The Time of Their Lives
The Golden Age of Great American Book Publishers, Their Editors, and Authors
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A lively portrait of mid-twentieth-century American book publishing—“A wonderful book, filled with anecdotal treasures” (The New York Times).
According to Al Silverman, former publisher of Viking Press and president of the Book-of-the-Month Club, the golden age of book publishing began after World War II and lasted into the early 1980s.
In this entertaining and affectionate industry biography, Silverman captures the passionate spirit of legendary houses such as Knopf; Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Grove Press; and Harper & Row, and profiles larger-than-life executives and editors, including Alfred and Blanche Knopf, Bennett Cerf, Roger Straus, Seymour Lawrence, and Cass Canfield. More than one hundred and twenty publishing insiders share their behind-the-scenes stories about how some of the most famous books in American literary history—from The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich to The Silence of the Lambs—came into being and why they’re still being read today.
A joyful tribute to the hard work and boundless energy of professionals who dedicate their careers to getting great books in front of enthusiastic readers, The Time of Their Lives will delight bibliophiles and anyone interested in this important and ever-evolving industry.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
From upstarts like Barney Rosset\x92s Grove Press to stalwarts like Harper (in various incarnations) under the decades-long direction of Cass Canfield, the great houses of what Silverman sees as publishing\x92s heyday are nostalgically portrayed, from the end of WWII through the early 1980s. Silverman, former longtime head of the Book-of-the-Month Club, calls his book a \x93love letter\x94 to editors, and though he\x92s frank about people\x92s foibles (like Alfred and Blanche Knopf\x92s mercurial tempers), the tone is largely sentimental. Based on interviews with all the principals, he recounts feats of editorial genius, like how Tom McCormack made All Things Great and Small a blockbuster, which also made St. Martin\x92s a publishing force. And there are stories about the ones that got away (Simon Michael Bessie passed on Lolita), the struggles of women to move up the editorial ladder and the dissolution of great editorial teams as money got tight and houses were sold. It\x92s difficult to see the book\x92s appeal to industry outsiders, but for insiders in a difficult publishing era, it\x92s a delight to share these recollections of the days before Wall Street ruled Publishers Row.
