Throughout the years Jovanovich presided over the steady expansion of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich's enterprises, acquiring other publishing firms and even purchasing several theme parks. Charles Lindbergh and Hannah Arendt. He respected the contientious work of
Drenka Willen, the HBJ editor who helped many new foreign and domestic writers edit their manuscripts. During William Jovanovich's tenure the works of
Sylvia Beach,
Arthur C. Clarke,
Edward Dahlberg,
E. E. Cummings,
T. S. Eliot,
E. M. Forster,
Hiram Haydn,
Helen Hayes,
Irving Howe,
Jerzy Kosiński,
Stanisław Lem,
Anita Loos,
Marshall McLuhan,
Daniel Patrick Moynihan,
Lewis Mumford,
V. S. Pritchett,
Erich Maria Remarque,
Richard Rovere,
Carl Sandburg,
William Saroyan,
Vassilis Vassilikos,
Andy Warhol,
Leonard Woolf were published, and promoted were the works of
Serbia's poet
Matija Bećković, Serbian American professor Michael Boro Petrovich, communist dissidents
Milovan Djilas,
Mihajlo Mihajlov,
Vladimir Dedijer and
Svetlana Alliluyeva, better known as
Stalin's daughter. As the years passed, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich under Jovanovich experienced stunning growth and diversification. In 1987, ten years after the move from New York City, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich fell victim to a hostile takeover effort by
Robert Maxwell, a man whom Jovanovich neither respected nor liked. In response to this unfriendly takeover attempt, William Jovanovich adopted a poison pill strategy. He borrowed nearly $3 billion in order to pay huge one-time stock dividend to the shareholders. This move made many investors happy, and although Maxwell's takeover plan was ultimately foiled, the spontaneous move left the company in significant financial straits. The huge debt forced many changes, including the selling off of many assets. Sea World was sold to
Anheuser Busch in September 1989, and there was severe belt-tightening within the corporation. The resulting layoffs, restructuring, and salary freezes left many employees somewhat bitter. However, the integrity of the company was kept intact. Soon it became evident that it would be best to ease the financial woes by selling Harcourt Brace Jovanovich outright. As a result of the decision of the
board of directors, William Jovanovich stepped down as
president in March 1988, as
chief executive officer in December 1988, and resigned as
chairman of the board of directors and retired in May 1990. His son Peter Jovanovich succeeded him as president and CEO. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich was then sold, in January 1991, to
General Cinema Corporation (GC). Shortly after General Cinema took over, problems developed between the new owners and Peter Jovanovich. Peter rather abruptly left HBJ to join another publishing company, and new owners wasted no time to change the company name back to
Harcourt Brace, erasing the name "Jovanovich" altogether. ==Author==