesman. At that time, the company had 125 employees and about $8 million in sales. When he retired 46 years later, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (HBJ), had nearly 12,000 employees (6,300 in publishing, and the rest in entertainment and other divisions) and annual sales stood at more than $1.4 Billion.[2][3]
Most of his close friends were businessmen who achieved great heights, includingWilliam G. Salatich.[citation needed]
Throughout the years Jovanovich presided over the steady expansion of HBJ's enterprises, acquiring other publishing firms and even purchasing several theme parks.[2]
In 1970, with company shareholders' approval, the firm changed its name to Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich (HBJ). Under Jovanovich's leadership, the company published several important authors, such asGünter Grass,Umberto Eco, andItalo Calvino. Jovanovich worked directly with a number of these writers, includingHannah Arendt,Charles Lindbergh,Milton Friedman, andMary McCarthy. Jovanovich and McCarthy first met in 1958, and their professional relationship evolved into a close personal that lasted until McCarthy's death in 1989. He also cherished his relationship withEugene andMarta Istomin,[4] Charles Lindbergh and Hannah Arendt. He respected the contientious work ofDrenka Willen, the HBJ editor who helped many new foreign and domestic writers edit their manuscripts. During William Jovanovich's tenure the works ofSylvia Beach,Arthur C. Clarke,Edward Dahlberg,E. E. Cummings,T. S. Eliot,E. M. Forster,Hiram Haydn,Helen Hayes,Irving Howe,Jerzy Kosiński,Stanisław Lem,Anita Loos,Marshall McLuhan,Daniel Patrick Moynihan,Lewis Mumford,V. S. Pritchett,Erich Maria Remarque,Richard Rovere,Carl Sandburg,William Saroyan,Vassilis Vassilikos,Andy Warhol,Leonard Woolf were published, and promoted were the works ofSerbia's poetMatija Bećković, Serbian American professor Michael Boro Petrovich,[5] communist dissidentsMilovan Djilas,Mihajlo Mihajlov,Vladimir Dedijer andSvetlana Alliluyeva, better known asStalin's daughter.[6]
As the years passed, HBJ under Jovanovich experienced stunning growth and diversification. In 1987, ten years after the move fromNew York, HBJ fell victim to a hostile takeover effort byRobert Maxwell, a man whom Jovanovich neither respected nor liked.[7]
In response to this unfriendly takeover attempt, William Jovanovich adopted a poison pill strategy. He borrowed nearly $3 billion in order to pay huge one-time stock dividend to the shareholders. This move made many investors happy, and although Maxwell's takeover plan was ultimately foiled, the spontaneous move left the company in significant financial straits. The huge debt forced many changes, including the selling off of many assets.Sea World was sold toAnheuser Busch in September 1989, and there was severe belt-tightening within the corporation. The resulting layoffs, restructuring, and salary freezes left many employees somewhat bitter. However, the integrity of the company was kept intact.[8]
Soon it became evident that it would be best to ease the financial woes by selling HBJ outright. As a result of the decision of theboard of directors, William Jovanovich stepped down aspresident in March 1988, aschief executive officer in December 1988, and resigned aschairman of the board of directors and retired in May 1990. His son Peter Jovanovich succeeded him as president and CEO. HBJ was then sold, in January 1991, toGeneral Cinema Corporation (GC). Shortly after General Cinema took over, problems developed between the new owners and Peter Jovanovich. Peter rather abruptly left HBJ to join another publishing company, and new owners wasted no time to change the company name back toHarcourt Brace, erasing the name "Jovanovich" altogether.[2]
Jovanovich died in 2001 at age 81 inSan Diego, California after a lengthy illness.[9][10]
In addition working as a publisher, Jovanovich also wrote a number of books:
He also contributed essays to a magazineSerb World U.S.A..[17]
