NEW YORK — Robert Caro’s fifth quantity on Lyndon Johnson, one of many ebook world’s most long-awaited publications, is unlikely to be delayed by the dying of his longtime editor, publishing luminary Robert Gottlieb.
“Mr. Caro is continuing his work on Volume 5 with limited interruption,” Caro spokesperson Paul Bogaards stated Thursday, a day after Gottlieb’s dying at 92.
No launch date has been set for what’s speculated to be the ultimate ebook in “The Years of Lyndon Johnson” collection, the primary of which was revealed in 1982. Late final yr, Caro advised The Associated Press he had no sense when the fifth quantity can be carried out, saying then that he nonetheless hoped to go to Vietnam and spend time in a village subjected to U.S. assaults throughout the Vietnam War.
Caro had labored with Gottlieb — additionally the editor of such celebrated authors as Toni Morrison, Joseph Heller and Nora Ephron — for greater than a half-century. Their collaboration started with the Pulitzer Prize-winning “The Power Broker,” persevering with with the primary 4 Johnson biographies, and a short quantity on Caro’s writing course of, “Working.”
Their distinctive collaboration was the premise for an acclaimed documentary, “Turn Every Page,” directed by Gottlieb’s daughter, Lizzie Gottlieb, and launched final yr.
As Caro advised the AP forward of the documentary’s launch, he and Gottlieb didn’t have the form of ongoing communication many writers and editors have. Caro didn’t seek the advice of with Gottlieb whereas writing his books or present him early drafts, ready as an alternative to show in a accomplished manuscript. They noticed so little of one another in social gatherings that Lizzie Gottlieb would say that she solely bought to know Caro via making the movie, which does depict the pair enhancing “Working.”
The two Bobs argued fiercely over “The Power Broker” — when tons of of hundreds of phrases have been minimize from what nonetheless ended up as a 1,200-page ebook — however had since loved a a lot hotter and extra seamless working relationship.
“From the day 52 years ago that we first looked at my pages together, Bob understood what I was trying to do and made it possible for me to take the time, and do the work, I needed to do,” Caro stated in a press release Wednesday — including that he regarded upon Gottlieb as a “great friend.”
The Johnson books, which have introduced Caro a Pulitzer and a National Book Award amongst different honors, have grow to be an obsession with historical past followers. Publisher Alfred A. Knopf receives extra queries from followers concerning the fifth quantity, anticipated to cowl the final 9 years of Johnson’s life, than about every other ebook.
Caro is a famously thorough researcher and expansive narrator whose books normally exceed 600 pages and may take as much as a decade or extra to complete. His most up-to-date Johnson ebook, “The Passage of Power,” was launched in 2012.
“You can’t speed up the research,” Caro advised the AP final yr, saying the scope of the ultimate quantity was “huge.”
Bogaards declined touch upon who may edit the ultimate ebook, which the 87-year-old Caro had acknowledged was shadowed by his and Gottlieb’s ages. Caro has stated he typically receives mail from followers, urging him to complete Volume 5 and reminding him, “Do you know how old you are?”
“Bob and I don’t sit around and talk about it,” Caro advised the AP final yr. “We know how the clock ticks.”
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