Alice Mayhew, celebrated book editor, dies at 87

Alice Mayhew, the celebrated and influential editor of political and historical works whose authors included Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, Taylor Branch and Doris Kearns Goodwin, died Tuesday at age 87.

Simon & Schuster, which she joined in 1971, says that she died “peacefully” at her home in Manhattan.

Mayhew edited some of the most notable nonfiction books of the last half century, including Woodward and Bernstein’s landmark Watergate bestseller “All the President’s Men,” Branch’s acclaimed civil rights trilogy and Goodwin’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “No Ordinary Time.”

“Alice’s loyalty to her authors was so absolute that despite her extraordinary record in publishing and the many offers she received over the years, she repeatedly refused to participate in any form of publicity or recognition for her achievements, never wavering in her conviction that the spotlight should always remain entirely focused on her authors,” Simon & Schuster CEO Carolyn Reidy wrote Tuesday.