Avid Reader

A Life

Business & Finance, Industries & Professions, Industries, Biography & Memoir, Literary
Cover of the book Avid Reader by Robert Gottlieb, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Robert Gottlieb ISBN: 9780374713904
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Publication: September 13, 2016
Imprint: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Language: English
Author: Robert Gottlieb
ISBN: 9780374713904
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication: September 13, 2016
Imprint: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Language: English

A spirited and revealing memoir by the most celebrated editor of his time

After editing The Columbia Review, staging plays at Cambridge, and a stint in the greeting-card department of Macy's, Robert Gottlieb stumbled into a job at Simon and Schuster. By the time he left to run Alfred A. Knopf a dozen years later, he was the editor in chief, having discovered and edited Catch-22 and The American Way of Death, among other bestsellers. At Knopf, Gottlieb edited an astonishing list of authors, including Toni Morrison, John Cheever, Doris Lessing, John le Carré, Michael Crichton, Lauren Bacall, Katharine Graham, Robert Caro, Nora Ephron, and Bill Clinton--not to mention Bruno Bettelheim and Miss Piggy. In Avid Reader, Gottlieb writes with wit and candor about succeeding William Shawn as the editor of The New Yorker, and the challenges and satisfactions of running America's preeminent magazine. Sixty years after joining Simon and Schuster, Gottlieb is still at it--editing, anthologizing, and, to his surprise, writing.

But this account of a life founded upon reading is about more than the arc of a singular career--one that also includes a lifelong involvement with the world of dance. It's about transcendent friendships and collaborations, "elective affinities" and family, psychoanalysis and Bakelite purses, the alchemical relationship between writer and editor, the glory days of publishing, and--always--the sheer exhilaration of work.

Photograph of Bob Gottlieb © by Jill Krementz

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

A spirited and revealing memoir by the most celebrated editor of his time

After editing The Columbia Review, staging plays at Cambridge, and a stint in the greeting-card department of Macy's, Robert Gottlieb stumbled into a job at Simon and Schuster. By the time he left to run Alfred A. Knopf a dozen years later, he was the editor in chief, having discovered and edited Catch-22 and The American Way of Death, among other bestsellers. At Knopf, Gottlieb edited an astonishing list of authors, including Toni Morrison, John Cheever, Doris Lessing, John le Carré, Michael Crichton, Lauren Bacall, Katharine Graham, Robert Caro, Nora Ephron, and Bill Clinton--not to mention Bruno Bettelheim and Miss Piggy. In Avid Reader, Gottlieb writes with wit and candor about succeeding William Shawn as the editor of The New Yorker, and the challenges and satisfactions of running America's preeminent magazine. Sixty years after joining Simon and Schuster, Gottlieb is still at it--editing, anthologizing, and, to his surprise, writing.

But this account of a life founded upon reading is about more than the arc of a singular career--one that also includes a lifelong involvement with the world of dance. It's about transcendent friendships and collaborations, "elective affinities" and family, psychoanalysis and Bakelite purses, the alchemical relationship between writer and editor, the glory days of publishing, and--always--the sheer exhilaration of work.

Photograph of Bob Gottlieb © by Jill Krementz

More books from Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Cover of the book Ark of the Liberties by Robert Gottlieb
Cover of the book The Great Funk by Robert Gottlieb
Cover of the book Ways of Going Home by Robert Gottlieb
Cover of the book Ticknor by Robert Gottlieb
Cover of the book The Boys Who Challenged Hitler by Robert Gottlieb
Cover of the book Disgruntled by Robert Gottlieb
Cover of the book All That Was by Robert Gottlieb
Cover of the book Hour of the Red God by Robert Gottlieb
Cover of the book The Not Very Merry Pout-Pout Fish by Robert Gottlieb
Cover of the book The Atlantic Tunnel by Robert Gottlieb
Cover of the book How to Build a Snow Bear by Robert Gottlieb
Cover of the book Unremembered: Chapters 1-5 by Robert Gottlieb
Cover of the book Labor Day: True Birth Stories by Today's Best Women Writers by Robert Gottlieb
Cover of the book Delusions, Etc. by Robert Gottlieb
Cover of the book The Dream Songs by Robert Gottlieb
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy