Nina Bourne

Nina Bourne (1916–2010) was a publishing executive for more than 70 years for both Simon & Schuster and Alfred A. Knopf. Nina was known for her marketing and advertising campaigns for many books including Catch-22 and the Eloise series of children's books.

Nina Bourne was born on June 16, 1916, in Warsaw and arrived in New York when she was five years old. Bourne attended the Fieldston School and Radcliffe, where she graduated with a Bachelors in 1937.

Bourne did not marry but "adopted" many of her friend's children as her own.

Bourne began her career in 1939 at Simon & Schuster by writing an application letter in the form of a poem that incorporated the names of the publisher's top authors and bestselling book titles. Her first position was as a secretary to co-founder Richard Simon. Working with Jack Goodman, she developed a flair for writing advertising copy.

Bourne described her early days at Simon & Schuster as magic, "I was so taken with the snazzy ads written by Dick Simon. We called him 'Boss,' because he didn't have to please anybody. He just wrote. And his ads were complete and straightforward and conversational and factual, and terrific."

After Goodman's death in 1957 Bourne took over writing The Inner Sanctum, a news-like advertorial that appeared in both the New York Times Book Review and Publishers Weekly. The Inner Sanctum was also the name of a Simon & Schuster mystery line and Max Schuster and Dick Simon were the original authors for the column.

Nina Bourne created ad campaigns for many blockbuster titles including Catch-22, Eloise, and The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Bourne's campaign for Catch-22 beginning in 1961 is now considered to be a classic for both advertising and publishing students. A personal champion for the book, Bourne placed large advertisements that reported on its progress in the marketplace with a listing of prominent authors who praised the book and also quoting reviews from ordinary readers.This campaign continued for over a year reporting with progress reports to the past and future readers and even included a Happy Birthday notice. The hardcover only sold 35,000 in its first print run but picked up steam when published in paperback by Dell. The paperback sold almost a million copies by 1962. Of Catch-22, Bourne said to Gottlieb, "I'm like the demented governess who thinks the baby is her own."

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