Robert Gottlieb: the editor who changed American literature

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 ]
News tagged with: #avid reader #simon schuster #20th century

Other Publishing stories related to: 'Robert Gottlieb: the editor who changed American literature'


Robert Gottlieb: the editor who changed American literature

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 ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #avid reader #simon schuster #20th century


Legendary Knopf Editor Robert Gottlieb Dies at 92

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 ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #american letters


José Donoso Saw the Future of Latin American Literature

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 ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #american readers #american literature


How Has Big Publishing Changed American Fiction?

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 ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #book argues #corporate publishing #big publishing


WLT to Host “Indigenous Literatures of the Americas” Event at Green Feather Books, by The Editors of WLT

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 ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #book signing #book signings #september issue


Reading Robert McCloskey’s Maine Trilogy as an Antidote to Climate Change Despair

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 ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #picture books


Robert Gottlieb obituary

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 ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #anthony burgess #ray bradbury #charles portis #john lennon #bob dylan #robert caro #power broker #american politics #novelists #literary editor


Remembering Cormac McCarthy and Robert Gottlieb

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 ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #robert gottlieb #book review #literary world


Cormac McCarthy, bleak and brutal titan of American literature, dead at 89

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 ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #cormac mccarthy #american literature #cbc news #prize-winning author


Here are the guest editors (and covers!) for the Best American Series 2023.

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 ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #guest editors #american series #short fiction #nature writing #food writing #short stories


2023 Walter Dean Myers Awards: Life Changing Literature and Book Bans

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 ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #book bans #hybrid event


Lockdown in Literature, by The Editors of WLT

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 ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #random house #pulitzer prize #feminist press #bookshop #independent bookstore


“Just Go Back to the Work.” Filmmaker Lizzie Gottlieb on Documenting the Remarkable Partnership Between Her Father and Robert Caro

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 ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #robert caro #bring people #book editor


Robert Pinsky on the Distinctly American Tradition of Improvisation

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 ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #robert pinsky #two-day event #small group #independent booksellers #book fair


Here are the guest editors for the Best American Series 2022.

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 ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #guest editors #american series #short fiction #travel writing #food writing #short stories


Some of the Most Influential Asian American Literature of All Time

Get to know some of the most influential Asian American literature of all time, including Dictee. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2022-05-06 10:33:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #american literature


How Los Angeles transformed American literature

L.A.'s authors, from 19th century novelists to Wanda Coleman to Steph Cha, have always pushed genre boundaries and dissected California myths. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2022-04-14 13:00:55 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #wanda coleman #steph cha #novelists


Robert Bly, towering American poet, dies at 94

He distilled the passions of the antiwar movement into poetry during the Vietnam War and later, with his bestselling book "Iron John," awakened a movement of men in search of deeper masculinity. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2021-11-24 03:56:49 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #robert bly #vietnam war #iron john #bestselling book


10 years of the Stella: how Australia’s women’s writing prize changed a nation’s literature

Publishers speak of the profound effect the prize has had on Australia’s book industry in the decade since its establishmentOn International Women’s Day in 2011, a group of Australian women writers and editors appeared at a literary salon and spoke about their frustration at the male-dominated... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2021-10-07 01:56:57 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #australian literature #publishers speak #profound effect #literary salon #male authors #gender disparity #miles franklin #literary landscape #book industry


Three Short Works of Literature That Can Inspire You to Fight Climate Change

Libia Brenda, Hannah Onoguwe, and Vandana Singh recommend two short stories and a poem that can help you think differently about climate change. Continue reading at Slate

[ Slate | 2021-08-27 13:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #short works #climate change #short stories