By Bridget Blair AE
Editors Victoria is saddened to acknowledge the passing of Jim Hart in January. Jim was a significant figure in the early days of Editors Victoria, then known as the Society of Editors. He served as a committee member and newsletter editor during the 1970s and 1980s. Teresa Pitt remembers Jim as an inspiration and role model:
I first met Jim when I joined the Victorian editors’ group back in 1980. He was very much a publishing “elder” in my eyes, although in fact he was only a whippersnapper in his thirties.
At that time he was co-owner, with Tony and Maureen Wheeler, of an interesting little venture called Lonely Planet, which later went on to become a global success. He had been an editor at Rigby’s in Adelaide, and later became President of the Small Press Network.
Jim’s enthusiasm for the then-fledgling society was inspirational. He was always an entertaining and committed presence. We were small and fairly shambolic in those early days, but our meetings were fun and interesting, and Jim was certainly one of our key members. He was passionate about the need to professionalise the work of editors.
Susan Keogh worked with Jim at Lonely Planet and remembers:
The world – and our Australian editing world – is a lesser place without the genial, affable presence in it of Jim Hart. Jim will be known to many members of the Victorian branch as a former boss, as one of the original directors of Lonely Planet, the largest employer of in-house book editors this country has seen or is ever likely to see, or through his time in charge of the Graduate Diploma in Editing and Publishing at RMIT.
Jim was a lovely man: when I started at Lonely Planet, a colleague told me when you had been employed for 5 years (and then again at 10 years), Jim took you aside and handed you a personal cheque for $500 (back last century, this was a fair bit of money). He said he wanted to share the wealth the company had brought him with you … It absolutely fits how I remember him.
Given that Jim had the general air and manner of a slightly absent-minded professor, it was probably fitting that he take on one of the (then) few roles as an editing and publishing academic. My memory is that he was there perhaps only a couple of years, but given that the RMIT course was an initiative of the Society of Editors (Victoria), it is absolutely fitting that he is remembered in these pages. Through the employees and students he encountered, his influence on editing in this state was widespread. He is gone too soon.
Colin Jevons shares an anecdote about the work culture Jim promoted:
I recall going in to see him at Lonely Planet wearing a suit and tie as befitted my then job as a sales rep. He looked at me with great alarm and took me around the office introducing me loudly to everyone. He later explained to me that the only suit and tie that ever entered the Lonely Planet office was worn by the bank manager, who always caused trouble – recently staff pay had been delayed for some days – hence the need to establish that I was not from the bank, just someone with poor dress sense.
The Society of Editors’ newsletter archive includes an event report on a talk that Jim gave to the society in October 1986. The topic was the introduction of computers for editing and typesetting at Lonely Planet, which at that point had 14 in-house staff. Jim discussed the advantages and disadvantages, and the report reveals that some members were sceptical about the cost-effectiveness of computers. Others were concerned about how the advent of this technology would affect their jobs. Without doubt Jim had an impact on publishing and editing in Australia, and he will be missed.