Robert B. Silvers

Robert B. Silvers (b. December 31 1929 in Mineola, New York) is editor of "The New York Review of Books". He was co-editor with Barbara Epstein for over 40 years until her death in June 2006. He also serves on the editorial committee of "La Rivista dei Libri", the Italian language edition of the "Review". [ [http://www.granta.com/authors/51 Information from Granta.com] ]

Silvers has edited several essay anthologies, including "Writing in America", "Thirty Years of the New York Review", "Hidden Histories of Science", "India: A Mosaic", "Striking Terror: America’s New War", and "The Company they Kept: Writers on Unforgettable Friendships". [http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2007/06.07/03-honorands.html Information about honorary degree of Doctor of Letters] ] [ [http://www.markdanner.com/nyreview/04_99_Conversation_Robert_Silvers.htm 1999 Interview by Mark Danner] and [http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bookshow/stories/2006/1745096.htm Article on Silvers] ] He has also edited a number of other books published by the "Review". [ [http://www.nybooks.com/authors/3792 Books published by the "NY Review"] ]

Life and career

Silvers grew up in Farmingdale, New York and then Rockville Centre, New York, the son of James J. Silvers (1892-1986), a salesman and entrepreneur, and Rose Roden Silvers (1894-1979), a music critic and one of the first female radio hosts for RCA. He had one brother, Edwin D. Silvers (1927–2000), a civil engineer. He graduated from the University of Chicago in 1947 and briefly attended Yale Law School.Kolhatkar, Sheelah. [http://www.observer.com/node/38123 Profile of Robert Silvers,] "The New York Observer", December 18, 2005]

Silvers worked as press secretary to then-Connecticut Governor Chester Bowles in 1950. He lived in Paris from 1952 to 1958, where he served with the U.S. Army at SHAPE Headquarters and attended the Sorbonne and Paris Institute of Political Studies (best known as Sciences Po), receiving its "certificate". He joined the editorial board of "The Paris Review" in 1954 and became Paris editor in 1956. From 1959 to 1963, Silvers was associate editor of "Harper's magazine", editor of the book "Writing in America" and translator of "La Gangrene", which describes the brutal torture of seven Algerian men by the Paris Security Police in 1958, shortly after Charles de Gaulle came to power. [ [http://www.antiqbook.com/boox/connie/EEF2338.shtml Description of "La Gangrene"] ]

For over forty years, beginning in 1963, Silvers and Barbara Epstein edited the "New York Review of Books" together. In 2006, Epstein died of cancer at the age of 77. [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/17/arts/17epstein.html?ex=1308196800&en=d091d6367c2ee4ad&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss Obituary] , "The New York Times", 17 June 2006] Since then, Silvers has been the sole editor. Silvers described his motivation for editing the "Review" as follows: "I feel it’s a fantastic opportunity – because of the freedom of it, because of the sense that there are marvelous, intensely interesting, important questions that you have a chance to try to deal with in an interesting way. That's an extraordinary opportunity in life. And you’d be crazy not to try and make the most of it." Asked in December 2007 about who might succeed him as editor, the 79-year-old Silvers demurred, "It's not a question that's posing itself". [Neyfakh, Leon. [http://www.observer.com/2007/what-s-new-i-new-york-review-books-i What's New at The New York Review of Books?"] "The New York Observer", December 13, 2007]

Silvers has long lived with Grace, Countess of Dudley (widow of the 3rd Earl of Dudley), with whom he shares a passion for opera.Scott, Janny. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E04E1DC1630F932A35752C1A961958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1 "Ideas: One Mind, But What A Mind; Defining the Passions Of the Liberal Elite For Over 2 Decades",] "The New York Times", November 1, 1997] "The New York Times" described Silvers as "the voracious polymath, the obsessive perfectionist, the slightly unknowable bachelor-workaholic with the colossal Rolodexes and faintly British diction."

Honors and awards

The annual Robert B. Silvers lectures at the New York Public Library were established by Max Palevsky in 2002 and have been given by Joan Didion, J. M. Coetzee, Ian Buruma, Michael Kimmelman and Daniel Mendelsohn.

On November 15, 2006, Silvers received the National Book Foundation Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community. With Barbara Epstein, he also received in 2006 the Award for "Distinguished Service to the Arts" from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Among other honors, Silvers has been a member of the executive board of the PEN American Center and the American Academy in Rome, as well as a trustee of the New York Public Library. He is also a Chevalier of the French Légion d’honneur and a member of the French Ordre National du Mérite. In June 2007, Harvard University awarded him an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters.

Silvers is also a member of the Council of Foreign Relations and the Century Association.

Notes

References

* [http://nymag.com/news/media/21344/index4.html Feature on the "Review" in the September 25, 2006 issue of "New York Magazine"]
* [http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/politicsphilosophyandsociety/story/0,6000,1129900,00.html Extensive biography of Silvers]
* [http://www.markdanner.com/nyreview/04_99_Conversation_Robert_Silvers.htm Extensive interview with Silvers]
* [http://www.observer.com/2008/mr-silvers-will-you-peek-my-books Mr. Silvers, Will You Peek at My Books?] article on Silvers from the "New York Observer"

External links

* [http://www.nationalbook.org/nba2006_dcal_literarianpr.html Announcement of 2006 National Book Foundation Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community]
* [http://www.pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/932/prmID/1064 Silvers' introduction to panel discussion entitled, "How have writers in the U.S. and abroad perceived the war and assessed its consequences?"]
* [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3613/is_200001/ai_n8891007 Columbia Journalism Review on "Ten Best Editors"]
* [http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bookshow/stories/2008/2285213.htm Hear Silvers discuss 2008 books with Ramona Koval]