Tony Beal, who has died aged 78, was a publishing all-rounder - an increasingly rare breed in a trade characterised these days by ever larger and more complex organisations. A literary scholar and author, he was an expert editor and administrator, whose successs included Heinemann's African Writers series and the New Windmill school editions of accessible classics.
Beal was ideally suited to play a major role in the development of Heinemann Educational Books (HEB), which, in the 20 years from the 1950s to the 1970s, grew from a small list into the leading educational publisher in the UK and a big player in the educational markets of the Commonwealth.
Born in Edgware, north London, and educated at Haberdashers' Aske's School in Hampstead, Beal won a scholarship to read English at Downing College, Cambridge, where he was befriended by the great FR Leavis. His studies were interrupted in 1943 by naval service as a sub-lieutenant, mainly in the far east, but after the war he completed his degree, taking first-class honours, and became a lecturer in English at Eastbourne Training College.
Within a couple of years, he was recruited by the incomparable publishing talent-spotter Alan Hill to join the then modest educational department of William Heinemann, soon to become a separate company in the Heinemann group. As Hill's lieutenant, Beal was the anchorman: he supervised the rapid growth of the enterprise, as the handful of titles published each year became hundreds.
Always he ensured that staff understood their roles and performed effectively, that print buying was cost- effective, that new titles appeared on schedule and that the back list was well managed. The company increasingly spawned subsidiaries around the world, and Beal was responsible for their supervision, notably in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa, where the seminal African Writers series published many banned authors, including Nelson Mandela.
As the company expanded, and its organisation became more sophisticated, Beal successively assumed the roles of deputy managing director, managing director and, after Hill's retirement, chairman, with a seat on the board of the Heinemann Publishers Group. Yet still he found time to serve the trade's wider interests, being a most effective chairman of the Educational Publishers' Council and fighting to ensure that schools had the money to buy the books they needed.
Nor did senior management responsibilities distract him from his first loves, English language and literature. He had been introduced to Heinemann by the distinguished poet, critic and literary educator James Reeves, a colleague at Eastbourne College, with whom Beal established a fruitful publishing rapport.
Together, they produced a stream of anthologies and works of literary criticism, notably Reeves's bestselling The Poet's World. Encouraged by Beal, Robert Gittings, one of his supervisers at Cambridge, brought two major biographies - of John Keats and Thomas Hardy - to HEB, despite the blandishments of other publishers with arguably more appropriate lists. In collaboration with his accomplished edit-orial director Keith Nettle, Beal applied an expert and intelligent appreciation of authors to construct the firm's distinguished English literature list.
His own areas of particular interest were Shakespeare, Hardy, Joyce and, especially, DH Lawrence, about whom two books stand to his personal credit: DH Lawrence, Selected Literary Criticism (1956) and Lawrence, A Biography And Critical Commentary (1961).
Probably HEB's most far-reaching influence on English teaching in schools was the New Windmill series, devised by Anne and Ian Serraillier and developed so creatively by Beal. The idea was simple: hitherto, the curriculum and examination syllabuses had been dominated by 19th-century classics - not the best diet to engender an enthusiasm for reading in most children.
In contrast, the HEB series comprised attractive school editions of novels of more popular appeal - though always of first-class quality in their own right - across a wide range of genres, from C Day Lewis's The Otterbury Incident and Erskine Childers's The Riddle Of The Sands to works by Lawrence and Chinua Achebe. Scores of imitators followed, but the series remains pre-eminent. Beal's creative publishing liaison with the Serrailliers lasted until his retirement in 1985.
As a colleague, Tony was a mentor to younger staff (including the author of this piece), and he became a good friend to many. With a fine eye for detail, he gave wise advice and corrected errors in the kindliest manner - often with an amused laugh. He was a witty conversationalist and a central part of a famously happy publishing house.
His first wife Rosemary died in 1989. He is survived by their three daughters, and by his second wife, Carmen.
· Anthony Ridley Beal, publisher, born February 28 1925; died October 29 2003
