Publishers Weekly
★ 04/29/2024
In the introduction to this intimate and illuminating biography, Franklin (coauthor of The Phoenicia Diner) writes that editors “must, at once, remain laser focused on their writers’ specific needs, while keeping abreast of shifts in the culture at large.” In that spirit, Franklin documents the life and career of Knopf editor Judith Jones (1924–2017)—who edited and/or championed such household names as Sylvia Plath, John Updike, Julia Child, James Beard, and Anne Frank—while depicting what publishing was like for women from the 1950s to the early 2000s. A self-described “adventurous girl,” Jones began her career at Doubleday and spent more than 50 years at Knopf; developed her love of French cooking while living in Paris, where she met her husband, food writer Richard Evan Jones; and had a knack for spotting shifts in the zeitgeist, leading her to become an early publisher of books on vegetarian cooking, organic gardening, and “ethnic” food. Franklin also spotlights the demands placed on working moms like Jones and many of her authors, and takes brief, revelatory sojourns into those writers’ lives, including a stirring section on Black chef Edna Lewis, who was raised in a town founded by formerly enslaved Americans. The result is an exceptional feast for bibliophiles and foodies alike. Agent: Kari Stuart, ICM Partners. (May)
From the Publisher
Essential ... Franklin revels in all the food stuff, but does not skimp on general publishing history.”—The New York Times
“The Editor presents [Judith] as both a case study and an agent of change in American conceptions of femininity inside and outside of the home. But it also reads, more often than not, like a love story: a great, sweeping seven-decade romance between a woman and her work.” —The Atlantic
“Author Sara B. Franklin delivers a rewarding book about a pioneer in the book world, a woman whose appreciation for the written word shone through in her career.” —San Francisco Chronicle, 5-star review
“Intimate and illuminating—an exceptional feast for bibliophiles and foodies alike.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Jones is an exhilarating subject, and Franklin has done her justice in this expert, involving, and radiant biography.” —Booklist, Starred Review
“[Franklin] has filled in the holes, restored the cultural context and talked up the triumphs in an extraordinary life.” —The Washington Post
“The Editor retrieves Jones from the margins of publishing history and affirms her essential role in shaping the postwar cultural landscape, from fiction to cooking and beyond.” —The Millions
“Sara B. Franklin pulls back the curtain and casts a penetrating light on Judith Jones, a consummate editor, a connoisseur of food and fiction, a sophisticated, determined, and secret force who worked in publishing for half-a-century, cooking up and shaping so many books that shaped us. The Editor is a surprising, granular, luminous, and path-breaking biography.” –Edward Hirsch, critic and bestselling author of How to Read a Poem
“Judith Jones has, at long last, found a worthy biographer in Sara B. Franklin. Her kaleidoscopic portrait of Jones, anchored in deep research but written with crisp clarity, honors every complication of Jones's character without losing sight of the remarkable imprint she left on America’s literary landscape—far beyond the realm of food.” –Mayukh Sen, author of Taste Makers
“Through her editorial work, Judith Jones changed the perception of what it meant to be a woman who cooks. Through The Editor, Sara B. Franklin gives shape and weight to a career that could have continued on as a footnote; in doing so, she proves Jones was too good and influential to live on like that.” –Alicia Kennedy, author of No Meat Required
Kirkus Reviews
2024-02-16
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.
