Anecdotes

American editor and publisher.

Editor and publisher who helped pioneer the trade paperback industry. At his first publishing job at Doubleday, he proposed publishing classic literature in inexpensive paperback editions. (Up til then, most paperbacks released in the US were lowbrow escapist fiction.) He also worked at Alfred A. Knopf and Random House.

A 1949 graduate of Columbia College, he was hired by Bennett Cerf at Random House, where he was the editorial director for forty years.

At Columbia University, he received a bachelor's and a master's degree, both in English literature.

In 1963, during the New York City newspaper strike, he co-founded "The New York Review of Books", with his then-wife, Barbara Epstein, Elizabeth Hardwick and Robert Lowell.

In 1979, he and Edmund Wilson were the co-founders of "The Library of America", which was intended to market archival quality editions of American classic literature.

Co-founded "On Demand Books", the company that markets the "Espresso Book Machine", in 2004.

In 2007, he received the "Philolexian Award for Distinguished Literary Achievement".

Stepbrother-in-law of Jimmy Miller.