David Whitaker

David Haddon Whitaker (died 4 August 2021) was a British book publisher. A direct descendant of Joseph Whitaker, he joined the family firm, J. Whitaker & Sons, in 1956. Whitaker became involved with the development of Standard Book Numbers, the precursor to the ISBN, in the 1960s. Whitaker's firm was well placed to drive the standard as it published records of all books published in the United Kingdom. The SBN was expanded internationally from 1968 and Whitaker, who is sometimes known as "the father of the ISBN", played a key role in this. He chaired the first International Organization for Standardization (ISO) working group on the ISBN and helped draft ISO standard 2108.

Whitaker served as editor of trade magazine The Bookseller from 1977 to 1979. In this role he favoured stories on women in the industry, to encourage them in what was a male-dominated workplace. Whitaker afterwards became managing director, and then chairman, of J. Whitaker & Sons. He improved the firm's coverage of book sale figures to meet a market need and developed the TeleOrdering system that was used widely for book ordering in pre-Internet times. Whitaker was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1991 Birthday Honours. He supported campaigns against the introduction of value-added tax on books and in support of the Public Lending Right and also founded trade organisations.

Early career David Haddon Whitaker joined J. Whitaker & Sons, a publisher known for producing The Bookseller and Whitaker's Almanack and for their lists of upcoming books to be published in the United Kingdom. Before the introduction of identification numbers it was difficult to track individual editions of books.

The catalyst for the development of Standard Book Numbers (SBNs) was the establishment of a computerised warehouse facility by major bookseller WHSmith. Professor Gordon Foster of the London School of Economics was commissioned to devise a book numbering system, which became the SBN. Whitaker proposed that his firm embed the number in their book lists to make the SBN "as much a part of the book as the name of the author and title". Whitaker said that his firm was the only one that could have introduced standard book numbering as it published records of all books in the UK and was willing to publish lists of those coming out in the next six months.

Whitaker later became managing director, and then chairman, of J. Whitaker & Sons. At the firm he improved the coverage of book sale figures, in line with a desire by the industry for detail on how many books were sold to the public. Previously firms only knew how many they had sold to booksellers and, with no idea how well they sold in shops, were often shocked to receive quantities of unsold books as returns. Whitaker retired from the family firm in 1997, following a disagreement, he was succeeded as chairman by his son, Martin. The firm was sold to the Dutch company Verenigde Nederlandse Uitgeverijen in 1999.