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The Editor
The Editor: How Publishing Legend Judith Jones Shaped Culture in America | Sara B. Franklin
9 posts | 4 read | 5 to read
Legendary editor Judith Jones, the woman behind some of the most important authors of the 20th centuryincluding Julia Child, Anne Frank, Edna Lewis, John Updike, and Sylvia Plathfinally gets her due in this surprising, granular, luminous, and path-breaking biography (Edward Hirsch, author of How to Read a Poem). At Doubledays Paris office in 1949, twenty-five-year-old Judith Jones spent most of her time wading through manuscripts in the slush pile and passing on projectsuntil one day, a book caught her eye. She read it in one sitting, then begged her boss to consider publishing it. A year later, Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl became a bestseller. It was the start of a culture-defining career in publishing. During her more than fifty years as an editor at Alfred A. Knopf, Jones nurtured the careers of literary icons such as Sylvia Plath, Anne Tyler, and John Updike, and helped launched new genres and trends in literature. At the forefront of the cookbook revolution, she published the whos who of food writing: Edna Lewis, M.F.K. Fisher, Claudia Roden, Madhur Jaffrey, James Beard, and, most famously, Julia Child. Through her tenacious work behind the scenes, Jones helped turn these authors into household names, changing cultural mores and expectations along the way. Judiths work spanned decades of Americas most dramatic cultural changefrom the end of World War II through the civil rights movement and the fight for womens equalityand the books she published acted as tools of quiet resistance. Now, based on exclusive interviews, never-before-seen personal papers, and years of research, her astonishing career is explored for the first time in this thorough and humanizing portrait (Kirkus Reviews).
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kspenmoll
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This is the last paragraph in this extraordinary book about an extraordinary person, and an extraordinary editor, Judith Jones.She advocated for & published Anne Frank, Sylvia Plath, John Hersey, Anne Tyler, Julia Child, James Beard, Edna Lewis, Sharon Olds, John Updike,Madhur Jafrey, among countless others. Some might find this biography rather dry, but I found it fascinating. #NFNovember #FirstListen

Bookwormjillk I am adding so many books to my list because of this challenge! 6h
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kspenmoll
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Read 152/218 in the Editor between last night & today. #NFNovember. Just started The Last Drop of Hemlock, library book, #serieslove2024 & only have 2 chapters left of An Altar in the World, but I am going to slowly savor each chapter. #NFNovember
#weekendreads @rachelsbrittain

TheSpineView Lookin' good 👍 4d
Andrew65 Going well 👍 2d
55 likes2 comments
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kspenmoll
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#Two4tuesday

1) I cannot choose.Before the clocks moved back, I witnessed the sun rise on the way to work- starting my day that way made me feel such gratitude for our planet. Now that the sun sets so early, I have mixed feelings- I walk after work so I have to get out of the house immediately! Yet witnessing those sunsets are such a lovely way to say goodbye to the day. I cannot choose!
2) NYC books Paris

TheSpineView 🧡🌅 Thanks for playing! 2w
41 likes1 comment
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kspenmoll
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Tonight‘s read for #ComfortReadathon I love your idea Ashley! Thank you for coming up with it. One of my cats is sure to be on my lap, my husband is making dinner so I really can relax! #NFNovember
Reposting so anyone can join in!

BookwormAHN Yay 🧡 2w
57 likes1 comment
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Amiable
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Finished 6 NONFICTION books in October. The tagged book was my favorite. I love biographies, especially when they are about fascinating people I didn‘t know anything about.

#2024ReadingBrackets

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kspenmoll
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Well it‘s Saturday night. But these are my weekend reads. Currently reading Dissolution #10BeforeTheEnd,finished my section first Free Will,#adventuresinphilosophy #NFNovember,just started The Editor, #NFNovember

Bookwormjillk 🎉🎉🎉 3w
ChaoticMissAdventures ✅✅ great job! 3w
49 likes2 comments
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Amiable
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Pickpick

I didn‘t know much about legendary editor Judith Jones, but after reading this book I‘m intrigued by her life story. Over her long career at Alfred A. Knopf, she nurtured the fledgling works of Sylvia Plath, John Updike and Anne Tyler, and became the go-to editor for cookbook authors —including Julia Child. Along the way she dealt with gender discrimination in the workplace. She was a fascinating woman.

Suet624 Wow. I‘ve never heard of her. 1mo
Amiable @Suet624 I hadn‘t, either! It was an interesting story, for sure. 1mo
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Amiable
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Reading about Oct. 6, 1948 on Oct. 6, 2024. It‘s always fun when these calendar coincidences align!

Aims42 I love when this happens! 2mo
Suet624 it always gives me goosebumps when that happens 2mo
dabbe Cool! 🤩🤩🤩 1mo
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Aims42
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Pickpick

What does John Updike, Sylvia Path and Julia Child all have in common? Judith Jones! These authors and many more all worked with Judith on their books. “The Editor” is a wonderful look inside the publishing world and Judith Jones‘ amazing career in it. Highly recommend to any non-fiction readers who would like to peek behind the publishing curtain, especially those who enjoy cooking and poetry.

Aims42 Full Disclosure: It was a slow build for me, I had to get through the first third before I was fully hooked and wanted to keep reading 🎣

Themes: Book about Books/Publishing, Cookbooks, Poetry, Biography
5mo
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