“Editing
is simply the application of the common sense of any good reader. That's why,
to be an editor, you have to be a reader. It's the number one qualification.
As an editor, I have to be tactful, of course.” —Robert Gottlieb
As an editor, I have to be tactful, of course.” —Robert Gottlieb
Born on this date in 1931, Gottlieb
is both an editor AND a writer, but it’s his editorship for which he is best
known, having served as editor of The New
Yorker for a number of years and editor-in-chief at book giant Simon & Schuster for 30 years.
While at S&S, he discovered
and edited Catch-22 by the then-unknown Joseph Heller, and during his
years there he edited works by almost every major writer – both of fiction and
nonfiction.
Gottlieb said it was his love of
reading that led to his fascination with dissecting how books were
crafted. “I was the only child, and I
know my father had certain thoughts about me. He was a lawyer and extremely
literary, but he would have been much happier if I had wanted to be a lawyer, a
scientist, an engineer. But what I wanted to do was read.”
For a time he thought that also
might mean that he would become a writer, but he said it was something he never
really wanted to be. “I don't like
writing - it's so difficult to say what you mean,” he said. “It's
much easier to edit other people's writing … and help them say what they mean.”
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