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

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Trying to Teach English Literature in the Wake of Mao’s Cultural Revolution

My assignment was to offer a survey course on the history of English literature in northeast China. I was paired with a young American teacher sponsored by the United Nations who was to teach phonetics and oral expression. We taught six days a week, and every Wednesday afternoon our students... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2021-01-15 09:49:40 UTC ]
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Yinka, where is your editor? Part 3

Debut author of Yinka Where is Your Huzband, Lizzie Damilola Blackburn, and her editor Katy Loftus at Penguin, dish the dirt on the reality behind the dream of being published. Read the previous part here. THE AUTHOR: LIZZIE DAMILOLA BLACKBURN My phone buzzed. My heart thudded. I had just... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2021-01-15 09:13:55 UTC ]
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UK: Welbeck Acquires Australian Illustrator Robert Ingpen’s Backlist

en titles from illustrator Robert Ingpen now form the basis of a new UK children's book publishing imprint, Welbeck Children's Classics. The post UK: Welbeck Acquires Australian Illustrator Robert Ingpen’s Backlist appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2021-01-14 17:48:52 UTC ]
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Our Lies: Jenny Offill and James Plath on Conspiracy Theories in History and Literature

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[ Literrary Hub | 2021-01-14 09:49:01 UTC ]
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Forced into camps, Japanese Americans found respite in football

In “The Eagles of Heart Mountain,” Bradford Pearson provides a compelling and necessary history of Japanese American incarceration in World War II. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2021-01-13 16:04:01 UTC ]
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Forced into camps, Japanese Americans found respite in football

In “The Eagles of Heart Mountain,” Bradford Pearson provides a compelling and necessary history of Japanese American incarceration in World War II. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2021-01-13 16:04:01 UTC ]
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Eric Jerome Dickey, best-selling African American novelist, dies at 59

Described as ‘one of the few kings of popular African-American fiction for women,’ he wrote 29 books that together sold more than 7 million copies. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2021-01-06 13:20:32 UTC ]
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What does climate change look like? Twelve photographers force us to confront reality.

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[ The Washington Post | 2021-01-05 13:00:00 UTC ]
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African Literature and Digital Culture

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[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2021-01-04 18:00:58 UTC ]
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American Savior by Roland Merullo, Read by Dion Graham

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[ Literrary Hub | 2021-01-01 09:00:28 UTC ]
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College Admissions Fiction and the Asian American Teen Imaginary

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[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-12-26 16:00:45 UTC ]
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Pushing the bounds of form in ‘The Glorious American Essay’

Phillip Lopate's choices for this fine anthology may stretch the parameters of an essay, but he's made distinctive and evocative selections. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2020-12-23 21:36:26 UTC ]
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Pushing the bounds of form in ‘The Glorious American Essay’

Phillip Lopate's choices for this fine anthology may stretch the parameters of an essay, but he's made distinctive and evocative selections. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2020-12-23 21:36:26 UTC ]
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Pushing the bounds of form in ‘The Glorious American Essay’

Phillip Lopate's choices for this fine anthology may stretch the parameters of an essay, but he's made distinctive and evocative selections. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2020-12-23 21:36:26 UTC ]
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The virus isn’t transforming us. It’s speeding up the changes already underway.

The accelerating shifts, often for the worse, in digital life, inequality, foreign policy and other realms. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-12-18 14:22:16 UTC ]
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World Literature Today’s 75 Notable Translations of 2020, by Michelle Johnson

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[ World Literature Today | 2020-12-14 20:55:17 UTC ]
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Ben Bova, Science Fiction Editor and Author, Is Dead at 88

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[ The New York Times | 2020-12-14 19:27:29 UTC ]
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John le Carré, who lifted the spy novel to literature, dies at 89

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[ The Washington Post | 2020-12-13 10:56:56 UTC ]
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Year-End Changes: PRH Canada Separates Knopf and Random House

CEO Kristin Cochrane retains Anne Collins while moving Martha Kanya-Forstner to lead Knopf Canada and bringing in Sue Kuruvilla for RH Canada. The post Year-End Changes: PRH Canada Separates Knopf and Random House appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2020-12-09 21:22:13 UTC ]
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