RIP, Porter Anderson

Porter and I go way back. Possibly to the beginning of his pivot to the book industry – I was on the conference circuit, as a consultant, when Twitter was in its infancy, and he was somehow always in the back of the room, making an art out of live-tweeting. He materialized out of nowhere and was suddenly doing this – and we all came to rely on it. He was incredibly incisive and saw a need, and he filled it.

Over the years, through the circuit, we got to know one another quite well. He was one of my dearest friends in the industry. We were both preacher’s kids – so we had a lot of in-jokes about that. We’d check in on one another during hurricane season – he was up and down the East Coast from Florida to South Carolina, with his beagle in tow.

As a journalist, he was forever kind and empathetic. I think he interviewed me three times, for various reasons depending on the hat I was wearing at any given time. Besides that, he was a stalwart ally of the industry. Then, as editor in chief of Publishing Perspectives, he embodied the industry. I’ll never forget an evening in Charleston at a small-press conference, when I got up to toast Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who had died on the day the conference opened, and suddenly found myself tongue-tied – he enthusiastically joined in and rescued me from embarassment.

Dear Porter, I will miss you so much. The industry will miss you; and of course I’m no longer officially in the industry, but as a person, I am devastated by your loss. You’ve been a mentor, a companion, a fellow traveler, a tremendous influence – and the industry you loved and served needs to honor the work you did on its behalf.

I’ll meet you at the crossing, my fellow PK. I’m sorry you had to depart so early, but I know I’ll be grateful (as always) that you paved the way.