David Whitaker (publisher)

David Haddon Whitaker <a href="/facts/Order_of_the_British_Empire/HlY9buuN">OBE</a> (died 4 August 2021) was a British book publisher. A direct descendant of <a href="/facts/Joseph_Whitaker_(publisher)/HvUdjMAf">Joseph Whitaker</a>, he joined the family firm, J. Whitaker & Sons, in 1956. Whitaker became involved with the development of Standard Book Numbers, the precursor to the <a href="/facts/ISBN/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a>, in the 1960s. Whitaker's firm was well placed to drive the standard as it published records of all books published in the United Kingdom. The SBN was expanded internationally from 1968 and Whitaker, who is sometimes known as "the father of the ISBN", played a key role in this. He chaired the first <a href="/facts/International_Organization_for_Standardization/IacYR7Yg">International Organization for Standardization</a> (ISO) working group on the ISBN and helped draft ISO standard 2108.
Whitaker served as editor of trade magazine <a href="/facts/The_Bookseller/mr0tUM7e">The Bookseller</a> from 1977 to 1979. In this role he favoured stories on women in the industry, to encourage them in what was a male-dominated workplace. Whitaker afterwards became managing director, and then chairman, of J. Whitaker & Sons. He improved the firm's coverage of book sale figures to meet a market need and developed the TeleOrdering system that was used widely for book ordering in pre-Internet times. Whitaker was appointed an <a href="/facts/Officer_of_the_Order_of_the_British_Empire/HlY9buuN">Officer of the Order of the British Empire</a> in the <a href="/facts/1991_Birthday_Honours/hboSjkAK">1991 Birthday Honours</a>. He supported campaigns against the introduction of <a href="/facts/Value-added_tax/CgMfNJPy">value-added tax</a> on books and in support of the <a href="/facts/Public_Lending_Right/eYh9SRge">Public Lending Right</a> and also founded trade organisations.

David Whitaker (publisher) open-in-new

David Whitaker (publisher)