Terry Moore, who has died of cancer at the age of 51, was an academic publisher of rare talent and international reputation. Working in the New York office of Cambridge University Press (CUP) as senior commissioning editor for philosophy, he built a list that was unrivalled alike for its intellectual breadth and academic distinction.
Born in south London, he was educated at Dulwich College, from where, in 1972, he won a scholarship to St John's College, Cambridge. After gaining a first in English and teaching for a year in Germany, he returned to Cambridge in 1976 to take up a position with CUP, which astutely identified him as one of a new generation of entrepreneurial editors needed to modernise and expand the business.
Working primarily on the English and European literature lists, he was particularly well suited to the emerging field of literary theory, and published a number of pioneering works by leading critics of the time. In 1986, he was invited to take over the philosophy desk in New York.
Recognising that he would need rapidly to acquire a serious understanding of the history of western philosophy, he set about studying it with dedication and single-minded energy. His success in building the single most distinguished academic philosophy list of the next 15 years sprang from a profound understanding of the discipline, a consummate expertise in the business of publishing, and the warmest and most engaging of personalities.
The star names liked publishing with Moore, because they liked him personally as much as they respected his judgment, and he also cultivated talented younger scholars. He signed up many of his most important projects over a good meal - occasions on which he might seem to be more appreciative of the wine than of the author's proposal, and as likely to allude to Manchester United as to Wittgenstein.
Alongside one-off books by many of the most prominent philosophers of the period, such as Bernard Williams, Onora O'Neill, Martha Nussbaum, Richard Rorty and John Elster, Moore established a groundbreaking cross-disciplinary research series on philosophy and biology and philosophy and law. He developed the bestselling Cambridge Philosophy Companions series; commissioned major biographies of figures such as Kant, Hegel, Spinoza and Nietzsche; and published an extraordinary range of books on contemporary philosophy and contemporary ethical issues such as abortion, euthanasia and capital punishment.
Though an instinctively courteous and gentle man, Moore had a dry wit that was legendary among his colleagues, as was his propensity to be implacably stubborn over matters of principle. Some felt email was invented to afford him a medium better to exploit the telegraphic terseness of his natural style. His sense of humour could be mischievous, but was always sympathetic and self-deprecating, and he was hugely popular throughout the academic and publishing communities. His love of European culture was merged with frequent travels to France and Italy, in particular to the island of Ischia.
Three years ago, metastatic bowel cancer was diagnosed. Moore courageously undertook gruelling regimens of both conventional and experimental treatments, and with the devoted support of his wife Erika he continued to work despite the increasingly debilitating treatment side-effects. As if by a determined act of will, his intellectual vigour and intellectual curiosity remained undiminished: during the last two years of his life, he commissioned more books than ever before, while right to the end he read philosophical texts and commentaries voraciously. His love of classical music appeared to add to his inner strength.
One tribute described Terry Moore as "the dean of philosophy editors", and that is how friends, colleagues and authors will fondly remember him.
He is survived by his wife and son Hal.
·Terence William Moore, publisher, born January 2 1953; died July 8 2004
