The longtime editor, whose most recent stint was with Berkley Books, died suddenly over the weekend. Publishers Lunch reports that the funeral will be held tomorrow at Campbell's on 81 Street and Madision at 1:30 PM. A paid announcement in today's NYT notes that "with the same gentleness and understanding with which she guided the young of her family, she helped writers become authors over her 50 years as one of the first women in publishing."

Nevler got her start in publishing in the early 1950s with Little, Brown, moving over in 1955 to Fawcett Publications (home of the Gold Medal Paperbacks) where she took over as associate editor from Rona Jaffe. Working for publisher Julian Messner, Nevler edited many books as she rose through the ranks at Fawcett (becoming chief of the house in 1981, though her tenure there only lasted a few months) because of her knack for finding books from the slush pile that would sell millions -- like Grace Metalious' PEYTON PLACE.

Over the years, Nevler edited many other notable writers, including John D. MacDonald, Anne Perry, Susan Howatch and Jimmy Buffett, and most recently edited work by Sara Donati and Elizabeth Letts.

It is, to say the least, a great loss for the publishing industry.