Yale Bulletin and Calendar

April 26-May 3, 1999

Volume 27, Number 30

Longtime Yale Press editor-in-chief
Edward Tripp dies at age 79

Edward Tripp, longtime editor-in-chief at Yale University Press, died on April 6 after a long illness. He was 79 years old.

Mr. Tripp's interests encompassed both the humanistic and the scientific. He acquired or sponsored books at the Yale Press in history, classics, music, theater, medicine, science and reference. For many years, he managed the entire editorial effort of the Press, both acquisitions and manuscript editorial.

His coworkers remember Mr. Tripp as an early riser who was always the first person at 302 Temple St. each morning. He was known both for his fertile imagination and his keen publishing sense and knack for matching project and author.

Mr. Tripp conceived the idea for the popular "Encyclopedia of New York City." He recruited Ken Jackson to edit it and set the format for the book himself. Even after his retirement, he continued to consult on the project with his successor.

Among his other acquisitions for the Yale University Press are "The Bonds of Womanhood" by Nancy Cott; "A Handbook of Clinical Dietetics" from the American Dietetic Association; "Vampires, Burial and Death" by Paul Barber; "The Chronicle of the Lodz Ghetto" by Lucjan Dobroszycki; "The Composer's Advocate" by Erich Leinsdorf; "Paganism in the Roman Empire" by Ramsay MacMullen; "A Handbook of Russian Literature" by Victor Erras; "Cosmos, Earth, and Man" by Preston Cloud; "The Origins of Sex" by Lynn Margulis; and more.

Mr. Tripp also wrote several articles for Scholarly Publishing magazine, a children's book called "The Tin Fiddle" and "Cromwell's Handbook of Classical Mythology," which has been called "the best classical mythology reference guide by far."

He joined Yale University Press in July of 1971 and retired at the end of March 1990. He came to Yale after 12 years with the firm of T.Y. Crowell in New York, where he headed the reference department. He was educated at George Washington University, Temple University and Columbia University.

A resident of Hamden, Connecticut, Mr. Tripp is survived by his wife, Rhoda. Donations in his memory may be made to the Yale Music Library, P.O. Box 108240, New Haven, CT 06520. There will be a memorial service at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 19, at the Yale University Press.

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Longtime Yale Press editor-in-chief Edward Tripp dies at age 79
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Campus Notes