Phyllis Tickle, who energized a market for books on religion, dies at 81

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Sam Roberts

Phyllis Tickle, a writer and the founding religion editor at Publishers Weekly. Credit Karen Pulfer Focht/Religion News Service

TENNESSEE---Phyllis Tickle, who helped energize the religion publishing market in the 1990s, wrote dozens of books on spirituality and gave voice to a movement that believes Christianity is entering an epochal new phase, died on Sept. 22 at her farm in Lucy, Tenn., north of Memphis. She was 81. The cause was lung cancer, her daughter Rebecca Tickle said. Ms. Tickle was the founding religion editor at Publishers Weekly, the leading journal in the book trade, serving from 1991 to 1994. In that post she identified and covered a rapidly emerging market for religious-themed books and helped publishers tap into its profitability. [link]