Robert Adams Gottlieb (born April 29, 1931) is an American writer and editor. He has been editor-in-chief of

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest pu ...

Alfred A. Knopf Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Alfred A. Knopf Sr. and Blanche Knopf in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers in ...

, and ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

''.

Early life and education

Robert Gottlieb was born to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

in 1931 and grew up in Manhattan. During his childhood, he "was your basic, garden-variety, ambitious, upwardly mobile, hard-working Jewish boy from Brooklyn. I was bound to go beyond my parents. It was simply the way things were." His middle name was given to him in honor of his uncle, Arthur Adams, who is now known to have been a Soviet spy. Gottlieb graduated from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 1952, and then spent two years at

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III of England, Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world' ...

before joining

in 1955.

Career

Gottlieb joined

in 1955 as an editorial assistant to Jack Goodman, the editor-in-chief. Within ten years he himself became the editor-in-chief. At that publisher, Gottlieb's most notable discovery, which he edited, was ''

Catch-22 ''Catch-22'' is a satirical war novel by American author Joseph Heller. He began writing it in 1953; the novel was first published in 1961. Often cited as one of the most significant novels of the twentieth century, it uses a distinctive non-ch ...

,'' by the then-unknown

Joseph Heller Joseph Heller (May 1, 1923 – December 12, 1999) was an American author of novels, short stories, plays, and screenplays. His best-known work is the 1961 novel ''Catch-22'', a satire on war and bureaucracy, whose title has become a synonym for ...

. In 1968, Gottlieb along with

Nina Bourne Nina Bourne (1916–2010) was a publishing executive for more than 70 years for both Simon & Schuster and Alfred A. Knopf. She was known for her marketing and advertising campaigns for many books including ''Catch-22'' and the '' Eloise'' series of ...

and Anthony Schulte, moved to

as editor-in-chief; soon after he became president. He left in 1987 to succeed

William Shawn William Shawn ('' né'' Chon; August 31, 1907 – December 8, 1992) was an American magazine editor who edited ''The New Yorker'' from 1952 until 1987. Early life and education Shawn was born William Chon on August 31, 1907, in Chicago, Illino ...

as editor of ''

'', staying in that position until 1992. After his departure from ''The New Yorker,'' Gottlieb returned to Alfred A. Knopf as editor ''ex officio''. Gottlieb has been a frequent contributor to ''

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 i ...

'', ''

'', and ''

The New York Times Book Review ''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...

'', and has been the dance critic for ''

The New York Observer ''The New York Observer'' was a weekly newspaper printed from 1987 to 2016, when it ceased print publication and became the online-only newspaper ''Observer''. The media site focuses on culture, real estate, media, politics and the entertainmen ...

'' since 1999. He is the author of biographies of George Balanchine, Sarah Bernhardt, and the family of

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

, as well as of a collection of his critical essays. ''A Certain Style'', Gottlieb's lavishly illustrated book about the plastic handbags of which he was a major collector, was published by Alfred A. Knopf. He edited three major anthologies: ''Reading Jazz'', ''Reading Dance'', and (with Robert Kimball) ''Reading Lyrics''. Gottlieb suffered some ignominy for rejecting ''

A Confederacy of Dunces ''A Confederacy of Dunces'' is a picaresque novel by American novelist John Kennedy Toole which reached publication in 1980, eleven years after Toole's death. Published through the efforts of writer Walker Percy (who also contributed a foreword) ...

'' by

John Kennedy Toole John Kennedy Toole (; December 17, 1937 – March 26, 1969) was an American novelist from New Orleans, Louisiana whose posthumously published novel, ''A Confederacy of Dunces'', won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1981; he also wrote '' The N ...

, a book that later won the Pulitzer Prize when it was published posthumously after the author's suicide. Gottlieb's autobiography, ''Avid Reader: A Life'', was published in September 2016.

Editing

"Gottlieb is widely considered to be one of the greatest editors of the second half of the 20th century," is a claim written into the press release to promote Gottlieb's 2015 autobiography, ''Avid Reader: A Life''. Gottlieb has edited novels by John Cheever, Doris Lessing, Chaim Potok, Charles Portis,

Salman Rushdie Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie (; born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-born British-American novelist. His work often combines magic realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and We ...

, John Gardner,

Len Deighton Leonard Cyril Deighton (; born 18 February 1929) is a British author. His publications have included cookery books, history and military history, but he is best known for his spy novels. After completing his national service in the Royal Air Fo ...

John le Carré David John Moore Cornwell (19 October 193112 December 2020), better known by his pen name John le Carré ( ), was a British and Irish author, best known for his espionage novels, many of which were successfully adapted for film or television. ...

Ray Bradbury Ray Douglas Bradbury (; August 22, 1920June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of modes, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery fictio ...

, Elia Kazan, Margaret Drabble, Michael Crichton,

Mordecai Richler Mordecai Richler (January 27, 1931 – July 3, 2001) was a Canadian writer. His best known works are '' The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz'' (1959) and '' Barney's Version'' (1997). His 1970 novel '' St. Urbain's Horseman'' and 1989 novel ...

and

Toni Morrison Chloe Anthony Wofford Morrison (born Chloe Ardelia Wofford; February 18, 1931 – August 5, 2019), known as Toni Morrison, was an American novelist. Her first novel, ''The Bluest Eye'', was published in 1970. The critically acclaimed '' So ...

, and non-fiction books by

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

Janet Malcolm Janet Clara Malcolm (born Jana Klara Wienerová; July 8, 1934 – June 16, 2021) was an American writer, journalist on staff at ''The New Yorker'' magazine, and collagist. She was the author of '' Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession'' (19 ...

Katharine Graham Katharine Meyer Graham (June 16, 1917 – July 17, 2001) was an American newspaper publisher. She led her family's newspaper, ''The Washington Post'', from 1963 to 1991. Graham presided over the paper as it reported on the Watergate scandal, whi ...

Nora Ephron Nora Ephron ( ; May 19, 1941 – June 26, 2012) was an American journalist, writer, and filmmaker. She is best known for her romantic comedy films and was nominated three times for the Writers Guild of America Award and the Academy Award for ...

, Katharine Hepburn,

Barbara Tuchman Barbara Wertheim Tuchman (; January 30, 1912 – February 6, 1989) was an American historian and author. She won the Pulitzer Prize twice, for ''The Guns of August'' (1962), a best-selling history of the prelude to and the first month of World ...

, Jessica Mitford,

Robert Caro Robert Allan Caro (born October 30, 1935) is an American journalist and author known for his biographies of United States political figures Robert Moses and Lyndon B. Johnson. After working for many years as a reporter, Caro wrote '' The Power ...

Antonia Fraser Lady Antonia Margaret Caroline Fraser, (' Pakenham; born 27 August 1932) is a British author of history, novels, biographies and detective fiction. She is the widow of the 2005 Nobel Laureate in Literature, Harold Pinter (1930–2008), and p ...

, Lauren Bacall, Liv Ullmann, Paul Simon,

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

Bruno Bettelheim Bruno Bettelheim (August 28, 1903 – March 13, 1990) was an Austrian-born psychologist, scholar, public intellectual and writer who spent most of his academic and clinical career in the United States. An early writer on autism, Bettelheim's wor ...

Carl Schorske Carl Emil Schorske (March 15, 1915 – September 13, 2015), known professionally as Carl E. Schorske, was an American cultural historian and professor emeritus at Princeton University. In 1981 he won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction for ...

, and many others. In a 1994 interview with ''

The Paris Review ''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published works by Jack Kerouac, Phil ...

'', Gottlieb described his need to "surrender" to a book. "The more you have surrendered," he said, "the more jarring its errors appear. I read a manuscript very quickly, the moment I get it. I usually won't use a pencil the first time through because I'm just reading for impressions. When I read the end, I'll call the writer and say, I think it's very fine (or whatever), but I think there are problems ''here'' and ''here''. At that point I don't know why I think that—I just think it. Then I go back and read the manuscript again, more slowly, and I find and mark the places where I had negative reactions to try to figure out what's wrong. The second time through I think about solutions—maybe this needs expanding, maybe there's too much of ''this'' so it's blurring ''that''."

Dance

For many years Gottlieb was associated with

New York City Ballet New York City Ballet (NYCB) is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company. Léon Barzin was the company' ...

, serving as a member of its board of directors. He has published many books by people from the dance world, including Mikhail Baryshnikov and

Margot Fonteyn Dame Margaret Evelyn de Arias DBE (''née'' Hookham; 18 May 191921 February 1991), known by the stage name Margot Fonteyn, was an English ballerina. She spent her entire career as a dancer with the Royal Ballet (formerly the Sadler's Wells ...

. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the

Miami City Ballet Miami City Ballet is an American ballet company based in Miami Beach, Florida, led by artistic director Lourdes Lopez. MCB was founded in 1985 by Toby Lerner Ansin, a Miami philanthropist. Ansin and the founding board hired Edward Villella, ...

Personal

Gottlieb married Muriel Higgins in 1952; they had one child, Roger. In 1969, Gottlieb married Maria Tucci, an actress whose father, the novelist Niccolò Tucci, was one of Gottlieb's writers. They have two children: Lizzie Gottlieb, a film director, and Nicholas (Nicky), who is the subject of one of his sister's documentary films, ''Today's Man''.

Legacy

2022 saw the release of a documentary about the collaborations of Gottlieb and writer

titled '' Turn Every Page''. It was directed by Gottlieb's daughter, Lizzie Gottlieb. The title comes from advice from then-editor of '' Newsday'',

Alan Hathway Alan Bonnell Hathway (May 22, 1906 – April 15, 1977) was an editor at ''Newsday'', a daily newspaper for the Long Island suburbs of New York City, from the early 1940s until 1970. He began as city editor, then became managing editor and eventu ...

, had given to Caro as a young reporter on "his first investigative assignment, 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".'"

Bibliography

Nonfiction books

*''A Certain Style: The Art of the Plastic Handbag 1949-1959'' (1988) (Knopf) *''George Ballanchine: The Ballet Maker'' (2004) (Atlas Books/Harper Collins) *''Sarah: The Life of Sarah Bernhardt'' (2010) (Yale University Press) *''Lives and Letters'' (2011) (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) *''Great Expectations: The Sons and Daughters of Charles Dickens'' (2012) (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) *''Avid Reader: A Life'' (2016) (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) *''Near-Death Experiences . . . and Others'' (2018) (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) *''Garbo'' (2021) (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Other nonfiction

References

External links

* Gottlieb's author page and archive * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gottlieb, Robert 1931 births Living people American magazine editors Columbia College (New York) alumni American dance critics American male journalists Jewish American writers The New Yorker people The New Yorker editors Journalists from New York City Catch-22 21st-century American Jews