Overseers Name Carroll New Head of H.U. Press

The Board of Overseers yesterday confirmed Mark S. Carroll '50 to succeed Thomas J. Wilson as director of the Harvard University Press. He has been associate director since 1959.

Carroll will assume his new post in January 1968, when Wilson retires from the Press after 20 years to become vice president and senior editor of Atheneum Publishers of New York.

As director, Carroll will be responsible for the editing and publication of 150 new or greatly revised books and 150 reprints each year. The actual selection of manuscripts is handled by a 12-member Board of Syndics, of which he will be chairman.

To Strengthen

Carroll will be taking over a financially solvent and smoothly running Press. He said yesterday, "My endeavor will be to continue and strengthen the significance and importance of the Press as the publishing arm of the University."

He sees the Press's future problem as adjusting to the steadily increasing demands of a growing scholarly community, particularly in new and developing fields. The Press will, for example, publish the findings of Law School research on Chinese law.

Scientific boks now account for about 15 per cent of the Press's output, and Carroll does not plan to increase that portion. Neither does he have plans for publishing paperback books, an innovation seriously discussed at the Press for the past few years. The Press currently sells paperback rights to other publishers.

Was at Yale

Carroll joined the Press in 1956 as assistant to the director, after working for five years as promotion manager of the Yale University Press.

During 1966, he spent several months in the Middle East, studying the publishing industry of Turkey and advising Pahlavi University in Shiraz, Iran. He is consultant in training programs to Franklin Programs Inc., which assists in the production and distribution of scholarly books for developing countries.

Active in the world of scholarly publishing, he is a former member-at-large and a member of the executive committee of the Association of American University Presses, and former vice president and treasurer of the American Institute of Graphic Arts.