23 Facts About Robert Gottlieb

Robert Adams Gottlieb was an American writer and editor.

Robert Gottlieb left in 1987 to succeed William Shawn as editor of The New Yorker, staying in that position until 1992.

Robert Gottlieb was a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, and The New York Times Book Review, and had been the dance critic for The New York Observer from 1999 until 2020.

Robert Gottlieb was born in 1931 to a Jewish family in Manhattan, New York City, where he grew up on the Upper West Side.

Robert Gottlieb attended the Birch Wathen School and graduated from Columbia University in 1952, Phi Beta Kappa.

Robert Gottlieb received a graduate degree from Cambridge University in 1954.

Robert Gottlieb, who had been working seasonally at Macy's and translating from French on a freelance basis, had actively looked for a publishing career since leaving Cambridge.

The book's path to publication straddled Goodman's death, so Robert Gottlieb naturally retained the responsibility for it as Goodman's assistant.

Robert Gottlieb bought the rights to publish John Lennon's farce, In His Own Write, shortly before Beatlemania reached the United States.

Robert Gottlieb originally ordered only 2,000 books from Tom Maschler of Jonathan Cape, but the band became more popular stateside soon after the deal.

Robert Gottlieb decided to use the attention to complete a book on the American funerary industry that she had researched on and off since 1958, after her husband, civil rights lawyer Robert Treuhaft, mentioned that his union clients' funeral expenses seemed to be rising.

Robert Gottlieb writes in his memoir that, by the time he read the draft, the manuscript had been well-traveled amongst other publishers, without any interest.

Robert Gottlieb suffered some ignominy for rejecting A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole, a book that later won the Pulitzer Prize when it was published posthumously eleven years after the author's death by suicide.

Robert Gottlieb corresponded with Toole as late as January 1966, asking him to revise and resubmit the work.

In Turn Every Page, author Robert Caro speaks of his and Gottlieb's mutually terrible "tempers," which are driven, he feels, from a desire to find the best version of the book at hand.

Robert Gottlieb was the son of Charles Gottlieb, a lawyer, and Martha, a teacher.

Robert Gottlieb married Muriel Higgins in 1952; they had one child, Roger.

In 1969, Robert Gottlieb married Maria Tucci, an actress whose father, the novelist Niccolo Tucci, was one of Robert Gottlieb's writers.

For many years, Robert Gottlieb was associated with the New York City Ballet, serving as a member of its board of directors.

Robert Gottlieb published many books by people from the dance world, including Mikhail Baryshnikov and Margot Fonteyn.

Robert Gottlieb was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Miami City Ballet.

On June 14,2023, Robert Gottlieb died in a hospital in Manhattan, at the age of 92.

In 2022, a documentary was released about the collaborations of Gottlieb and writer Robert Caro titled Turn Every Page.