Avid Reader: A Life

From the publisher: "Robert Gottlieb stumbled into a job at Simon and Schuster. By the time he left, he was the editor in chief, having discovered and edited <em>Catch-22</em>, among other bestsellers. At Knopf, Gottlieb edited an astonishing list of authors, including Toni Morrison, John Cheever, Doris Lessing, John le Carré, Michael Crichton, Lauren Bacall, Katharine Graham, Robert Caro, Nora Ephron, and Bill Clinton--not to mention Bruno Bettelheim and Miss Piggy. This account of a life founded upon reading is about transcendent friendships and collaborations, 'elective affinities' and family, psychoanalysis and Bakelite purses, the alchemical relationship between writer and editor, the glory days of publishing, and--always--the sheer exhilaration of work."