University of New Mexico Press - Modern Times

Modern Times

After several years of overseeing growth of the Press's title output and revenue, Wilson left the Press in 1985 to become director at Syracuse University Press. Beth Hadas, editor-in-chief at UNMP, became director upon Wilson’s departure. Hadas was one of only six women at the helm of a university press at the time. A year after Hadas became director, UNMP published _The Education of Little Tree_ by Forrest Carter, still the Press’s all-time best-selling title having now sold more than two million copies, which Hadas and former director Wilson had acquired reprint rights in 1985 from the author's agent and his widow. The book, originally positioned as a non-fiction account of the life of a Cherokee boy, with the sub-title "A True Story," was later deemed to be fiction because of the author's misrepresentation of his past, which included affiliation with the KKK and speech-writing for racist Alabama Governor George Wallace. Nevertheless, the story has maintained its popularity and enjoyed success on _The New York Times_ Bestseller lists for both fiction and nonfiction. In 1991, the book won the first annual Abby Award from the American Bookseller’s Association for the book of the year.

The Press has gained national and international stature since the 1970s in fields that parallel the strengths of UNM: western history, Latin American studies, anthropology and archaeology, photography and art, and Chicano/a and Native American studies. The Press also initiated distribution agreements to provide small client publishers with fulfillment and marketing services. Media coverage soared during this exciting, turbulent period in UNMP's history.

Luther Wilson returned to the Press in 2000, after a stint at the University Press of Colorado. By the middle of the decade, list size had grown from fifty to eighty new titles a year and sales had doubled to $5 Million by 2006 amid turbulent downtrends associated with September 11 and the March 2003 invasion of Iraq. Unfortunately, economic conditions necessitated a new wave of reorganization and downsizing in 2008-2009. Upon Luther Wilson's retirement in the summer of 2010, John W. Byram became director of the Press. An emphasis on effective marketing coupled with a search for a balance between publishing scholarly and salable general interest books continues to define the Press’s operations.