Saturday, September 27, 2008

Welcome to the GK Hall Alumni page

Hello,

This site is for anyone who at one time worked at G.K. Hall Co. publishing on Albany Street in Boston. I worked there for just a couple of years from 1978-1980 but they were very memorable and I worked with some great folks back then.

Though I'm still friends with a couple of those folks - John Labine and Jeff Wakefield - I'm curious about many others who I worked and socialized with.

Maybe you are too.

If so, please leave a message here about yourself, e.g. what you did at G.K. Hall, what you've done since, who you remember and who you'd like to catch up with. Maybe they'll see your post and do the same!

As for me, I'm Norm Quesnel. I started out as a paste-up artist in Hall's art department. (Paste-up is an obsolete profession.). At the time my boss was Mike Connelly and I worked with John Balta and the likes of Bill Donelan, Pat Palmer, Melanie Stanley and Nancy Wans. Later I was a book production editor for Greg Press. That was the best job I had there, and I got to produce both books (reprints of classic mysteries, Westerns, etc.) and their jackets. My boss then was Barbara Anderson. Finally, I was a junior copywriter. That gig didn't last too long as I was ready to move on not long after starting that position.

But we all moved on, didn't we?

I can think of many other people I knew back then, and will list them in future blogs. Sorry if I mess up the spelling. Whether you see your name or not, whether you knew me or not, please say hello. We'll be delighted to hear from you.

Finally, I'm not really sure what happened to G.K. Hall. I think some larger publisher bought them (when I was there the owning company was ITT) and to my knowledge they were moved, absorbed or what have you. I still see Large Print books in my library in Framingham, Mass. Thank goodness I don't have to read that 18 point type yet - but it won't be much longer.

So let me know what happened to the company as well as to you.

And I hope you've been well!

Best,
Norm Quesnel
Framingham, MA