Who is Robert Gottlieb? Legendary editor of Toni Morrison, Robert Caro & others dies at 92

Robert Adams Gottlieb, best known as the editor-in-chief of Simon & Schuster, Alfred A. Knopf, and The New Yorker, has died at the age of 92. Gottlieb was born on April 29, 1931, and died on June 14, 2023, at the age of 92. 

Born in New York City to a Jewish family, Gottlieb grew up on Manhattan’s Upper West Side and graduated from Columbia University in 1952.

He obtained his graduate degree from Cambridge University two years later.

Gottlieb began his career at Simon & Schuster as an editorial assistant to Jack Goodman, the editor-in-chief, and in 1968, along with Nina Bourne and Anthony Schulte, moved to Alfred A. Knopf as editor-in-chief, eventually becoming president.

Gottlieb departed Alfred A. Knopf in 1987 to succeed William Shawn as editor of The New Yorker and stayed in that position until 1992.

Gottlieb has been a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, and The New York Times Book Review since 1999.

He was also The New York Observer’s dance reviewer.

He has written biographies of George Balanchine, Sarah Bernhardt, and Charles Dickens’ family, as well as a compilation of his analytical essays.

A distinguished editor, Gottlieb edited novels by:

• John Cheever,
• Doris Lessing,
• Chaim Potok,
• Charles Portis,
• Salman Rushdie,
• John Gardner,
• Len Deighton,
• John le Carré,
• Ray Bradbury,
• Elia Kazan,
• Margaret Drabble,
• Michael Crichton,
• Mordecai Richler and
• Toni Morrison.

He also edited non-fiction books by:

• Bill Clinton,
• Janet Malcolm,
• Katharine Graham,
• Nora Ephron,
• Katharine Hepburn,
• Barbara Tuchman,
• Jessica Mitford,
• Robert Caro,
• Antonia Fraser,
• Lauren Bacall,
• Liv Ullmann,
• Paul Simon,
• Bob Dylan,
• Bruno Bettelheim,
• Carl Schorske and many others.

Mr. Gottlieb married Muriel Higgins in 1952. They divorced after having a son, Roger. In 1969, he married actress Ms. Tucci. Lizzie and Nicky were their two children.

He is survived by his children and twin grandsons, in addition to Ms. Tucci.

Source: abtc.ng