The man who ushered classics like Catch-22 into the world, Gottlieb has reason to brag. But in his new memoir Avid Reader he prefers to downplay the editor’s role Joseph Heller, the author of Catch-22, once gave an interview where he credited his editor with kicking his work into shape. After the interview ran, Heller got an irritated phone call. The caller was his editor, Robert Gottlieb. Gottlieb told Heller to knock it off. “I felt then, and still do, that readers shouldn’t be made aware of editorial interventions,” Gottlieb writes in his new memoir, Avid Reader: A Life. “They have a right to feel that what they’re reading comes direct from the author to them.”Gottlieb’s book is full of stories like that one. He is a very unassuming person, for an alleged legend – a characterization he laughs at to me, saying his daughter pokes fun at him for so often being called it. Yet beginning at Simon & Schuster in the 1950s and 1960s, flourishing at Knopf in the 1970s and 1980s, and with a brief but memorable detour to the New Yorker (as an editor), Gottlieb’s editing pen has touched the manuscripts of most of the important American writers of the 20th century – and several of the British ones, too. He did it, though, as much from behind the scenes as he possibly could. “I’ve given very few interviews,” he told me when I met him at his book-lined townhouse on New York’s East Side. He is only giving this one now, he says, because he needs to help the publisher sell his book. ... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2016-09-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The man who ushered classics like Catch-22 into the world, Gottlieb has reason to brag. But in his new memoir Avid Reader he prefers to downplay the editor’s role Joseph Heller, the author of Catch-22, once gave an interview where he credited his editor with kicking his work into shape. After... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2016-09-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Knopf executive v-p and publisher Reagan Arthur said it would be hard to name an editor who had a more lasting and profound impact on American letters than Gottlieb: "He had a vision not just for what worked on the page, but what worked in the marketplace." Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-06-14 04:00:00 UTC ]
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My first personal encounter with the rarest book in American literature was memorable, even moving, for many reasons, but its physical appearance wasn’t one of them. If ever a book ought not to be judged by its cover, Edgar Allan Poe’s debut collection, Tamerlane and Other Poems, is that book.... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-06-25 08:56:56 UTC ]
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The Best American Series is a literary institution. But just in case you’re stumbling upon it for the first time: Each book in the annual series showcases of best short fiction and nonfiction in a given year, from short stories to essays, science and nature writing, to food writing. Each... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-06-11 14:00:24 UTC ]
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Two top editors at Penguin Random House are leaving as the country’s leading trading publisher continues to transform during a period of uncertain revenues and generational change Continue reading at ABC News
[ ABC News | 2024-05-21 00:54:12 UTC ]
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World Literature Today Announces 2024 Student Translation Prize Winners, by the Editors of WLT News and Events [email protected] Tue, 05/14/2024 - 16:27 Lucy Coleman and Madeline Jones, winners of the 2024 Student Translation PrizesWorld Literature... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2024-05-14 21:27:38 UTC ]
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Daniel Noboa, the president of Ecuador, might have saved himself a lot of trouble, if he had only read more Latin American literature. Perhaps he would not have ordered the police to storm the Mexican embassy to arrest former Vice President Jorge Glas, who had been granted asylum there. That... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-05-06 08:58:43 UTC ]
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American readers have largely forgotten the single greatest writer to come from the Latin American Boom: Chilean novelist José Donoso. The post José Donoso Saw the Future of Latin American Literature appeared first on The Millions. Continue reading at The Millions
[ The Millions | 2023-11-21 12:00:00 UTC ]
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A new book argues that corporate publishing has transformed what it means to be an author. Continue reading at New Yorker
[ New Yorker | 2023-11-01 10:00:00 UTC ]
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WLT to Host “Indigenous Literatures of the Americas” Event at Green Feather Books, by The Editors of WLT News and Events [email protected] Mon, 08/28/2023 - 15:10 World Literature Today, the University of Oklahoma’s award-winning magazine of... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2023-08-28 20:10:58 UTC ]
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In 1948, Viking Books published Blueberries for Sal, the first of three picture books that Robert McCloskey would write and illustrate over the next decade. Each of the three books—including One Morning in Maine (1952) and Time of Wonder (1957)—concerns McCloskey’s own family as they spend their... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-08-16 09:30:52 UTC ]
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American editor who worked with many celebrated authors including Anthony Burgess, Doris Lessing and Joseph HellerRobert Gottlieb, who has died age 92, was the outstanding literary editor of the second half of the 20th century. Among the renowned novelists he worked with were Doris Lessing, Toni... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-06-26 16:14:17 UTC ]
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Two giants of the literary world died last week. In this episode, the Book Review celebrates their lives. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2023-06-23 22:11:22 UTC ]
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Pulitzer Prize-winning author Cormac McCarthy, who wrote nihilistic and violent tales of the American frontier and post-apocalyptic worlds that enthralled and appalled readers, died on Tuesday at the age of 89, his representative confirmed to CBC... Continue reading at CBC
[ CBC | 2023-06-13 20:01:40 UTC ]
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Do you like the Best American series? Of course you do! Each book in the annual series showcases of best short fiction and nonfiction in a given year, from short stories to essays, science and nature writing, to food writing. Each volume’s series editor selects notable works from hundreds of... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-05-16 15:00:45 UTC ]
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The eighth annual Walter Awards Ceremony and Symposium took place as a hybrid event at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Washington, D.C., and online on March 17. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-03-21 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Lockdown in Literature, by The Editors of WLT Lit Lists [email protected] Mon, 03/20/2023 - 14:39 Photo by Jens Maes / Unsplash There has been plenty of handwringing among some over whether it’s too soon to write pandemic literature, but these... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2023-03-20 19:39:01 UTC ]
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When director Lizzie Gottlieb set out to explore the remarkable partnership between her father, celebrated book editor Robert Gottlieb, and the preeminent political biographer Robert Caro for her new documentary Turn Every Page, she knew being impartial was not only impossible, it was beside the... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-01-23 09:58:01 UTC ]
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The Miami Book Fair began as a two-day event in November 1984, when a small group of determined individuals—including educators from Miami Dade College, independent booksellers, and librarians—founded Miami Book Fair International. In the nearly 40 years since, Miami Book Fair has grown into one... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-11-21 09:59:45 UTC ]
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Do you like the Best American series? Of course you do! Each book in the annual series showcases of best short fiction and nonfiction in a given year, from short stories to essays, travel writing, to food writing. Each volume’s series editor selects notable works from hundreds of magazines,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-06-06 14:51:57 UTC ]
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