At 91, Robert Gottlieb is perhaps the most acclaimed book editor of his time. He started out in 1955 and has been working in publishing ever since. The list of authors he's edited include Robert Caro, Joseph Heller, Toni Morrison, John le Carré, Katharine Graham, Bill Clinton, Nora Ephron and Michael Crichton. His daughter Lizzie Gottlieb's new film, Turn Every Page, centers on her father's decades-long editing relationship with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert Caro.
Editors Robert Gottlieb and Robert Kimball have collaborated on the new book “Reading Lyrics” (Pantheon Books), an anthology of some of the most important lyricists of the last century, including the lyrics of George M. Cohan, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Ira Gershwin, Lorenz Hart, Dorothy Field, Frank Loesser, Johnny Mercer, and more. The book covers the time period 1900-1975. Robert Gottlieb is the author of “Reading Jazz,” and Robert Kimball is the editor of complete lyrics collections of Cole Porter, Ira Gershwin, and Lorenz Hart.
The publishing world was stunned yesterday by the announcement that Tina Brown, editor of Vanity Fair, is to be the new editor of "The New Yorker," replacing Robert A. Gottlieb, who resigned over philosophical differences with the magazine's publisher. Ms. Brown has promised not to change the magazine in ways that many staffers fear. Terry talks to writer John Updike and media critic Geoffrey Stokes about the change.