For Immediate Release
January 25, 2005
Contact: Judith Platt
Ph: 202-220-4551
Email: jplatt@publishers.org
Publishers Saddened at News of Gordon Conable’s Death
The Association of American Publishers joined colleagues in the library community and free speech advocates everywhere in mourning the death of Gordon Conable, President of the American Library Association-affiliated Freedom to Read Foundation, who died at his home in California earlier this month. He was, AAP President Pat Schroeder said, “a real First Amendment hero.”
Following a term as associate director of the Fort Vancouver (Washington) Regional Library, Mr. Conable served as director of the Monroe County, Michigan, Library System for ten years from the late 1980s through the 1990s. A fierce First Amendment advocate, he undertook as one of his first actions as library director a revamp of the system’s check-out procedures to protect library patron privacy. In 1992 Mr. Conable found himself at the center of a controversy when some elements in the community were outraged by the library’s decision to make the Madonna book, Sex, available. He refused to back down, even when the confrontation turned ugly and he received bomb threats. In 1996 Mr. Conable was named to the Freedom to Read Foundation’s Roll of Honor. Following his tenure in Michigan, he joined a library management company in California, and was a frequent speaker on First Amendment and library privacy issues.
“At a time when free expression and the right to dissent are so seriously threatened, losing a free speech warrior like Gordon Conable is doubly hard,” Mrs. Schroeder said. “AAP will contribute to the Freedom to Read Foundation in his memory, and others who share his commitment may want to do so as well.”
The Association of American Publishers is the national trade association of the U.S. book publishing industry. AAP’s members include most of the major commercial book publishers in the United States, as well as smaller and non-profit publishers, university presses, and scholarly societies. AAP members publish hardcover and paperback books in every field, educational materials for the elementary, secondary, postsecondary, and professional markets, computer software, and electronic products and services. The Association represents an industry whose very existence depends upon the free exercise of rights guaranteed by the First Amendment.
Contributions in Gordon Conable’s memory can be sent to: The Freedom to Read Foundation, 50 E. Huron Street, Chicago, IL 60611.
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