GENEVIEVE YOUNG

Genevieve Young was married to Gordon Parks and was a renowned book editor. In 1952, Young began as a stenographer at Harper & Brothers (later Harper & Row), and rose the ranks, becoming managing editor in 1966. In the decades that followed, she became a publishing powerhouse: by 1971 she was a vice president at J. B. Lippincott; in 1977 she became a senior editor at Little, Brown; in 1985, she was editor in chief at the Literary Guild of America; and in 1988 she was an editorial director and vice president at Bantam Books. Young had a role in editing Parks’ first book, The Learning Tree, published in 1963. Young was also instrumental in the creation and development of the Gordon Parks Foundation beginning in 2006, and served on the Foundation’s board from 2006–2020. Writing was an important aspect of Parks’ career – like photography, the printed word offered endless opportunities for exploration and ingenuity, revealed through his work as a journalist, novelist, poet, and screenwriter. Young died on February 18, 2020 after battling cancer. She was 89.

"Gordon Parks had a great eye for troubled people, and it really got to him — and his desire to help fix it is his legacy." Genevieve Young