Michael Morris, the children’s book packager and founder of Victoria House Publishing and Joshua Morris Publishing, died July 16 from complications due to cancer. He was 69. During his career of over 40 years, Morris created many novelty book formats as well as pioneered many production techniques and co-edition practices.
In the early 1980s Morris cofounded Joshua Morris Publishing with Josh Gaspero. Joshua Morris was sold to Reader’s Digest in 1991, achieving a global reach in publishing their books worldwide. Their titles were sold in over 17 countries. In more recent years Morris focused on novelty book format creation, forming several packaging houses including Bookworks.
“Mike Morris was an incredibly creative and innovative packager, with a keen sense of the market, tremendous integrity and heart. We will miss working with Mike,” said Ellie Berger, president of trade publishing at Scholastic.
