Robert Gottlieb worked in publishing for most of his life. He started at Simon & Schuster where he edited and published Catch-22, The American Way of Death, The Chosen, and True Grit. Gottlieb then left for Knopf where he published books by John Cheever, Toni Morrison, Doris Lessing, John le Carre, Michael Crichton, Lauren Bacall, Katharine Graham, Robert Caro, Katharine Hepburn, Barbara Tuchman, Nora Ephron, and Bill Clinton. And, Miss Piggy!
In books like the Avid Reader there are usually insights into the writers who produce the best sellers Gottlieb was famous for discovering. While many writers had good relationships with Gottlieb, some did not. Gottlieb writes about toxic times with Roald Dahl. Dahl was demanding and rude to the Knopf staff. As the years went by, Dahl became more erratic and churlish. He threw tantrums and treated secretaries like servants. Finally, Gottlieb had enough and told Dahl to find another publisher.
Another prickly author was Salman Rushdie. Once Rushdie won the Booker Prize, he became more demanding and less cordial. Gottlieb relates a dismaying conversation he had with Rushdie over The Satanic Verses (p. 143).
Avid Reader shows the slow decline of American publishing. Mergers and acquisitions changed the book publishing landscape. Mega-publishers emerged to rule the marketplace. But, Gottlieb was there during the heyday of quality literary publishing. GRADE: A
