THE EDITOR

A deep dive into the life and work of preeminent book editor Judith Jones (1924-2017).

“This book is my attempt to give the editor, the woman, her due,” writes Franklin, a professor of food culture and history at NYU’s Gallatin School. Over months of interviews in 2013, Jones offered reflections and insights—e.g., “the most important quality for an editor, a sensitive editor, is diplomacy”; “You have to get the writer to see what I might think is wrong…and then it comes from them.” Jones started in publishing as a 17-year-old editorial intern in 1942; over her career, she left an indelible mark, by editing a litany of formidable writers, and forged pathways for women. Renowned for fishing The Diary of Anne Frank from the rejection pile at Doubleday (“she told her boss, ‘We have to publish this book,’ who “asked incredulously, ‘What, that book by that kid?’”), Jones also fought for Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, after it had been turned down several times. Even after years at Knopf, she wasn’t invited to acquire on her own or even included in editorial meetings; for a duration, “everyone’s office had a window except Judith’s.” She told Franklin, “People just perceived me as more of a secretary. That’s the word they would use.” Jones began to build her list with Sylvia Plath and Child, “low-profile authors whose work, in poetry and food, respectively, existed outside the literary mainstream.” Over the course of her tenure, she edited John Updike, Langston Hughes, Anne Tyler, and many others. Of Jones and her cookbook authors, the author writes, “Their collective, alternative approach to womanhood and care work permeated American culture.” Franklin lionizes her subject yet includes Jones’ admission of mistakes—notably, passing on Plath’s The Bell Jar.

Sometimes heavy with dry details, but a thorough and humanizing portrait.