OBITUARIES : H. Hamilton; Founded British Publishing Firm

Hamish Hamilton, the British publisher whose diverse stable of writers included authors ranging from Jean-Paul Sartre to Raymond Chandler, has died in London, members of his family announced Thursday. He was 87.

Hamilton, who died Tuesday, founded the London publishing house Hamish Hamilton Ltd. in 1931.

He enjoyed the company of writers, ran his publishing house on autocratic lines, distrusted computers and sales directors, and always had to see for himself. When he published Jacques Cousteau’s “The Silent World” in 1953, he went diving with the undersea explorer.

In 1926, after serving an apprenticeship at the London publishing house Jonathan Cape, Hamilton became London manager for the American publishers Harper & Brothers.

First Best Seller

His first best seller after founding Hamish Hamilton Ltd. with only $40,000 was John Gunther’s “Inside Europe.”

Over the years, Hamilton published such authors as Dean Acheson, Luigi Barzini, Albert Camus, Truman Capote, Chandler, John Kenneth Galbraith, John Hersey, Walter Lippmann, Ed McBain, J. D. Salinger, Sartre, A. J. P. Taylor, James Thurber and Alexander Werth.

He sold Hamish Hamilton Ltd. to Thomson Publications Ltd. in 1965, but continued on as chairman until 1981. Four years later, Thomson sold Hamish Hamilton Ltd. to the giant publishing company Viking-Penguin.

Hamilton was born in Indianapolis of a Scottish father, James Hamilton, and an American mother, Alice van Valkenburg, but was brought up mostly by relatives in Scotland.