Robert Allan Caro (born October 30, 1935) is an American journalist and author known for his biographies of United States political figures

Robert Moses Robert Moses (December 18, 1888 – July 29, 1981) was an American urban planner and public official who worked in the New York metropolitan area during the early to mid-20th century. Moses is regarded as one of the most powerful and influentia ...

and

Lyndon Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), also known as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States, serving from 1963 to 1969. He became president after assassination of John F. Kennedy, the assassination of John F. Ken ...

. After working for many years as a reporter, Caro wrote ''

The Power Broker ''The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York'' is a 1974 biography of Robert Moses by Robert Caro. The book focuses on the creation and use of power in New York politics of New York City, local and Politics of New York (state), sta ...

'' (1974), a biography of New York urban planner Robert Moses, which was chosen by the

Modern Library The Modern Library is an American book publishing Imprint (trade name), imprint and formerly the parent company of Random House. Founded in 1917 by Albert Boni and Horace Liveright as an imprint of their publishing company Boni & Liveright, Moder ...

as one of the hundred greatest nonfiction books of the twentieth century. He has since written four of a planned five volumes of '' The Years of Lyndon Johnson'' (1982, 1990, 2002, 2012), a biography of the former president. Caro has been described as "the most influential biographer of the last century". For his biographies, Caro has won two Pulitzer Prizes in Biography, two

National Book Award The National Book Awards (NBA) are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. ...

s (including one for Lifetime Achievement), the

Francis Parkman Prize The Francis Parkman Prize, named after Francis Parkman, is awarded by the Society of American Historians for the best book in American history each year. Its purpose is to promote literary distinction in historical writing. The Society of Ameri ...

, three

National Book Critics Circle Award The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".Texas Institute of Letters, the D. B. Hardeman Prize, and a Gold Medal in Biography from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2010 President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

awarded Caro the National Humanities Medal. Due to Caro's reputation for exhaustive research and detail, he is sometimes invoked by reviewers of other writers who are called "Caro-esque" for their own extensive research.

Life and career

Caro was born in New York City, the son of Jewish parents Celia (née Mendelow), born in New York, and Benjamin Caro, born in

Warsaw, Poland Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at 1.86 million residents within a grea ...

. He grew up on

Central Park West Eighth Avenue is a major north–south avenue on the west side of Manhattan in New York City, carrying northbound traffic below 59th Street. It is one of the original avenues of the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 to run the length of Manhattan, ...

at 94th Street. His father, a businessman, spoke

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

as well as English, but he did not speak either very often. He was "very silent," Caro said, and became more so after Caro's mother died, after a long illness, when Robert was 11. It was his mother's deathbed wish that he should go to the

Horace Mann School Horace Mann School (also known as Horace Mann or HM) is an American private, independent college-preparatory school in the Bronx, founded in 1887. Horace Mann is a member of the Ivy Preparatory School League, educating students from the New Yo ...

, an exclusive private school in the Riverdale section of

The Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

. As a student there, Caro translated an edition of his school newspaper into Russian and mailed 10,000 copies to students in the USSR. Graduating in 1953, he went on to

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

, where he majored in English. He became

managing editor A managing editor (ME) is a senior member of a publication's management team. Typically, the managing editor reports directly to the editor-in-chief and oversees all aspects of the publication. United States In the United States, a managing edi ...

of ''

The Daily Princetonian ''The Daily Princetonian'', originally known as ''The Princetonian'' and nicknamed the Prince, is the independent daily student newspaper of Princeton University. The newspaper is owned by The Daily Princetonian Publishing Co. and boasts a cir ...

'', second to Johnny Apple, later a prominent editor at ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

''. His writings, both in class and out, had been lengthy since his years at Horace Mann. A short story he wrote for '' The Princeton Tiger'', the school's humor magazine, took up almost an entire issue. His 235-page long

senior thesis A thesis (: theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: D ...

existentialism Existentialism is a family of philosophical views and inquiry that explore the human individual's struggle to lead an authentic life despite the apparent absurdity or incomprehensibility of existence. In examining meaning, purpose, and valu ...

Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway ( ; July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Known for an economical, understated style that influenced later 20th-century writers, he has been romanticized f ...

, titled "Heading Out: A Study of the Development of Ernest Hemingway's Thought", was so long, Caro claims, that the university's English department subsequently established a maximum length for senior theses by its students. He graduated ''cum laude'' in 1957. According to a 2012 ''

New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. The magazin ...

'' profile, "Caro said he now thinks that Princeton, which he chose because of its parties, was one of his mistakes, and that he should have gone to

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

. Princeton in the mid-1950s was hardly known for being hospitable towards the Jewish community, and though Caro says he did not personally suffer from

anti-Semitism Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

, he saw plenty of students who did." He had a sports column in the ''Princetonian'' and also wrote for the ''

Princeton Tiger ''Princeton Tiger'' or ''Tiger Magazine'' is the second-oldest college humor magazine in the United States, published by Princeton University undergraduates since 1882. It is best known for giving the start to literary and artistic talent as wi ...

'' humor magazine. Caro began his professional career as a reporter with the ''New Brunswick Daily Home News'', now merged into the ''

Home News Tribune The ''Central New Jersey Home News Tribune'' is a daily newspaper serving Middlesex County, New Jersey. The paper has an average daily weekday circulation of about 49,000. The newspaper is the result of the 1995 merger of ''The Home News'' of E ...

'', in New Jersey. He took a brief leave to work as a publicist for the Middlesex County Democratic Party. He left politics after an incident where he was accompanying the party chair to polling places on election day. A police officer reported to the party chair that some African Americans Caro saw being loaded into a

police van A police van (also known as a paddy wagon, meat wagon, divisional van, patrol van, patrol wagon, police wagon, Black Mariah/Maria, police carrier, pie wagon (in old-fashioned usage) or squadrol (a unique name for the Chicago Police Department ...

, under arrest, were poll watchers who "had been giving them some trouble". Caro left politics right there. "I still think about it," he recalled in the 2012 ''Times Magazine'' profile. "It wasn't the roughness of the police that made such an impression. It was themeekness isn't the right wordthe acceptance of those people of what was happening." After briefly enrolling in the English doctoral program at

Rutgers University Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's C ...

, where he served as a teaching assistant, he spent six years as an

investigative reporter Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, such as serious crimes, racial injustice, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend ...

with the

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

newspaper ''

Newsday ''Newsday'' is a daily newspaper in the United States primarily serving Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, although it is also sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The slogan of the newspaper is "Newsday, Your Eye on LI" ...

''. An early article, "Anatomy of a $9 Burglary," investigating the lives of those affected by a theft of $9 from a Long Island home, was held by ''The New York Times'' as a strong example of Caro's ceaseless research process to uncover the deep truth behind a story. One of the articles he wrote was a long series about why a proposed bridge across

Long Island Sound Long Island Sound is a sound (geography), marine sound and tidal estuary of the Atlantic Ocean. It lies predominantly between the U.S. state of Connecticut to the north and Long Island in New York (state), New York to the south. From west to east, ...

from

Rye Rye (''Secale cereale'') is a grass grown extensively as a grain, a cover crop and a forage crop. It is grown principally in an area from Eastern and Northern Europe into Russia. It is much more tolerant of cold weather and poor soil than o ...

to Oyster Bay, championed by

, would have been inadvisable, requiring piers so large it would disrupt tidal flows in the sound, amongst other problems. Caro believed that his work had influenced even the state's powerful governor

Nelson Rockefeller Nelson Aldrich "Rocky" Rockefeller (July 8, 1908 – January 26, 1979) was the 41st vice president of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford. He was also the 49th governor of New York, serving from 1959 to 197 ...

to reconsider the idea, until he saw the state's Assembly vote overwhelmingly to pass a preliminary measure for the bridge. "That was one of the transformational moments of my life," Caro said years later. It led him to think about Moses for the first time. "I got in the car and drove home to Long Island, and I kept thinking to myself: 'Everything you've been doing is baloney. You've been writing under the belief that power in a democracy comes from the ballot box. But here's a guy who has never been elected to anything, who has enough power to turn the entire state around, and you don't have the slightest idea how he got it.'" Robert Caro 1982

Caro gave a speech to introduce Senator

Ted Kennedy Edward Moore Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009) was an American lawyer and politician from Massachusetts who served as a member of the United States Senate from 1962 to his death in 2009. A member of the Democratic Party and ...

on the second day of the

2004 Democratic National Convention The 2004 Democratic National Convention convened from July 26 to 29, 2004 at the FleetCenter (now the TD Garden) in Boston, Massachusetts, and nominated Senator John Kerry from Massachusetts for president and Senator John Edwards from North ...

, emphasizing the importance of courage in American leaders.

Work

''The Power Broker''

Caro spent the academic year of 1965–1966 as a Nieman Fellow at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

. During a class on

urban planning Urban planning (also called city planning in some contexts) is the process of developing and designing land use and the built environment, including air, water, and the infrastructure passing into and out of urban areas, such as transportatio ...

and

land use Land use is an umbrella term to describe what happens on a parcel of land. It concerns the benefits derived from using the land, and also the land management actions that humans carry out there. The following categories are used for land use: fo ...

, the experience of watching Moses returned to him. To do so, Caro began work on a biography of Moses, '' The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York'', also a study of Caro's favorite theme: the acquisition and use of power. He expected it would take nine months to complete, but instead it took him until 1974. The work was based on extensive research and a total of 522 interviews, including several with Michael Madigan (who worked for Moses for 35 years); numerous interviews with Sidney Shapiro (Moses's general manager for forty years) and seven interviews with Moses himself. Caro also interviewed men who worked for and knew Moses's mentor, New York Governor

Al Smith Alfred Emanuel Smith (December 30, 1873 – October 4, 1944) was the 42nd governor of New York, serving from 1919 to 1920 and again from 1923 to 1928. He was the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party's presidential nominee in the 1 ...

. During the 1967–1968 academic year, Caro worked on the book as a Carnegie Fellow at the

Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is located in Pulitzer Hall on the university's Morningside Heights campus in New York City. Founded in 1912 by Joseph Pulitzer, Columbia Journalism School is one of the oldest journalism sch ...

. His wife, Ina, functioned as his research assistant. Her master's thesis on the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge stemmed from this work. At one point she sold the family home and took a teaching job so Robert would be financially able to finish the book. ''The Power Broker'' is widely viewed as a seminal work because it combined painstaking historical research with a smoothly flowing narrative writing style. The success of this approach was evident in his chapter on the construction of the Cross-Bronx Expressway, where Caro reported the controversy from all perspectives, including that of neighborhood residents. The result was a work of powerful literary as well as academic interest. Upon its publication, Moses responded to the biography in a 23-page statement repudiating the book. Robert Caro 2019

''The Years of Lyndon Johnson''

Following ''The Power Broker'', Caro turned his attention to President

Lyndon B. Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), also known as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States, serving from 1963 to 1969. He became president after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, under whom he had served a ...

. Caro's editor

Robert Gottlieb Robert Adams Gottlieb (April 29, 1931 – June 14, 2023) was an American writer and editor. He was the editor-in-chief of Simon & Schuster, Alfred A. Knopf, and ''The New Yorker''. Gottlieb joined Simon & Schuster in 1955 as an editorial ass ...

initially suggested the Johnson project to Caro in preference to the planned follow-up to the Moses volume, a biography of

Fiorello LaGuardia Fiorello Henry La Guardia (born Fiorello Raffaele Enrico La Guardia; December 11, 1882September 20, 1947) was an American attorney and politician who represented New York in the U.S. House of Representatives and served as the 99th mayor of New Y ...

. The ex-president had recently died and Caro had already decided, before meeting with Gottlieb on the subject, to undertake his biography; he "wanted to write about power". Caro retraced Johnson's life by temporarily moving to rural Texas and Washington, D.C., in order to better understand Johnson's upbringing and to interview anyone who had known Johnson. The work, entitled '' The Years of Lyndon Johnson'', was originally intended as a trilogy, but is projected to encompass five volumes: # '' The Path to Power'' (1982) covers Johnson's life up to his failed 1941 campaign for the

United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...

. # '' Means of Ascent'' (1990) commences in the aftermath of that defeat and continues through his election to that office in 1948. # '' Master of the Senate'' (2002) chronicles Johnson's rapid ascent and rule as

Senate Majority Leader The positions of majority leader and minority leader are held by two United States senators and people of the party leadership of the United States Senate. They serve as chief spokespersons for their respective political parties, holding the ...

. # '' The Passage of Power'' (2012) details the 1960 election, LBJ's life as vice president, the JFK assassination and his first days as president. # One as-of-yet unpublished final volume. In November 2011, Caro announced that the full project had expanded to five volumes with the fifth requiring another two to three years to write. It will cover Johnson and Vietnam, the Great Society and civil rights era, his decision not to run in 1968, and eventual retirement. In a 2017 interview, Caro expressed his intent to embark shortly on a research trip to Vietnam. In an interview with ''

The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of ...

'' in January 2018, Caro indicated he did not know when the book would be finished, mentioning anywhere from two to ten years. As of January 2020, Caro had completed 600 typed manuscript pages and was working on a section relating to the passage of Medicare in 1965. As of March 2025, Caro had completed 980 pages of the fifth volume. Caro's books portray Johnson as a complex and contradictory character: at the same time a scheming opportunist and visionary progressive. Caro argues, for example, that Johnson's victory in the 1948 runoff for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate was only achieved through extensive fraud and ballot box stuffing, although this is set in the practices of the time and in the context of Johnson's previous defeat in his 1941 race for the Senate, the victim of exactly similar chicanery. Caro highlighted some of Johnson's campaign contributions, such as those from the Texas construction firm Brown and Root. In 1962 the company was acquired by another Texas firm,

Halliburton Halliburton Company is an American multinational corporation and the world's second-largest oil service company which is responsible for most of the world's fracking operations. It employs approximately 55,000 people through its hundreds of su ...

, which became a major contractor in the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

. Caro argued that Johnson was awarded the

Silver Star The Silver Star Medal (SSM) is the United States Armed Forces' third-highest military decoration for valor in combat. The Silver Star Medal is awarded primarily to members of the United States Armed Forces for gallantry in action against a ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

for political as well as military reasons, and that he later lied to journalists and the public about the circumstances for which it was awarded. Caro's portrayal of Johnson also notes his struggles on behalf of progressive causes such as the

Voting Rights Act The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting. It was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson during the height of the civil rights movem ...

, and his consummate skill in getting this enacted in spite of intense opposition from

Southern Democrats Southern Democrats are members of the U.S. Democratic Party who reside in the Southern United States. Before the American Civil War, Southern Democrats mostly believed in Jacksonian democracy. In the 19th century, they defended slavery in the ...

. Among sources close to the late president, Johnson's widow

Lady Bird Johnson Claudia Alta "Lady Bird" Johnson (; December 22, 1912 – July 11, 2007) was First Lady of the United States from 1963 to 1969 as the wife of President Lyndon B. Johnson. She had previously been Second Lady of the United States from 1961 to 196 ...

"spoke to aroseveral times and then abruptly stopped without giving a reason, and

Bill Moyers Bill Moyers (born Billy Don Moyers; June 5, 1934) is an American journalist and political commentator. Under the Johnson administration he served from 1965 to 1967 as the eleventh White House Press Secretary. He was a director of the Council ...

, Johnson's press secretary, has never consented to be interviewed, but most of Johnson's closest friends, including

John Connally John Bowden Connally Jr. (February 27, 1917June 15, 1993) was an American politician who served as the 39th governor of Texas from 1963 to 1969 and as the 61st United States secretary of the treasury from 1971 to 1972. He began his career as a Hi ...

and George Christian, Johnson's last press secretary, who spoke to Caro practically on his deathbed, have gone on the record". While writing the books, Caro read the works of the novelist

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using Reforms of Russian orthography#The post-revolution re ...

and the historian

Edward Gibbon Edward Gibbon (; 8 May 173716 January 1794) was an English essayist, historian, and politician. His most important work, ''The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'', published in six volumes between 1776 and 1789, is known for ...

, alternating between the two. "There's almost a view that if it's well written it can't be good history," he told Mark Rozzo of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' in 2002. "In my view, it's not good history unless it is well written. History is a narrative. History is a story. If you're not telling a story, you're not being faithful to history."

Caro's editors and publishers

Caro's books have been published by Alfred A. Knopf, first under editor-in-chief

and then by

Sonny Mehta Ajai Singh "Sonny" Mehta (9 November 1942McFadden, Robert D. (31 December 2019) ''The New York Times''. – 30 December 2019) was a British and American editor. Mehta was the editor-in-chief of Alfred A. Knopf and chairman of the Knopf Doubleday ...

after Gottlieb's temporary departure to ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'' in 1987. Gottlieb remained Caro's primary editor throughout. "We have these unbelievable angry exchanges, but it's always worth it to me," Caro said of his relationship with Gottlieb. "Sometimes we can spend two hours discussing whether to combine two paragraphs." Following the deaths of Mehta and Gottlieb, primary editing responsibility fell to his long-time second editor Kathy Hourigan. A 2022 documentary, '' Turn Every Page: The Adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb'', examined Caro and Gottlieb's working relationship.

Future projects

Caro has expressed hope of writing a "full-scale memoir" after completing ''The Years of Lyndon Johnson''. His 2019 book ''Working'' has been described as a "semi-memoir" focused on "Caro's selection of observations...on the arts of researching, interviewing and writing". When asked about other works he would have pursued, Caro replied a biography on

, commenting "the more you learn about Al Smith, the more you realize he is probably the most forgotten consequential figure in American history."

Writing process

After conducting his years-long research, Caro attempts to "see the whole book right down to the last line," by putting up an outline on a 22-foot corkboard before writing the first manuscript, as a way to prevent

writer's block Writer's block is a non-medical condition, primarily associated with writing, in which an author is either unable to produce new work or experiences a creative slowdown. Writer's block has various degrees of severity, from difficulty in coming ...

. He writes several successive drafts in longhand on discontinued "legal pads, white with narrow lines," which Caro has mass-ordered and keeps in East Hampton. Subsequently, Caro types his books on Smith Corona Electra 210 typewriters, which ''

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' (often abbreviated as ''TNR'') is an American magazine focused on domestic politics, news, culture, and the arts from a left-wing perspective. It publishes ten print magazines a year and a daily online platform. ''The New Y ...

'' called "a model practically synonymous with him". Upon the publication of ''The Passage of Power'' in 2012, Caro owned 14 Smith Coronas, which came down to 11 in 2019. One of these, the one used when writing ''The Power Broker'', was placed on display in the New-York Historical Society's ''"Turn Every Page": Inside the Robert A. Caro Archive'' exhibition. Since production of these was discontinued, Caro uses his reserve to supply parts when these become defective. The typewriters are supplied to him from individuals who, upon knowing his use of the Smith Coronas, send theirs to him. Other individuals have attempted to sell Caro theirs. However, he only answers letters offering them as gifts. Since Caro retypes several versions of his manuscripts before submitting them for publication, he prefers a bolder text, which he achieves by using cotton ribbon, instead of the now-common nylon. As the former were discontinued, his wife Ina found a supplier that would manufacture them on the condition that Caro order a dozen gross, or 1,728 units. He edits with the use of red 314 Berol Draughting pencils and keeps "a ledger tracking how many words he has written against his stringent 1,000-word daily goal". Though he now works in an office, at one point he wrote "in the woods ... in a shack, a 12×15 ... put on cinderblocks".

Awards and honors

For his biographies of Robert Moses and Lyndon B. Johnson, Caro has won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography twice, the

National Book Critics Circle Award The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".National Book Award The National Book Awards (NBA) are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. ...

s (one for Lifetime Achievement), the Gold Medal in Biography from the American Academy of Art and Letters, and the

. In October 2007, Caro was named a "Holtzbrinck Distinguished Visitor" at the American Academy in Berlin, Germany but then was unable to attend. In 2010, he received the National Humanities Medal from President Obama, the highest award in the humanities given in the United States. Delivering remarks at the end of the ceremony, the President said, "I think about Robert Caro and reading ''The Power Broker'' back when I was 22 years old and just being mesmerized, and I'm sure it helped to shape how I think about politics." In 2011, Robert Caro was the recipient of the 2011 BIO Award given each year by members of Biographers International "to a colleague who had made a major contribution in the advancement of the art and craft of real life depiction". * 1964 – The Society of Silurians Award for outstanding achievement in the field of Public Service History for a series entitled "Misery Acres," exposing fraudulent real estate sales by mail * 1964 – The Deadline Club for outstanding newspaper reporting * 1965 – The Deadline Club for outstanding newspaper reporting * 1965–1966 –

Nieman Fellowship The Nieman Fellowship is a fellowship from the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. It awards multiple types of fellowships. Nieman Fellowships for journalists The Nieman Fellowship is an award given to journalists by the Nieman ...

from Harvard University Nieman Foundation * 1975 – ''

Washington Monthly ''Washington Monthly'' is a bimonthly, nonprofit magazine primarily covering United States politics and government that is based in Washington, D.C. The magazine also publishes an annual ranking of American colleges and universities, which ser ...

'' American Political Book Award (''The Power Broker'') * 1975 – The

awarded by the Society of American Historians to the book that best "exemplifies the union of the historian and the artist" (''The Power Broker'') * 1975 – The Pulitzer Prize for Biography (''The Power Broker'')"Biography or Autobiography"
''Past winners & finalists by category''. The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved March 24, 2012. * 1975 –

American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C. AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach progr ...

(AIA) Special Citation * 1982 – The

National Book Critics Circle Award The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".Columbia Daily Spectator The ''Columbia Daily Spectator'' (known colloquially as ''Spec'') is the student newspaper of Columbia University. Founded in 1877, it is the second-oldest continuously operating college news daily in the nation after '' The Harvard Crimson'', a ...

'' * 1983 –

American Academy of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, Music of the United States, music, and Visual art of the United States, art. Its fixed number ...

Award * 1983 – The Carr P. Collins Award from the Texas Institute of Letters (''The Path to Power'') * 1983 – The Mencken Award for the best book of 1982 (''The Path to Power'') * 1986 – The Gold Medal in Biography from the American Academy of Art and Letters * 1990 – The

National Book Critics Circle Award The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".Washington Monthly ''Washington Monthly'' is a bimonthly, nonprofit magazine primarily covering United States politics and government that is based in Washington, D.C. The magazine also publishes an annual ranking of American colleges and universities, which ser ...

'' American Political Book Award (''Means of Ascent'') * 2002 – ''The Power Broker'' chosen by the

as one of the 100 greatest non-fiction books of the twentieth century * 2002 – The

(''Master of the Senate'') * 2003 – The Los Angeles Times Book Award in Non-Fiction (''Master of the Senate'') * 2003 – The Carl Sandburg Award in Literature (''Master of the Senate'') * 2003 – The John Steinbeck Award in literature (''Master of the Senate'') * 2003 – The Pulitzer Prize for Biography (''Master of the Senate'') * 2008 – Elected into the American Academy of Arts and Letters *2009 – Elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences * 2010 – Inducted into the New York Writers Hall of Fame * 2010 – The National Humanities Medal * 2011 – The BIO Award from Biographers International Organization for advancing the art and craft of biography. * 2012 –

(Nonfiction), finalist, ''The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson'' * 2012 – National Book Critics Circle Award (Biography), finalist, ''The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson'' * 2012 – The Los Angeles Times Book Award in Non-Fiction (''The Passage of Power'') * 2012 – The New York Historical Society American History Book Prize (''The Passage of Power'') * 2012 – The Mark Lynton History Prize (''The Passage of Power'') * 2012 – Norman Mailer Prize, Biography. * 2016 – The

(Lifetime Achievement) * 2025 – The Authors Guild Foundation's Preston Award for Distinguished Service to the Literary Community

Family

After graduation from Princeton, Caro married Ina Joan Sloshberg, who was then still a student at

Connecticut College Connecticut College (Conn) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in New London, Connecticut. Originally chartered as Thames College, it was founded in 1911 as the state's only women's colle ...

. The Caros have a son, Chase Arthur, and three grandchildren, who live in White Plains. Caro has described his wife as "the whole team" on all five of his books. She sold their house and took a job teaching school to fund work on ''The Power Broker'' and is the only other person who conducted research for his books. Ina is the author of ''The Road from the Past: Traveling Through History in France'' (1996), a book which Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. called, at the presentation of her honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from The City University of New York in 2011, "the essential traveling companion ... for all who love France and its history". ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...

'' reviewer Peter Prescott commented, "I'd rather go to France with Ina Caro than with

Henry Adams Henry Brooks Adams (February 16, 1838 – March 27, 1918) was an American historian and a member of the Adams political family, descended from two U.S. presidents. As a young Harvard graduate, he served as secretary to his father, Charles Fran ...

Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...

. The unique premise of her intelligent and discerning book is so startling that it's a wonder no one has thought of it before." Ina frequently writes about her travels through France in her blog, ''Paris to the Past''. In June 2011, W. W. Norton published her second book, ''Paris to the Past: Traveling Through French History by Train''. Robert Caro had a younger sibling, Michael, a retired real estate manager, who died in 2018. Caro's son, Chase, pled guilty to second-degree

grand larceny Larceny is a crime involving the unlawful taking or theft of the personal property of another person or business. It was an offence under the common law of England and became an offence in jurisdictions which incorporated the common law of Eng ...

in 2007 for stealing over $750,000 from three former clients in the course of real estate transactions. In April 2008, he was sentenced to – years in prison after admitting to stealing $310,000 meant for his grandparents' trust fund. Chase agreed to pay restitution of $1.1 million, which includes funds from a third theft. All his sentences ran concurrently. , Chase works in information technology.

Legacy

Due to Caro's work ethic and voluminous work several authors have been compared to him and labelled as "Caro-esque", "Caro-like" or "in the Caro mold" for their own extensive research. These include Renata Adler,

Taylor Branch Taylor Branch (born January 14, 1947) is an American author and historian who wrote a Pulitzer Prize winning trilogy chronicling the life of Martin Luther King Jr. and much of the history of the American civil rights movement. The final volume o ...

, David Garrow, Garrett Graff, Gerard Henderson, Jason Horowitz,

Francis Jennings Francis Paul "Fritz" Jennings (1918November 17, 2000) was an American historian, best known for his works on the colonial history of the United States. He taught at Cedar Crest College from 1968 to 1976, and at the Moore College of Art from 196 ...

, Robert G. Kaiser, David Paul Kuhn, Roland Lazenby, David Maraniss,

David McCullough David Gaub McCullough (; July 7, 1933 – August 7, 2022) was an American popular historian. He was a two-time winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. In 2006, he was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United S ...

, Charles Moore, Edmund Morris, Roger Morris, David Nasaw, Richard Neustadt, Les and Tamara Payne, Steven Pressfield, Michael Shnayerson,

Lytton Strachey Giles Lytton Strachey (; 1 March 1880 – 21 January 1932) was an English writer and critic. A founding member of the Bloomsbury Group and author of ''Eminent Victorians'', he established a new form of biography in which psychology, psychologic ...

, Julia E. Sweig, William T. Vollmann,

Mark Lewisohn Mark Lewisohn (born 16 June 1958) is an English historian and biographer. Since the 1980s, he has written many reference books about the Beatles and has worked for EMI, MPL Communications and Apple Corps.

, and the

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) is the Democratic Hill committee for the United States House of Representatives, working to elect Democrats to that body. The DCCC recruits candidates, raises funds and organizes races in ...

's Research Department. In 2011, his alma mater,

, began awarding the Robert Caro '53 Prize for Literary Excellence in the Writing of History, at a ceremony held annually at the head of school's home. In 2017, the school named a classroom at Tillinghast Hall, the "Robert A. Caro '53 History Classroom", to which Caro reacted by stating that it would be "hard for imto think of anything that would make imhappier". '' Motherless Brooklyn'', the 2019 film directed by

Edward Norton Edward Harrison Norton (born August 18, 1969) is an American actor, producer, director, and screenwriter. After graduating from Yale College in 1991 with a degree in history, he worked for a few months in Japan before moving to New York City ...

, loosely based on the 1999 novel of the same name by

Jonathan Lethem Jonathan Allen Lethem (; born February 19, 1964) is an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. His Debut novel, first novel, ''Gun, with Occasional Music'', a genre work that mixed elements of science fiction and detective fiction, ...

, was inspired by Caro's biography of Robert Moses, ''The Power Broker''. León Krauze wrote in ''

Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

'' comparing Norton's character in that film to Caro himself. Robert Caro exhibit at New-York Historical Society

In January 2020, the

New-York Historical Society The New York Historical (known as the New-York Historical Society from 1804 to 2024) is an American history museum and library on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. The society was founded in 1804 as New York's first museum. It ...

acquired Caro's complete archive, consisting of "200 linear feet of material", part of which will be digitized and made wholly available to researchers in a Robert A. Caro Study Space. A permanent exhibition, named ''Robert Caro Working'', after his 2019 book '' Working'', will be set up at the Society's library. Caro stated that he was "just plain delighted" since his "favorite aunt often took" him there, as well as having spoken there and "been a recipient of its awards". An exhibition called ''"Turn Every Page": Inside the Robert A. Caro Archive'' opened on October 22, 2021, becoming "the first permanent public exhibition of an archive devoted to a living author in the country". The title comes from advice that then-editor of ''

'', Alan Hathway, gave to Caro as a young reporter on Caro's first investigative assignment. According to Caro, Hathway "looked at me for what I remember as a very long time … 'Just remember,' he said. 'Turn every page. Never assume anything. Turn every goddamn page.'" The advice is the title of the 2022 documentary on Caro and editor

's collaborations, directed by the latter's daughter, Lizzie Gottlieb.

Selected works

Books

* * Caro, Robert A., ''The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Path to Power''. 1982. Alfred A. Knopf Inc., New York. . xxiii + 882 p. + 48 p. of plates: illus. * Caro, Robert A., ''The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Means of Ascent''. 1990. Alfred A. Knopf Inc., New York. . xxxiv + 506 pp. * Caro, Robert A., ''The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Master of the Senate''. 2002. Alfred A. Knopf Inc, New York. . xxiv + 1167 pp. * Caro, Robert A., ''The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Passage of Power''. 2012. Alfred A. Knopf Inc, New York. . 752 pp. * Zinsser, William Knowlton (ed.), ''Extraordinary Lives: The Art and Craft of American Biography''. 2016. Houghton Mifflin, * Caro, Robert A., '' Working''. April 2019. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, New York. . 240 pp.

Audiobooks

* Caro, Robert A., ''On Power'', 2017, Audible. . 1 hr and 42 mins.

Articles

* Caro, Robert A. (February 3, 1991).
My Search for Coke Stevenson
. ''The New York Times''. . Retrieved July 29, 2020. * Caro, Robert A and Vonnegut, Kurt.
The Round Table: Fiction, Biography and the Use of Power
. ''Hampton shorts. 4 : fiction plus poetry plus drama plus interviews from the Hamptons & the East End''. 1999. Hamptons Literary Publications, Water Mill, N.Y. * Caro, Robert A. (August 27, 2008).

. ''The New York Times''. . Retrieved July 29, 2020.

References

External links

* *
''In Depth'' interview with Caro, April 7, 2002

C-SPAN Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American Cable television in the United States, cable and Satellite television in the United States, satellite television network, created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a Non ...

*Caro, Robert A.
''The City Shaper'' Article on Robert Moses and the writing of ''The Power Broker''
''The New Yorker'', January 5, 1998.
Robert Caro discusses a volume of his biography of President Johnson
''LOC.gov'' video.
Robert Caro, The Art of Biography No. 5
''Paris Review'', Summer 2016 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Caro, Robert Allan 1935 births 20th-century American historians 20th-century American journalists 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers American biographers American male biographers American male non-fiction writers American people of Polish-Jewish descent Columbia University alumni Historians of New York City Horace Mann School alumni Jewish American historians Journalists from New York City Lyndon B. Johnson Living people National Book Award winners National Book Critics Circle Award winners National Humanities Medal recipients Newsday people Nieman Fellows Official biographers to the presidents of the United States People from the Upper West Side Princeton University alumni Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography winners Rutgers University alumni Writers from Manhattan