Jason Epstein: Difference between revisions

External videos
External videos
	Booknotes interview with Epstein on Book Business: Publishing Past, Present and Future, 2001, C-SPAN

Jason Epstein
Jason Epstein
	Epstein in 2011
Born	Jason Wolkow Epstein; August 25, 1928; Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	February 4, 2022 (aged 93); Sag Harbor, New York, U.S.
Education	Columbia University (BA, MA)
Occupation	Editor
Spouses	; Barbara Zimmerman (m. 1954; div. 1990) ; Judith Miller (m. 1993)
Children	2
Family	Bill Miller (father-in-law); Jimmy Miller (brother-in-law);

Browse history interactively

← Previous edit

Content deleted Content added

VisualWikitext

Inline

Latest revision as of 01:54, 27 August 2024

Jason Wolkow Epstein (August 25, 1928 – February 4, 2022) was an American editor and publisher. He was the editorial director of Random House from 1976 to 1995. He also co-founded The New York Review of Books in 1963.

Early life and education

Epstein was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on August 25, 1928. His father, Robert, worked as a partner in the family textile business; his mother, Gladys (Shapiro), was a housewife.^[1]^[2] His family was Jewish.^[3] An only child, he attended public schools in Milton, Massachusetts, completing high school at age 15.^[1] He studied English literature at Columbia University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1949, before obtaining a Master of Arts the following year.^[1]^[2]

Career

After graduating, Epstein joined Doubleday and Company as an editorial trainee,^[4] earning $45 a week.^[2] While working there, he saw the need for inexpensive, well-made paperbacks of the kinds of books that his classmates, many of them veterans studying on the GI Bill, were reading but could not afford to own in their hardcover editions. With the support of Ken McCormick, Doubleday's chief editor, he launched Anchor Books in 1953.^[5]^[6] This was the first so-called Quality Paperbacks, which quickly became the dominant paperback format. In 1954 Anchor Books won the Carey–Thomas Award.^[7]

Epstein left Doubleday in 1958, frustrated at the company's refusal to publish Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel, Lolita.^[5] He joined Random House publishers, and eventually became editorial director in 1976, serving in that capacity until 1995.^[1] At Random House, he edited such writers as Jane Jacobs, Norman Mailer, Philip Roth, Gore Vidal, Vladimir Nabokov, E. L. Doctorow,^[1] Michael Korda,^[8] Benzion Netanyahu,^[9] Peter Matthiessen,^[10] and Paul Kennedy.^[11] He also worked with Ted Geisel, better known as Dr Seuss, who arrived with storyboards to recite "Green Eggs and Ham".^[5] He acquired a reputation of being rude and ridiculing other editors' suggestions. He admitted that he was a "disagreeable presence" as he had little patience with other people.^[5] Nevertheless, he continued to edit the company's most valuable authors after being relieved of his post as editorial director in 1984.^[5]

During the New York newspaper strike of 1963, Epstein, his wife Barbara, and their friends Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Hardwick created The New York Review of Books. As he was working for Random House, he couldn't be an editor for this as well. So they turned to their friend Robert Silvers to be its editor along with Epstein's wife, Barbara. The New York Review of Books was a journal dedicated to serious reviewing of books. He had his list of distribution contacts from Anchor Books, and Robert Lowell invested $4,000 from his trust fund to get the company started. The first issue came out on February 1, 1963. It sold out and 2,000 letters arrived urging them to continue.^[5] Although he retired in 1999, he continued to be affiliated with the publisher and edited books into his eighties.^[1]^[2]

In 1979, Epstein took up and forwarded the critic Edmund Wilson's concept for the Library of America, well-made, reliable editions of important American writers similar to the French Pleiade editions. With the support of the Ford Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities, the first volumes were published in 1982.^[12] He later published The Reader's Catalogue of 40,000 titles available by mail order, an analog precursor of online book selling.^[13] In 2004, he co-founded On Demand Books, marketer of the Espresso Book Machine, which reproduces a paperback book from a digital file in a few minutes. Epstein predicted that the Espresso Book Machine will supplant the 500-year-old Gutenberg printing press technology.^[14]^[15]

Awards

Epstein was the inaugural recipient of the National Book Award for Distinguished Service to American Letters in 1988.^[16]^[17] He was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award of the National Book Critics Circle in 2001,^[18] before being conferred the Philolexian Award for Distinguished Literary Achievement six years later.^[16] He also received the Curtis Benjamin Award of the Association of American Publishers for Creative Publishing.^[19]

Publications

His essays and reviews have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New York Review of Books, and Condé Nast Traveler, among other publications. He is the author of the following books:

Book Business: Publishing Past, Present and Future. W. W. Norton & Company (2001) ISBN 978-0393049848
Eating: A Memoir. A. A. Knopf (2010) ISBN 978-1400078257
East Hampton: A History and Guide (with Elizabeth Barlow) Random House (1985) ISBN 978-0394727363
The Great Conspiracy Trial: An Essay on Law, Liberty, and the Constitution. Random House (1970) ISBN 978-0394419060

In his book, Book Business: Publishing Past, Present, and Future, Epstein writes about working in the New York offices of Random House. He tells of: W. H. Auden delivering the manuscript of The Dyer's Hand in a torn overcoat and slippers; Dr. Seuss reciting Green Eggs and Ham to the staff; Terry Southern writing scenes for Dr. Strangelove on a wooden table in the basement; a diffident Andy Warhol bowing and scraping to Epstein; John O'Hare showing off his Rolls-Royce in the courtyard; and Ralph Ellison smoking a cigar in Epstein's office and using his hands to explain "how Thelonious Monk developed his chords."^[20]

E.L. Doctorow's Billy Bathgate was decidated to Epstein.^[21]

Personal life

Epstein married Barbara Zimmerman in 1954. They met while working at Doubleday, and their fathers knew each other.^[1] Together, they had two children: Jacob and Helen. The couple divorced in 1990. Three years later, he married Judith Miller, a reporter for The New York Times and daughter of impresario Bill Miller. They remained married until his death.^[1]^[2]

Epstein died on February 4, 2022, at his home in Sag Harbor, New York. He was 93, and suffered from congestive heart failure prior to his death.^[1]^[2]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher (February 4, 2022). "Jason Epstein, Editor and Publishing Innovator, Is Dead at 93". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 5, 2022. Retrieved February 8, 2022.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Schudel, Matt (February 4, 2022). "Jason Epstein, publishing executive who shaped literary tastes, dies at 93". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on February 9, 2022. Retrieved February 8, 2022.
^ Meyer, Eugene L. (April 17, 2012). "Jason Epstein: Publishing Icon, Perennial Student". Washington Independent Review of Books. Archived from the original on June 30, 2018.
^ Thompson, John B. (2021). Merchants of Culture: The Publishing Business in the Twenty-First Century. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-5095-2894-3.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f "Jason Epstein obituary". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Archived from the original on February 28, 2022. Retrieved March 10, 2022.
^ Anchor Books (Doubleday) – Book Series List Archived March 3, 2019, at the Wayback Machine, publishinghistory.com. Retrieved May 20, 2017.
^ Satterfield, Jay (2002). The World's Best Books. Univ of Massachusetts Press. p. 161. ISBN 9781558493537. carey-thomas award publishers weekly anchor books.
^ "The Korda Touch". The Washington Post. August 22, 1982. Retrieved February 8, 2022.
^ Joffe, Lawrence (May 1, 2012). "Benzion Netanyahu obituary". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on February 8, 2022. Retrieved February 8, 2022.
^ Lalinde, Jaime (July 22, 2015). "E.L. Doctorow's Longtime Editor: "No One Could Possibly Say a Bad Word About Him"". Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on April 12, 2021. Retrieved February 8, 2022. Matthiessen (whom Epstein also edited …
^ McDowell, Edwin (March 8, 1988). "Publishing – Nonfiction Can Be Best Seller". The New York Times. p. C13. Archived from the original on February 8, 2022. Retrieved February 8, 2022.
^ "History and Mission". The Library of America. Archived from the original on September 6, 2015. Retrieved March 30, 2015.
^ Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher (October 2, 1989). "Books of the Times; A Catalogue as Reference and Revolution". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 19, 2017. Retrieved February 9, 2017.
^ Epstein, Jason (January 2001). Book Business. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0393049848.
^ Smith, Dinitia (January 31, 2001). "A Vision for Books That Exults in Happenstance". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 22, 2018. Retrieved February 9, 2017.
^ ^a ^b Whalen-Bridge, John (May 24, 2010). Norman Mailer's Later Fictions: Ancient Evenings through Castle in the Forest. Springer. p. 195. ISBN 9780230109056.
^ "Jason Epstein, publishing editor and innovator, dead at 93". Associated Press. February 4, 2022. Archived from the original on February 8, 2022. Retrieved February 8, 2022.
^ "The National Book Critics Circle Award". National Book Critics Circle. Archived from the original on January 24, 2022. Retrieved February 8, 2022.
^ "Jason Epstein". National Book Foundation. Archived from the original on February 8, 2022. Retrieved February 8, 2022.
^ Epstein, Jason (2002). "The Rattle of Pebbles". Book Business: Publishing Past, Present, and Future. W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 5–6. ISBN 978-0-393-32234-7.
^ "Jason Epstein: Publishing Icon, Perennial Student | Washington Independent Review of Books". www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com. Archived from the original on December 13, 2022. Retrieved December 13, 2022.

External links

"Jason Epstein '49 Looks Back – and Ahead", Alumni Profile, columbia.edu.
Jacob Epstein |The New York Review of Books – bibliography of contributed articles
Interview with Charlie Rose on e-books and the future of publishing, January 4, 2001
Interview with Charlie Rose about Eating: A Memoir, January 11, 2010
Appearances on C-SPAN
Jason Epstein at IMDb

[NYT_obit-1] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher (February 4, 2022). "Jason Epstein, Editor and Publishing Innovator, Is Dead at 93". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 5, 2022. Retrieved February 8, 2022.

[WP_obit-2] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Schudel, Matt (February 4, 2022). "Jason Epstein, publishing executive who shaped literary tastes, dies at 93". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on February 9, 2022. Retrieved February 8, 2022.

[3] Meyer, Eugene L. (April 17, 2012). "Jason Epstein: Publishing Icon, Perennial Student". Washington Independent Review of Books. Archived from the original on June 30, 2018.

[Thompson20212-4] Thompson, John B. (2021). Merchants of Culture: The Publishing Business in the Twenty-First Century. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-5095-2894-3.

[:0-5] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f "Jason Epstein obituary". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Archived from the original on February 28, 2022. Retrieved March 10, 2022.

[6] Anchor Books (Doubleday) – Book Series List Archived March 3, 2019, at the Wayback Machine, publishinghistory.com. Retrieved May 20, 2017.

[7] Satterfield, Jay (2002). The World's Best Books. Univ of Massachusetts Press. p. 161. ISBN 9781558493537. carey-thomas award publishers weekly anchor books.

[8] "The Korda Touch". The Washington Post. August 22, 1982. Retrieved February 8, 2022.

[9] Joffe, Lawrence (May 1, 2012). "Benzion Netanyahu obituary". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on February 8, 2022. Retrieved February 8, 2022.

[10] Lalinde, Jaime (July 22, 2015). "E.L. Doctorow's Longtime Editor: "No One Could Possibly Say a Bad Word About Him"". Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on April 12, 2021. Retrieved February 8, 2022. Matthiessen (whom Epstein also edited …

[11] McDowell, Edwin (March 8, 1988). "Publishing – Nonfiction Can Be Best Seller". The New York Times. p. C13. Archived from the original on February 8, 2022. Retrieved February 8, 2022.

[12] "History and Mission". The Library of America. Archived from the original on September 6, 2015. Retrieved March 30, 2015.

[13] Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher (October 2, 1989). "Books of the Times; A Catalogue as Reference and Revolution". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 19, 2017. Retrieved February 9, 2017.

[14] Epstein, Jason (January 2001). Book Business. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0393049848.

[15] Smith, Dinitia (January 31, 2001). "A Vision for Books That Exults in Happenstance". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 22, 2018. Retrieved February 9, 2017.

[Whalen-Bridge-16] Whalen-Bridge, John (May 24, 2010). Norman Mailer's Later Fictions: Ancient Evenings through Castle in the Forest. Springer. p. 195. ISBN 9780230109056.

[AP-17] "Jason Epstein, publishing editor and innovator, dead at 93". Associated Press. February 4, 2022. Archived from the original on February 8, 2022. Retrieved February 8, 2022.

[18] "The National Book Critics Circle Award". National Book Critics Circle. Archived from the original on January 24, 2022. Retrieved February 8, 2022.

[19] "Jason Epstein". National Book Foundation. Archived from the original on February 8, 2022. Retrieved February 8, 2022.

[Epstein2002-20] Epstein, Jason (2002). "The Rattle of Pebbles". Book Business: Publishing Past, Present, and Future. W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 5–6. ISBN 978-0-393-32234-7.

[21] "Jason Epstein: Publishing Icon, Perennial Student | Washington Independent Review of Books". www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com. Archived from the original on December 13, 2022. Retrieved December 13, 2022.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

[15]

[16]

[17]

[18]

[19]

[20]

[21]

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-{{short description|American editor and publisher (1928–2022)}}
+{{Short description|American editor and publisher (1928–2022)}}
+{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2022}}
 {{Infobox person
-| name               =
+| name               = Jason Epstein
 | image              = Jason Epstein 2 NBCC 2011 Shankbone.jpg
 | caption            = Epstein in 2011
 | birth_name         = Jason Wolkow Epstein
-| birth_date         = {{birth date|1928|08|25|mf=y}}
+| birth_date         = {{Birth date|1928|08|25|mf=y}}
-| birth_place        = [[Cambridge, Massachusetts|Cambridge]], Massachusetts
+| birth_place        = [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]], U.S.
-| death_date         = {{death date and age|2022|2|4|1928|8|25|mf=y}}
+| death_date         = {{Death date and age|2022|2|4|1928|8|25|mf=yes}}
-| death_place        = [[Sag Harbor, New York]]
+| death_place        = [[Sag Harbor, New York]], U.S.
+| education          = [[Columbia University]] ([[B. A.|BA]], [[M. A.|MA]])
 | occupation         = Editor
-| education          = [[Columbia University]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]], [[Master of Arts]])
-| relatives          =
 | known_for          =
 | parents            =
-| spouse             = [[Barbara Epstein|Barbara Zimmerman]] (divorced)<br> {{married|[[Judith Miller (journalist)|Judith Miller]]|1993}}
+| spouse             = {{plainlist|
+* {{marriage|[[Barbara Epstein|Barbara Zimmerman]]|1954|1990|end=div.}}
+* {{marriage|[[Judith Miller (journalist)|Judith Miller]]|1993}}
+}}
-| children           = ''with Zimmerman:''<br>--Jacob Epstein<br> --Helen Epstein
-| citizenship        = United States
+| children           = 2
-| family             = [[Bill Miller (impresario)|Bill Miller]] (father-in-law)<br> [[Jimmy Miller]] (brother-in-law)
+| family             = {{plainlist|
+* [[Bill Miller (impresario)|Bill Miller]] (father-in-law)
+* [[Jimmy Miller]] (brother-in-law)
+}}
 }}
-'''Jason Wolkow Epstein''' (August 25, 1928 – February 4, 2022) was an American editor and publisher.
+'''Jason Wolkow Epstein''' (August 25, 1928 – February 4, 2022) was an American editor and publisher.  He was the editorial director of [[Random House]] from 1976 to 1995.  He also co-founded ''[[The New York Review of Books]]'' in 1963.
-==Life and career==
+==Early life and education==
+Epstein was born in [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]], on August 25, 1928.  His father, Robert, worked as a partner in the family textile business; his mother, Gladys (Shapiro), was a housewife.<ref name="NYT obit">{{Cite news |last=Lehmann-Haupt |first=Christopher |date=February 4, 2022 |title=Jason Epstein, Editor and Publishing Innovator, Is Dead at 93 |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/04/books/jason-epstein-dead.html |url-status=live |access-date=February 8, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220205051920/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/04/books/jason-epstein-dead.html |archive-date=February 5, 2022}}</ref><ref name="WP obit">{{Cite news |last=Schudel |first=Matt |date=February 4, 2022 |title=Jason Epstein, publishing executive who shaped literary tastes, dies at 93 |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/02/04/publisher-jason-epstein-dies/ |url-status=live |access-date=February 8, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220209080738/https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/02/04/publisher-jason-epstein-dies/ |archive-date=February 9, 2022}}</ref>  His family was [[American Jews|Jewish]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Meyer |first=Eugene L. |date=April 17, 2012 |title=Jason Epstein: Publishing Icon, Perennial Student |url=http://www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com/index.php/features/jason-epstein-e2809949-publishing-icon-perennial-student |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180630081203/http://www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com/index.php/features/jason-epstein-e2809949-publishing-icon-perennial-student |archive-date=June 30, 2018 |website=Washington Independent Review of Books}}</ref>  An only child, he attended public schools in [[Milton, Massachusetts|Milton]], Massachusetts, completing high school at age 15.<ref name="NYT obit" />  He studied [[English literature]] at [[Columbia University]], where he was elected to [[Phi Beta Kappa]].  He graduated with a [[bachelor's degree]] in 1949, before obtaining a [[Master of Arts]] the following year.<ref name="NYT obit" /><ref name="WP obit" />
-Epstein wasd born to a [[American Jews|Jewish]] family on August 25, 1928,<ref>{{Cite web|last= Meyer |first=Eugene L.  |authorlink=   |title= Jason Epstein: Publishing Icon, Perennial Student  |work=Washington Independent Review of Books|date=April 17, 2012 |url=http://www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com/index.php/features/jason-epstein-e2809949-publishing-icon-perennial-student |accessdate=}}</ref> in [[Cambridge, Massachusetts|Cambridge]], Massachusetts. An only child, he attended public schools in [[Milton, Massachusetts|Milton]], Massachusetts. He graduated from [[Columbia College of Columbia University]] in 1949 and was elected to [[Phi Beta Kappa]]. He received a Master of Arts degree from Columbia the following year and joined [[Doubleday (publisher)|Doubleday]] and Company as an editorial trainee.<ref name="Thompson2021">{{cite book |last1=Thompson |first1=John B. |title=Merchants of Culture: The Publishing Business in the Twenty-First Century |year=2021 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1-5095-2894-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ziQqEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT41 |language=en}}</ref>
+==Career==
-At Doubleday, he saw the need for inexpensive, well-made paperbacks of the kinds of books that his classmates, many of them veterans studying on the [[GI Bill]], were reading but could not afford to own in their hardcover editions. With the support of Ken McCormick, Doubleday's chief editor, he launched [[Anchor Books]],<ref>[http://www.publishinghistory.com/anchor-books-doubleday.html Anchor Books (Doubleday) – Book Series List], publishinghistory.com. Retrieved 20 May 2017.</ref> the first so-called Quality Paperbacks, which quickly became the dominant paperback format. In 1954 Anchor Books won the [[Publishers Weekly|Carey–Thomas Award]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Satterfield|first1=Jay|title=The World's Best Books|year=2002|publisher=Univ of Massachusetts Press|url=https://archive.org/details/worldsbestbookst00satt|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/worldsbestbookst00satt/page/161 161]|isbn=9781558493537|quote=carey-thomas award publishers weekly anchor books.}}</ref>
+After graduating, Epstein joined [[Doubleday (publisher)|Doubleday]] and Company as an editorial trainee,<ref name="Thompson20212">{{Cite book |last=Thompson |first=John B. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ziQqEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT41 |title=Merchants of Culture: The Publishing Business in the Twenty-First Century |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |year=2021 |isbn=978-1-5095-2894-3 |language=en}}</ref> earning $45 a week.<ref name="WP obit" />  While working there, he saw the need for inexpensive, well-made paperbacks of the kinds of books that his classmates, many of them veterans studying on the [[GI Bill]], were reading but could not afford to own in their hardcover editions. With the support of Ken McCormick, Doubleday's chief editor, he launched [[Anchor Books]] in 1953.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |title=Jason Epstein obituary |newspaper=[[The Times]] |language=en |url=https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/jason-epstein-obituary-dcrhptcqh |url-status=live |access-date=2022-03-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220228083143/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/jason-epstein-obituary-dcrhptcqh |archive-date=February 28, 2022 |issn=0140-0460}}</ref><ref>[http://www.publishinghistory.com/anchor-books-doubleday.html Anchor Books (Doubleday) – Book Series List] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190303082451/https://www.publishinghistory.com/anchor-books-doubleday.html |date=March 3, 2019 }}, publishinghistory.com. Retrieved May 20, 2017.</ref> This was the first so-called Quality Paperbacks, which quickly became the dominant paperback format. In 1954 Anchor Books won the [[Publishers Weekly|Carey–Thomas Award]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Satterfield |first=Jay |url=https://archive.org/details/worldsbestbookst00satt |title=The World's Best Books |publisher=Univ of Massachusetts Press |year=2002 |isbn=9781558493537 |page=[https://archive.org/details/worldsbestbookst00satt/page/161 161] |quote=carey-thomas award publishers weekly anchor books. |url-access=registration}}</ref>
+Epstein left Doubleday in 1958, frustrated at the company's refusal to publish Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel, ''Lolita.''<ref name=":0" /> He joined [[Random House]] publishers, and eventually became editorial director in 1976, serving in that capacity until 1995.<ref name="NYT obit" />  At Random House, he edited such writers as [[Jane Jacobs]], [[Norman Mailer]], [[Philip Roth]], [[Gore Vidal]], [[Vladimir Nabokov]], [[E. L. Doctorow]],<ref name="NYT obit" /> [[Michael Korda]],<ref>{{Cite news |date=August 22, 1982 |title=The Korda Touch |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/books/1982/08/22/the-korda-touch/0ecc0f70-5923-4e64-9e03-8b3b351b5197/ |access-date=February 8, 2022}}</ref> [[Benzion Netanyahu]],<ref>{{Cite news |last=Joffe |first=Lawrence |date=May 1, 2012 |title=Benzion Netanyahu obituary |work=The Guardian |location=London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/may/01/benzion-netanyahu |url-status=live |access-date=February 8, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220208192657/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/may/01/benzion-netanyahu |archive-date=February 8, 2022}}</ref> [[Peter Matthiessen]],<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Lalinde |first=Jaime |date=July 22, 2015 |title=E.L. Doctorow's Longtime Editor: "No One Could Possibly Say a Bad Word About Him" |magazine=Vanity Fair |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2015/07/el-doctorows-longtime-editor-no-one-could-possibly-say-a-bad-word-about-him |access-date=February 8, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210412194800/https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2015/07/el-doctorows-longtime-editor-no-one-could-possibly-say-a-bad-word-about-him |archive-date=April 12, 2021 |quote="Matthiessen (whom Epstein also edited …"}}</ref> and [[Paul Kennedy]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=McDowell |first=Edwin |date=March 8, 1988 |title=Publishing – Nonfiction Can Be Best Seller |page=C13 |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/03/08/books/publishing-nonfiction-can-be-best-seller.html |url-status=live |access-date=February 8, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220208192657/https://www.nytimes.com/1988/03/08/books/publishing-nonfiction-can-be-best-seller.html |archive-date=February 8, 2022}}</ref> He also worked with Ted Geisel, better known as Dr Seuss, who arrived with storyboards to recite ''"Green Eggs and Ham".''<ref name=":0" /> He acquired a reputation of being rude and ridiculing other editors' suggestions. He admitted that he was a "disagreeable presence" as he had little patience with other people.<ref name=":0" /> Nevertheless, he continued to edit the company's most valuable authors after being relieved of his post as editorial director in 1984.<ref name=":0" />
-In 1958 Epstein left Doubleday to join [[Random House]] where he served as editorial director until his retirement in 1999. At Random House he edited such writers as [[Jane Jacobs]], [[Norman Mailer]], [[Philip Roth]], [[Gore Vidal]], [[Vladimir Nabokov]], [[E. L. Doctorow]], [[Michael Korda]], [[Ben Zion Netanyahu]], [[Peter Matthiessen]], and [[Paul Kennedy]]. During the [[New York newspaper strike of 1963]] Epstein, his wife [[Barbara Epstein|Barbara]] and their friends [[Robert Lowell]] and [[Elizabeth Hardwick (writer)|Elizabeth Hardwick]] created ''[[The New York Review of Books]]'' and turned to their friend [[Robert B. Silvers|Robert Silvers]] to be its editor along with Epstein's wife Barbara.
+During the [[New York newspaper strike of 1963]], Epstein, his wife [[Barbara Epstein|Barbara]], and their friends [[Robert Lowell]] and [[Elizabeth Hardwick (writer)|Elizabeth Hardwick]] created ''[[The New York Review of Books]].'' As he was working for Random House, he couldn't be an editor for this as well. So they turned to their friend [[Robert B. Silvers|Robert Silvers]] to be its editor along with Epstein's wife, Barbara. The New York Review of Books was a journal dedicated to serious reviewing of books. He had his list of distribution contacts from Anchor Books, and Robert Lowell invested $4,000 from his trust fund to get the company started. The first issue came out on February 1, 1963. It sold out and 2,000 letters arrived urging them to continue.<ref name=":0" /> Although he retired in 1999, he continued to be affiliated with the publisher and edited books into his eighties.<ref name="NYT obit" /><ref name="WP obit" />
-In 1979 he took up and forwarded the critic [[Edmund Wilson]]'s concept for the [[Library of America]], well-made, reliable editions of important American writers similar to the [[French language|French]] [[Pleiade edition]]s. With the support of the [[Ford Foundation]] and the [[National Endowment for the Humanities]], the first volumes were published in 1982.<ref>{{cite web|title=History and Mission|url=http://www.loa.org/page.jsp?id=201|publisher=[[The Library of America]]}}</ref> He later published ''The Reader's Catalogue'' of 40,000 titles available by mail order, an analog precursor of online book selling.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Lehmann-Haupt|first1=Christopher|title=Books of the Times; A Catalogue as Reference and Revolution |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/10/02/books/books-of-the-times-a-book-catalogue-as-reference-and-revolution.html |work=[[The New York Times]]|date=October 2, 1989}}</ref> In 2004, he co-founded [[On Demand Books]], marketer of the [[Espresso Book Machine]], which reproduces a paperback book from a digital file in a few minutes. Epstein predicted that the Espresso Book Machine will supplant the 500-year-old [[Johannes Gutenberg|Gutenberg]] [[printing press]] technology.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Epstein|first1=Jason|title=Book Business|date=January 2001|publisher=[[W. W. Norton & Company]]|isbn=978-0393049848|url=https://archive.org/details/bookbusinesspubl00epst_0}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Smith|first1=Dinitia|title=A Vision for Books That Exults in Happenstance|url= https://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/13/books/a-vision-for-books-that-exults-in-happenstance.html?scp=12&sq=Robert%20Denning&st=cse|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=January 31, 2001}}</ref>
+In 1979, Epstein took up and forwarded the critic [[Edmund Wilson]]'s concept for the [[Library of America]], well-made, reliable editions of important American writers similar to the [[French language|French]] [[Pleiade edition]]s. With the support of the [[Ford Foundation]] and the [[National Endowment for the Humanities]], the first volumes were published in 1982.<ref>{{Cite web |title=History and Mission |url=http://www.loa.org/page.jsp?id=201 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906211746/http://www.loa.org/page.jsp?id=201 |archive-date=September 6, 2015 |access-date=March 30, 2015 |publisher=[[The Library of America]]}}</ref> He later published ''The Reader's Catalogue'' of 40,000 titles available by mail order, an analog precursor of online book selling.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Lehmann-Haupt |first=Christopher |date=October 2, 1989 |title=Books of the Times; A Catalogue as Reference and Revolution |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/10/02/books/books-of-the-times-a-book-catalogue-as-reference-and-revolution.html |url-status=live |access-date=February 9, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171219170313/http://www.nytimes.com/1989/10/02/books/books-of-the-times-a-book-catalogue-as-reference-and-revolution.html |archive-date=December 19, 2017}}</ref> In 2004, he co-founded [[On Demand Books]], marketer of the [[Espresso Book Machine]], which reproduces a paperback book from a digital file in a few minutes. Epstein predicted that the Espresso Book Machine will supplant the 500-year-old [[Johannes Gutenberg|Gutenberg]] [[printing press]] technology.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Epstein |first=Jason |url=https://archive.org/details/bookbusinesspubl00epst_0 |title=Book Business |date=January 2001 |publisher=[[W. W. Norton & Company]] |isbn=978-0393049848}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Smith |first=Dinitia |date=January 31, 2001 |title=A Vision for Books That Exults in Happenstance |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/13/books/a-vision-for-books-that-exults-in-happenstance.html?scp=12&sq=Robert%20Denning&st=cse |url-status=live |access-date=February 9, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181022033656/https://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/13/books/a-vision-for-books-that-exults-in-happenstance.html?scp=12&sq=Robert%20Denning&st=cse |archive-date=October 22, 2018}}</ref>
 == Awards ==
+Epstein was the inaugural recipient of the [[National Book Award]] for Distinguished Service to American Letters in 1988.<ref name="Whalen-Bridge">{{Cite book |last=Whalen-Bridge |first=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wVbFAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA195 |title=Norman Mailer's Later Fictions: Ancient Evenings through Castle in the Forest |date=May 24, 2010 |publisher=Springer |isbn=9780230109056 |page=195}}</ref><ref name="AP">{{Cite news |date=February 4, 2022 |title=Jason Epstein, publishing editor and innovator, dead at 93 |work=Associated Press |url=https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-business-arts-and-entertainment-new-york-publishing-5b1f80d0b8d1835ceb995b58d422acc5 |url-status=live |access-date=February 8, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220208192657/https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-business-arts-and-entertainment-new-york-publishing-5b1f80d0b8d1835ceb995b58d422acc5 |archive-date=February 8, 2022}}</ref>  He was presented with the [[Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award|Lifetime Achievement Award]] of the [[National Book Critics Circle]] in 2001,<ref>{{Cite web |title=The National Book Critics Circle Award |url=https://www.bookcritics.org/awards/sandrof/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220124132039/https://www.bookcritics.org/awards/sandrof/ |archive-date=January 24, 2022 |access-date=February 8, 2022 |publisher=National Book Critics Circle}}</ref> before being conferred the [[Philolexian Society|Philolexian Award for Distinguished Literary Achievement]] six years later.<ref name=Whalen-Bridge/>  He also received the Curtis Benjamin Award of the Association of American Publishers for Creative Publishing.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jason Epstein |url=https://www.nationalbook.org/people/jason-epstein/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220208192658/https://www.nationalbook.org/people/jason-epstein/ |archive-date=February 8, 2022 |access-date=February 8, 2022 |publisher=National Book Foundation}}</ref>
-Epstein has received the [[National Book Award]] for Distinguished Service to American Letters, the Curtis Benjamin Award of the Association of American Publishers for Creative Publishing, the Bulldog Award, the Lifetime Achievement Award of the National Book Critics Circle,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bookcritics.org/awards/sandrof/|title=The Ivan Sandrof Life Achievement Award|publisher=National Book Critics Circle}}</ref> and the [[Philolexian Society|Philolexian Award for Distinguished Literary Achievement]].
 == Publications ==
@@ Line 40: / Line 48: @@
 * [https://books.google.com/books?id=EwQyEAAAQBA ''Eating: A Memoir'']. A. A. Knopf (2010) {{ISBN|978-1400078257}}
 * [https://www.amazon.com/dp/0394727363/ ''East Hampton: A History and Guide''] (with Elizabeth Barlow) Random House (1985)  {{ISBN|978-0394727363}}
-* [https://www.amazon.com/dp/1400078253/ ''The Great Conspiracy Trial'']. Random House (1970) {{ISBN|978-0394419060}}
+* [https://books.google.com/books?id=9sjMctIRCkUC ''The Great Conspiracy Trial: An Essay on Law, Liberty, and the Constitution'']. Random House (1970) {{ISBN|978-0394419060}}
+In his book, ''Book Business: Publishing Past, Present, and Future'', Epstein writes about working in the New York offices of Random House. He tells of: [[W. H. Auden]] delivering the manuscript of ''[[The Dyer's Hand]]'' in a torn overcoat and slippers; [[Dr. Seuss]] reciting ''[[Green Eggs and Ham]]'' to the staff; [[Terry Southern]] writing scenes for ''[[Dr. Strangelove]]'' on a wooden table in the basement; a diffident Andy Warhol [[Bowing#In Europe and the Commonwealth|bowing and scraping]] to Epstein; [[John O'Hare]] showing off his Rolls-Royce in the courtyard; and [[Ralph Ellison]] smoking a cigar in Epstein's office and using his hands to explain "how [[Thelonious Monk]] developed his chords."<ref name="Epstein2002">{{Cite book |last=Epstein |first=Jason |title=Book Business: Publishing Past, Present, and Future |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-393-32234-7 |pages=5–6 |language=en |chapter=The Rattle of Pebbles |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X0uTftdQGYIC&pg=PA5}}</ref>
+E.L. Doctorow's [[Billy Bathgate]] was decidated to Epstein.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jason Epstein: Publishing Icon, Perennial Student &#124; Washington Independent Review of Books |url=https://www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com/index.php/features/jason-epstein-e2809949-publishing-icon-perennial-student |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221213014430/https://www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com/index.php/features/jason-epstein-e2809949-publishing-icon-perennial-student |archive-date=December 13, 2022 |access-date=December 13, 2022 |website=www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com}}</ref>
-In his book, ''Book Business: Publishing Past, Present, and Future'', Epstein writes about working in the New York offices of Random House. He tells of: [[W. H. Auden]] delivering the manuscript of ''[[The Dyer's Hand]]'' in a torn overcoat and slippers; [[Dr. Seuss]] reciting ''[[Green Eggs and Ham]]'' to the staff; [[Terry Southern]] writing scenes for ''[[Dr. Strangelove]]'' on a wooden table in the basement; a diffident Andy Warhol [[Bowing#In Europe and the Commonwealth| bowing and scraping]] to Epstein; [[John O'Hare]] showing off his Rolls-Royce in the courtyard; and [[Ralph Ellison]] smoking a cigar in Epstein's office and using his hands to explain "how [[Thelonious Monk]] developed his chords."<ref name="Epstein2002">{{cite book |last1=Epstein |first1=Jason |title=Book Business: Publishing Past, Present, and Future |year=2002 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |isbn=978-0-393-32234-7 |pages=5-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X0uTftdQGYIC&pg=PA5 |language=en |chapter=The Rattle of Pebbles}}</ref>
-== Personal life and death ==
+== Personal life==
-In 1953 Jason Epstein married [[Barbara Epstein|Barbara Zimmerman]] with whom he had two children, Jacob and Helen. The couple divorced in 1990 and in 1993 he married [[Judith Miller (journalist)|Judith Miller]], a reporter for ''[[The New York Times]]'' and daughter of impresario [[Bill Miller (impresario)|Bill Miller]].
+Epstein married [[Barbara Epstein|Barbara Zimmerman]] in 1954.  They met while working at Doubleday, and their fathers knew each other.<ref name="NYT obit" />  Together, they had two children: Jacob and Helen.  The couple divorced in 1990.  Three years later, he married [[Judith Miller (journalist)|Judith Miller]], a reporter for ''[[The New York Times]]'' and daughter of impresario [[Bill Miller (impresario)|Bill Miller]].  They remained married until his death.<ref name="NYT obit" /><ref name="WP obit" />
+Epstein died on February 4, 2022, at his home in [[Sag Harbor, New York]].  He was 93, and suffered from [[congestive heart failure]] prior to his death.<ref name="NYT obit" /><ref name="WP obit" />
-Epstein died at his home in [[Sag Harbor, New York]], on February 4, 2022, at the age of 93.<ref>{{cite news|title=Jason Epstein, Editor and Publishing Innovator, Is Dead at 93|newspaper=The New York Times|date=4 February 2022|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/04/books/jason-epstein-dead.html|last1=Lehmann-Haupt|first1=Christopher}}</ref>
 ==References==
@@ Line 58: / Line 68: @@
 *[https://charlierose.com/videos/14452 Interview with Charlie Rose on e-books and the future of publishing''], January 4, 2001
 *[https://charlierose.com/videos/14452 Interview with Charlie Rose about ''Eating: A Memoir''], January 11, 2010
-*{{C-SPAN|Jason Epstein}}
+*{{C-SPAN|57932}}
-* {{imdb name|0258476}}
+* {{IMDb name|0258476}}
 {{Authority control}}

Authority control databases
International	ISNI VIAF FAST WorldCat
National	Germany United States France BnF data Japan Netherlands Norway Korea Sweden Poland Israel Belgium
Academics	CiNii
Other	IdRef SNAC