John Ryden was director of Yale University Press from 1979 until he retired early in 2003. He began his publishing career as a sales rep in the college division of McGraw-Hill in 1965. After moving to Harper & Row in 1968 he was appointed editor and later editor-in-chief. From 1974 to 1979 he was editor-in-chief and associate director of the University of Chicago Press. He is a past president of the Association of American University Presses and was a member of the board of directors of the Association of American Publishers. Now an FM radio “DJ,” he is host of Monday Afternoon Classics on station WMNR in Connecticut.