When I was a third-year grad student starting work on what eventually became my book (Evangelicals Incorporated), I emailed Bill Eerdmans to ask if he'd be willing to meet with me to talk about his company's history. He agreed! 1/x https://twitter.com/heathwcarter/status/1328396528239726593

So I showed up at Eerdmans's company headquarters, and I waited expecting to meet an older guy with the vibe of an old-time fundamentalist preacher. Instead, out comes a this sort of zany and incredibly friendly man wearing a seersucker suit with polka dot tie/pocket square. 2/x

He took me to lunch with a couple of his company's most senior editors, and they regaled me with their perspectives and stories for hours. It was *not* a dry lunch. That also surprised me. 3/x

Some of those stories made it into my book (especially chapter 2). But some didn't. They told me about a bookseller who used to go to fundamentalist KJV-only communities to sell RSV bibles. Why? Didn't they reject the RSV? He explained: "They gotta buy it to burn it!" 4/x

Then, at the end of lunch, Bill Eerdmans asked if I wanted to join him for dinner. So I met him back at the same place 2 hours later. My field notes from dinner are all over the place: his sales trips through the south, tennis with George Marsden, apartheid and Kuyperianism. 5/x

But then he also told me more about his father's war with the Zondervan brothers, his part in that, and his mission to make his company more than a "Christian publisher." He was proud of the books that challenged evangelicals' theological and cultural presumptions. 6/x

Years later, I'm still full of gratitude for the generosity he showed me that day. I share all of this now not just b/c I will miss him and wanted to his memory but also b/c his passing made me think about the relationship between his personality and legacy. 7/x

He did not want his company remembered as an "evangelical publisher." Or even a "Christian publisher." He wanted his company to challenge evangelicalism's theological and cultural conventions, and also to educate and inform readers more widely. 8/x

I see a lot of that happening now, not least through the #ReligiousBio series that @heathwcarter and @KGinLum edit. So, rest well, Bill. You'll be missed. 9/9

Addendum: if you want to read more about @eerdmansbooks's earlier years, Bill Eerdmans Sr.'s feud with his nephews (the Zondervan brothers!), their branding strategies, and more, check out my book! (30% off at @Harvard_Press if you use the code HOLIDAY20.) https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674980112

Here's a beautiful and informative remembrance of Bill Eerdmans by Jon Pott, former Eerdmans editor-in-chief (whom I was honored to meet and learn from over the same lunch I describe above). https://eerdword.com/2020/11/17/jon-pott-remembers-bill-eerdmans/