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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Suzy Lucas is to be prize administrator for the newly established Literature Prize.... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-02-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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With the appointment of new executive director Andrea Vuleta in January, the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association is looking forward to the implementation of changes that will strengthen and rejuvenate the regional association. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-02-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Indian writer Jeet Thayil has won the third DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, worth $50,000,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-01-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Libraries are 'important' to their communities, say 91 percent of Americans in a Pew survey, but they need more ebooks and more programs for children. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2013-01-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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As the world is being set up to facilitate frictionless commercial transactions between diverse cultures, is literary fiction losing its role? Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-01-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Nearly a quarter of Americans have read ebooks in the past year, with the number of... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-12-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Time Inc. has named Martha Nelson as editor-in-chief of the media company. The company said Tuesday that Ms. Nelson is the first woman in the company's 90-year history to hold the role. She has worked for Time Inc. for 20 years and has been editorial director since 2010. She will assume the top... Continue reading at Crains New York
[ Crains New York | 2012-12-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The cry has gone out that publishers need to engage more with readers. Who is the right person for the job? Editors? Marketers? Or should it be the authors? Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2012-12-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Canadians have had to be content with a form of Kindle Store limbo until now. They could buy Kindle ebooks, but they've had to rely on a US-centric portal that scarcely acknowledges their literary tradition. As of this weekend, they don't have to cross the virtual border: Amazon Canada now has... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2012-12-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Literature Prize, the book prize founded by Aitken Alexander m.d. and agent Andrew Kidd, has... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-12-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Literature organisations in the North East have said they face difficult times with a combination... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-11-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Doris Janhsen, publishing director of Germany's Verlag Friedrich Oetinger, predicts that we'll see fewer vampires and zombies in forthcoming YA and teen books. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2012-11-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Design wunderkind Scott Dadich, whose low-budget side project for Wired’s digital edition ended up becoming the template for all of Condé Nast’s tablet strategy, is returning to the magazine as its editor in chief, the company announced today. Dadich served as creative director of Wired from... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2012-11-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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CHARLOTTE, N.C., Nov. 16, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- American City Business Journals, the nation's largest print and online publisher of local business news, has acquired Streetwise Media, a Boston-based digital media company that uses a community ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2012-11-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Audit Bureau of Circulations in the US has become the first member of IFABC to change its name in an attempt to better reflect the changes sweeping across the publishing business in the digital age, opting for the Alliance for Audited Media. Continue reading at Media Week
[ Media Week | 2012-11-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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AA Publishing has moved quickly to correct the digital version of its book Landscape Photographer... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-11-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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According to a study released recently by the Pew Research Center, 60% of Americans aged 16-29 still use their public library, and 83% read a book in the past year. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2012-11-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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iDevice owners in New Zealand and 17 Latin American countries are no longer restricted to a diet composed of free content when it comes to their respective iBookstores. A quick search of the storefronts will reveal virtual shelves stocked with paid-content that haven't yet found their way to the... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2012-10-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Pan Macmillan has acquired two novels by Channel 4 News culture editor Matthew Cain, with the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-10-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Looking ahead to Finland's turn as Guest of Honor at the Frankfurt Book Fair, lit organization FILI is offering translation support to international publishers. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2012-10-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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