Bruce Nicoll

Born 1913

Died 1983

Nicoll was an obscure University of Nebraska administrator with no experience in publishing when Chancellor Clifford Hardin appointed him to a long vacant position as the (second) director of the University of Nebraska Press in 1958. He served brilliantly from 1958-1973. He improved the Press' financial condition, and appointed the remarkable Virginia Faulkner as Editor-in-Chief. Observing the growing popularity of paperback books he conceived the idea of republishing great out-of-print and public domain books as quality paperbacks and so created the Bison Books imprint, widely admired as one of American university press publishing's great success stories. Under Nicoll's leadership the Press began to expand its sales and revenue, while Faulkner helped it improve its reputation and maintain the diversity of its offerings. Nicoll put the Press on the path to becoming one of best and most successful of American university presses.

Nicoll had a personal interest in history and archaeology and was a founding member of the Western History Association. He co-authored a biography of former Nebraska governor Sam McKelvie and wrote Nebraska: A Pictorial History (1967) which won an award of merit from the American Association for State and Local History in 1968.

dsc

Author Of

Nonfiction

Keywords

Nebraska--History; Editing; University of Nebraska Press

Places Worked

Director of the University of Nebraska Press

Bibliography

Nebraska a Pictorial History. 1967. (with a contribution by Gilbert Savery)
Know Nebraska. 1951. (with Ken R. Keller)
Sam McKelvie, Son of the Soil: Sketch of a Self-Reliant American who Cheerfully Fought His Own Battles. 1954. (with contributions by Kenneth R. Keller)

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