Legendary editor Judith Jones, the woman behind some of the most important authors of the 20th century – including Julia Child, Anne Frank, Edna Lewis, John Updike, and Sylvia Plath – gets her due in this intimate biography.
While Jones’s memoir is a quicker, more effervescent read, Franklin, a loyal amanuensis, has filled in the holes, restored the cultural context and talked up the triumphs in an extraordinary life.
Essential if adulatory ... I don’t mind that The Editor is a valentine. But surprisingly, given the richness of the material, I closed it feeling slightly underfed ... And the editor herself would probably have excised a few of her biographer’s clichés.
Engaging ... The Editor shows how much she did, and how much all good editors do, on and off the page ... Makes an excellent case for Jones’s importance.
