| 9780374279929 |
| (hardcover) |
| 0374279926 |
Available:*
Library | Material Type | Call Number | Shelf Location | Status | Item Holds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... Old Colorado City Library | Book | 070.51092 GOTT GOTT | Biography | Searching... Unknown | Searching... Unavailable |
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Summary
Summary
Winner of the Anne M. Sperber Prize
A spirited and revealing memoir by the most celebrated editor of his time.
After editing The Columbia Review , staging plays at Cambridge, and a stint in the greeting-card department of Macy's, Robert Gottlieb stumbled into a job at Simon and Schuster. By the time he left to run Alfred A. Knopf a dozen years later, he was the editor in chief, having discovered and edited Catch-22 and The American Way of Death , among other bestsellers. At Knopf, Gottlieb edited an astonishing list of authors, including Toni Morrison, John Cheever, Doris Lessing, John le Carré, Michael Crichton, Lauren Bacall, Katharine Graham, Robert Caro, Nora Ephron, and Bill Clinton--not to mention Bruno Bettelheim and Miss Piggy. In Avid Reader , Gottlieb writes with wit and candor about succeeding William Shawn as the editor of The New Yorker , and the challenges and satisfactions of running America's preeminent magazine. Sixty years after joining Simon and Schuster, Gottlieb is still at it--editing, anthologizing, and, to his surprise, writing.
But this account of a life founded upon reading is about more than the arc of a singular career--one that also includes a lifelong involvement with the world of dance. It's about transcendent friendships and collaborations, "elective affinities" and family, psychoanalysis and Bakelite purses, the alchemical relationship between writer and editor, the glory days of publishing, and--always--the sheer exhilaration of work.
Photograph of Bob Gottlieb © by Jill Krementz
Author Notes
Robert Gottlieb (1931 - 2023) was a legendary book editor and writer who shaped the modern literary canon. He was editor-in-chief of Simon and Schuster, the head of Alfred A. Knopf, and editor of The New Yorker . He contributed frequently to The New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, and The New York Review of Books, and the New York Observer as dance critic. His books include Great Expectations: The Sons and Daughters of Charles Dickens, George Balanchine: The Ballet Maker, Sarah: The Life of Sarah Bernhardt, Avid Reader: A Life, and a collection of essays Near-Death Experiences . . . and Others . In 2015, he was presented with the Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. A documentary film exploring his fifty-year relationship with the writer Robert Caro, Turn Every Page, was released in 2022.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Gottlieb (Great Expectations: The Sons and Daughters of Charles Dickens), the former head of the Alfred A. Knopf publishing house and ex-editor of the New Yorker, looks back on his exploits taming America's literary lions in this canny, exuberant memoir. He frames his breezy, loose-limbed narrative around vignettes of his dealings with people in the publishing world and, especially, with the authors he edited, including Lauren Bacall, Robert Caro, John Cheever, Bill Clinton, Joseph Heller, and Toni Morrison. His lengthy account of his controversial 1987 takeover of the New Yorker editorship from the legendary William Shawn-outraged staffers asked him to turn it down-unfolds into a good-humored but probing inquest into the magazine's cloistered culture. Another section follows his adventures on the board of the New York City Ballet, with brilliant choreographer George Balanchine and brilliant impresario Lincoln Kirstein. Gottlieb's portraits of the literati are vivid, usually generous, and always clear-eyed (thriller writer Michael Crichton, he allows, has a knack for catchy conceits, although "what [he] wasn't was a very good writer"). Gottlieb's depictions of editing sessions really shine as he describes helping each author sculpt a book into its ideal form, and he conveys the enormous energy and creativity of American publishing. Photos. (Sept. 13) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Gottlieb's constant and eclectic reading, along with a series of flukes, delivered him to the publishing world, the ideal arena not only for his passion for books but also for his boundless energy and gift for fruitful collaborations. An exceptionally accomplished and influential editor and the author of numerous profiles (Lives and Letters, 2011) and biographies (Balanchine, Bernhardt), Gottlieb now tells his many-faceted life story with zest and precision, candor and humor, tracing his path to Simon & Schuster in 1955, and chronicling choice editorial adventures there and during his time at the helm of Knopf and the New Yorker. Gottlieb shares his heady experiences working with such literary standouts as Joseph Heller, Robert Caro, Toni Morrison, Doris Lessing, and John le Carré, and tells incisive tales of helping the famous craft their memoirs, including Bill Clinton and National Book Award-winner Lauren Bacall. Though he avers, Work is my natural state of being, clearly his longtime marriage to actor Maria Tucci and his close friendships with writers and publishing professionals, so eloquently celebrated here, have inspired and sustained him. While book lovers will revel in Gottlieb's intimate publishing revelations, his memoir is also a vital, generous, and captivating story of a life lived to the fullest.--Seaman, Donna Copyright 2016 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Turning his passion for reading and books into a distinguished career as an editor and writer, Gottlieb (Great Expectations) helped shape the American literary landscape for 60 years. In this memoir, he mixes details about his childhood and family life with colorful anecdotes of his professional achievements. Starting out and building his reputation as a hardworking editor at Simon & Schuster and then at Knopf, he was instrumental in publishing some of the most celebrated authors of the 20th century, including Joseph Heller, Toni Morrison, and John Cheever. He also spent time as editor of The New Yorker and worked with the city ballet companies of New York and Miami. Gottlieb relished the long hours of editing a manuscript and carefully fostered nurturing relationships with his authors. Yet, at the heart of his story are his relationships with loved ones and how they contributed to his life's path. VERDICT Journalism students, those interested in a publishing career, and bibliophiles alike will appreciate the warmth and humor that punctuate this fascinating story of an "avid reader" who finds joy in work and life. [See Prepub Alert, 3/14/16.]-Donna Marie Smith, Palm Beach Cty. Lib. Syst., FL © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
| Note | p. xi |
| Reading | p. 3 |
| Learning | p. 12 |
| Working: Simon and Schuster | p. 36 |
| Working: Alfred A. Knopf | p. 101 |
| Working: The New Yorker | p. 198 |
| Working: Knopf Redux | p. 237 |
| Dancing | p. 261 |
| Writing | p. 290 |
| Living | p. 306 |
| Acknowledgments | p. 325 |
| Index | p. 329 |
