NEW YORK, N.Y. /Publishers Newswire/ — The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE), the bookseller’s voice in the fight against censorship, today announced the election of two publishing industry veterans to the ABFFE board. Roberta Rubin, the owner of The Book Stall at Chestnut Court in Winetka, Illinois, and Patricia Johnson, executive vice president and editorial director of Alfred A. Knopf, Pantheon and Schocken Books, were elected to three-year terms.
Rubin is an award-winning bookseller. In 1986, she purchased the Chestnut Court Book Shop in Winnetka, a Chicago suburb, and renamed it The Book Stall at Chestnut Court. The Book Stall won the Haslam Award for Excellence in Independent Bookselling in 1993; was chosen as one of the Top 10 Outstanding Bookstores by USA Today in 1997; and hailed by the Chicago Tribune as one of the top ten bookstores in the Chicago area in 2007. Rubin has been active in the American Booksellers Association and held various positions in her community, including serving twice as president of the Winnetka Chamber of Commerce.
Johnson started her career as a bookseller. She managed a Waldenbooks store before becoming a trade paperback buyer for the chain and later moving to Encore Books as head of merchandising. After gaining ten years of retail experience, she became manager of national accounts at Bantam Books and, two years later, director of Doubleday. In 1992, Johnson was named vice president and publisher at Random House Audio and given the additional title of publisher, Random House Large Print, the following year. She became vice president and associate publisher at Knopf in 1996.
The ABFFE board expressed its appreciation to its outgoing board members, Bonnie Ammer, formerly of Random House, who served on the board for six years, and Betsy Burton of The King’s English Bookshop in Salt Lake City, who was a board member for several years and is now serving on the ABA board.
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