Robert Giroux

Robert Giroux (April 8, 1914 – September 5, 2008) was an American book editor and publisher. While an editor with Harcourt, Brace & Co., he was hired away to work for Roger W. Straus, Jr. at Farrar & Straus, where he became a partner and, eventually, chairman. The firm was henceforth known as Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Early life

The youngest of five children, Giroux was born in Jersey City, New Jersey to Arthur J. Giroux, a foreman for a silk manufacturer, and Katharine Lyons Giroux, a grade-school teacher.cite news|last=Lehmann-Haupt|first=Christopher|title=Robert Giroux, Publisher, Dies at 94|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/05/books/06giroux.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin |work=The New York Times|date=2008-09-05|accessdate=2008-09-05] He attended Regis High School but dropped out to take a job with the Jersey Journal prior to graduating. Giroux received a scholarship to attend Columbia University and graduated in 1936. Giroux took a job with the Columbia Broadcasting System in public relations.

During World War II Giroux served in the Navy as an intelligence officer reaching the rank of Lieutenant Commander.

Career

Among the writers Giroux discovered or developed were Jack Kerouac, John Berryman, Jean Stafford, Bernard Malamud, Thomas Merton, and Flannery O'Connor. Many of his authors received the Nobel Prize for Literature, the Pulitzer Prize, and other prestigious literary awards. Giroux worked with Kerouac on his first novel, "The Town and the City" (it was dedicated to him) and on the manuscript for his Beat classic "On the Road". In a documentary interview, Giroux recalls how he tried to explain to Kerouac that the novel, typed out on a huge, single roll of paper, needed to be worked on, to which Kerouac replied solemnly: "There shall be no editing of this manuscript, this manuscript was dictated by the Holy Ghost."

Among the honors he received for his work were an honorary doctorate from Seton Hall University in 1999 ["New York Times" 11/7/1999] , The Mayoral Award of Honor for Art and Culture from the City of New York in 1989 ["New York Times" 6/28/1989] , and the Elmer Holmes Bobst Award in Arts and Letters from New York University in 1988 ["New York Times" 11/15/1988] . As a 1936 graduate of Columbia College of Columbia University, where he was editor of the literary magazine "The Columbia Review" and president of the Philolexian Society, he also received the Alexander Hamilton Medal, the alumni association's highest honor, in 1987. In 2006, he was presented with the Philolexian Award for Distinguished Literary Achievement.

Marriage

In 1952, Giroux married Doña Carmen Natica de Arango y del Valle (died 1999), [http://www.boe.es/boe/dias/2004/06/28/pdfs/A23789-23789.pdf] an advisor to the Holy See Missions Delegation to the United Nations; [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9805E4D61131F930A15750C0A96F958260] they divorced in 1969. She was the younger daughter of Cuban aristocrat Francisco de Arango, 3rd Marqués de la Gratitud, and his wife, the former Petronilla del Valle, and she had been previously engaged to Thomas O'Connor Sloane 3rd and Julio Lafitte, Conde de Lugar Nuevo. After the death of her sister, Mercedes, in 1998, Carmen de Arango Giroux became the 5th Marquésa de la Gratitud. [http://www.riag.es/Titulos/G.html]

Death

Giroux died on September 5, 2008 in Tinton Falls, New Jersey, aged 94.

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