{"product_id":"avid-reader-a-life-9781250141057","title":"Avid Reader: A Life","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWinner of the Anne M. Sperber Prize\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA spirited and revealing memoir by the most celebrated editor of his time.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAfter editing \u003ci\u003eThe Columbia Review\u003c\/i\u003e, 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 \u003ci\u003eCatch-22 \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eThe American Way of Death\u003c\/i\u003e, 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 \u003ci\u003eAvid Reader\u003c\/i\u003e, Gottlieb writes with wit and candor about succeeding William Shawn as the editor of \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e, 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. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBut 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eRobert Gottlieb \u003c\/b\u003e(1931 - 2023) was a legendary book editor and writer who shaped the modern literary canon. He was editor-in-chief of Simon and Schuster, the head of Alfred A. Knopf, and editor of \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e. He contributed frequently to \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eThe New York Review of Books, \u003c\/i\u003eand the\u003ci\u003e New York Observer \u003c\/i\u003eas dance critic.\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eHis books include\u003ci\u003e Great Expectations: The Sons and Daughters of Charles Dickens, George Balanchine: The Ballet Maker, Sarah: The Life of Sarah Bernhardt, \u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eAvid Reader: A Life, \u003c\/i\u003eand a\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003ecollection of essays\u003ci\u003e Near-Death Experiences . . . and Others\u003c\/i\u003e. In 2015, he was presented with the Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. A documentary film exploring his fifty-year relationship with the writer Robert Caro, \u003ci\u003eTurn Every Page, \u003c\/i\u003e was released in 202\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Picador USA","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50707527631122,"sku":"9781250141057","price":15.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_82139901-6d57-446a-bba6-3f66aa1b99ef.jpg?v=1734497437","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/avid-reader-a-life-9781250141057","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}