Publisher Ann Godoff, who helped shape modern American book culture and launched many bestsellers, has died at age 76.

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Alice Mayhew, the celebrated and influential editor of political and historical works whose authors ranged from Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein to Taylor Branch and Doris Kearns Goodwin, died Tuesday at age 87. Simon & Schuster, which she joined in 1971, announced that she died “peacefully” at her home in Manhattan. Her death came days after the loss of another Simon & Schuster institution, novelist Mary Higgins Clark, who died last week. In a telephone interview Tuesday, Woodward told The Associated Press that he and Mayhew last spoke about 10 days ago. '”Along with her many successes, Mayhew was involved with publications that were challenged and even withdrawn.