America lost one of its greatest men of letters yesterday when Publisher Robert Giroux died in his sleep at age 94. Much can be said about Giroux’s life and legacy but, after reading his obituary in the Times,  I was struck by two things in particular:

1)  Giroux probably wouldn’t have been interested in participating in the mega-auctions held by agents today.

He relied on his own editorial acumen to sniff out great works of literature—works that were often rejected by other publishers including “Wise Blood” by Flannery O’Connor  and Bernard Malamud’s The Natural. And when his superiors didn’t let him exercise his judgment, as was the case with The Catcher in the Rye which he was forced to reject because his employer at the time felt it ‘wasn’t right for the house,’ he left.

2) A career like Giroux’s can almost certainly never be replicated.

When Giroux left Harcourt to join Farrar Strauss almost 20 of his writers followed him. Today writers are rarely able to follow their editors when they have preexisting contractual obligations hence why editor/ writer relationships rarely endure as they once did. Giroux – the son of a silk manufacturer and school teacher- dropped out of high school in 1931 to take a job at a local paper because he needed the money (I repeat: times were tough so he took a job at a newspaper). Today journalists cling to their jobs as papers offer buyouts to try and compensate for plummeting ad revenue. And on and on; times have changed.

Nevertheless we can learn from the philosophy espoused by this great publisher. Every time I read a manuscript that has been rejected elsewhere, or hear a higher up explain why a book is not right for the house I’ll try and stop for a minute, and think of Robert Giroux.

Julia