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 ]
One avid reader on why being taken to the bookstore is way more anxiety-producing than it is enjoyable. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2021-07-20 10:32:00 UTC ]
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All Seasons Press, started by former executives from Simon & Schuster and Hachette, plans to publish books by the former Trump officials Mark Meadows and Peter Navarro. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-06-15 22:28:39 UTC ]
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When Sean Spicer was given prime billing at BookExpo America and Milo Yiannopoulos tried to publish a book with Simon & Schuster, I churned out 40 pages of text about free speech, white supremacy, and independent bookstores over the next several months, returning to it now and then as a... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-05-27 08:54:54 UTC ]
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Simon & Schuster is to publish The Language of Food, a "remarkable" historical novel by Annabel Abbs. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-05-24 11:49:18 UTC ]
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Air Miles has been illustrated by his wife Helen Oxenbury and finished by Bill Salaman, friend of the author who died in 2019The final picture book from the late, much-loved children’s author John Burningham – in which “difficult dog” Miles goes on one final journey – has been completed by his... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-05-15 06:00:18 UTC ]
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Sales and profits rose in the first quarter of 2021 over the comparable period in 2020 at Simon & Schuster, led by double-digit gains in its international and audio divisions. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-05-06 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Petition signed by more than 200 Simon & Schuster employees delivered to publishing house also calls for end to deals with members of Trump administrationMore than 200 members of staff at Simon & Schuster have signed a petition calling for the publishing house to cancel its seven-figure... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-04-27 13:55:17 UTC ]
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Canada’s government has said almost nothing about whether or not it is going to move against the Canadian portion of Penguin Random House’s acquisition of Simon & Schuster. The global deal is being investigated by regulators in the UK and US. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-04-23 20:08:07 UTC ]
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Simon & Schuster president Jonathan Karp says seven-figure book deal will go ahead, after open letter from employees accuses publisher of being ‘on the wrong side of justice’Simon & Schuster has said it will not pull out of a seven-figure book deal with Mike Pence after some of its... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-04-21 12:05:44 UTC ]
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Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, one of the officers involved in the fatal shooting, has a book deal with a small press, but its distributor, Simon & Schuster, in an unusual move, said it won’t ship it. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-04-16 22:14:05 UTC ]
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Simon & Schuster will not distribute a book by Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, one of two Louisville, Ky., police officers that shot six bullets that killed Breonna Taylor. The book's publisher, Post Hill Press, is a distribution client of S&S. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-04-16 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Today, April 9th, marks the fifty-eight publication anniversary of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are. Perhaps the most beloved children’s book of the latter half of the 20th century, Sendak’s gorgeously-illustrated tale of a young boy in a wolf suit who, upon being sent to bed with no... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-04-09 16:58:23 UTC ]
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Only three months after the high-profile merger of Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster, The New York Times reported earlier this morning that HarperCollins, one of publishing’s “Big Five,” will acquire Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books and Media—Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s trade... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-03-29 14:25:08 UTC ]
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Analysis: if Bertelsmann, owner of Penguin Random House, buys US publisher, writers expect smaller deals and less choice for readersUK watchdog investigates Penguin owner’s Simon & Schuster takeoverJokes circulated online when, in 2013, Penguin and Random House merged: would the new... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-03-22 23:24:23 UTC ]
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CMA says it is considering whether Penguin Random House’s $2bn deal would lessen competitionAuthors fear the worst if Bertelsmann takes over Simon & SchusterThe UK competition watchdog has launched an investigation into Penguin Random House’s $2bn (£1.45bn) takeover of Simon & Schuster,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-03-22 09:00:30 UTC ]
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The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has launched a merger investigation into Penguin Random House owner Bertelsmann's acquisition of Simon & Schuster. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-03-21 18:05:27 UTC ]
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Simon & Schuster is to publish James Dyson's memoir, Invention: A Life, in September 2021. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-03-05 01:52:40 UTC ]
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Sales at Simon & Schuster came in at an all time high in 2020 at $901m, ViacomCBS has reported. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-26 10:10:34 UTC ]
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The merger of Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster has the potential to touch every part of the industry, including how much authors get paid and how bookstores are run. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-02-25 10:00:22 UTC ]
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As the age-old advice goes, “Write what you know.” For Hillary Clinton, apparently this means pivoting from writing dense memoirs about “hard choices” and nonfiction books about women’s empowerment to . . . political fan fiction thinly disguised as a legal thriller? Simon & Schuster has... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-02-23 16:42:52 UTC ]
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