Overview

A lively and intimate biography of trailblazing and era-defining New Yorker editor Katharine S. White, who helped build the magazine's prestigious legacy and transform the 20th century literary landscape for women. In the summer of 1925, Katharine Sergeant Angell White walked into The New Yorker's midtown office and left with a job as an editor. The magazine was only a few months old. Over the next thirty-six years, White would transform the publication into a literary powerhouse. This exquisite biography brings to life the remarkable relationships White fostered with her writers and how these relationships nurtured an astonishing array of literary talent. She edited a young John Updike, to whom she sent seventeen rejections before a single acceptance, as well as Vladimir Nabokov, with whom she fought incessantly, urging that he drop needlessly obscure, confusing words. White's biggest contribution, however, was her cultivation of women writers whose careers were made at The New Yorker--Janet Flanner, Mary McCarthy, Elizabeth Bishop, Jean Stafford, Nadine Gordimer, Elizabeth Taylor, Emily Hahn, Kay Boyle, and more. She cleared their mental and financial obstacles, introduced them to each other, and helped them create now classic stories and essays. She propelled these women to great literary heights and, in the process, reinvented the role of the editor, transforming the relationship to be not just a way to improve a writer's work but also their life. Based on years of scrupulous research, acclaimed author Amy Reading creates a rare and deeply intimate portrait of a prolific editor--through both her incredible tenure at The New Yorker, and her famous marriage to E.B. White--and reveals how she transformed our understanding of literary culture and community.

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9781328595911

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Reviews

"""Captivating...An entertaining and expansive study of a pioneering literary editor and the era that shaped her legendary tenure....Reading finally shines a well-deserved spotlight on White's remarkable career."" -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) ""Reading harnesses years of deep research, granular attention, and a refreshingly critical eye to examine the life of Katharine S. White, renowned editor of The New Yorker. In detailing White's immense talent, fastidiousness, rigor, and, perhaps most groundbreakingly and movingly of all, her deep relational acuity, Reading reveals White's tremendous savvy--and, equally, her sacrifice--in choosing to exercise her power from the wings rather than center stage. Reading reminds us to pull back the curtain and look carefully at who, and what, is behind the stories that shape us all. A thorough, nuanced, and deeply human excavation of an extraordinary life."" -- Sara B. Franklin, author of The Editor: How Publishing Legend Judith Jones Shaped Culture in America ""Amy Reading has recreated a lost, gilded literary world in her smart and evocative biography of Katharine White, the longtime editor at The New Yorker who helped shape postwar American literature. One finishes this book with enormous gratitude for Katharine White's quiet but fierce commitment to reading, writing, and women, and for Amy Reading's determination to recognize White's achievement. Gratitude, too, for all the drama, humor, and literary gossip that make The World She Edited the next best thing to cocktails at the Algonquin."" -- Heather Clark, author of Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath ""Harold Ross, James Thurber, and E. B. White usually get all the credit for the creation and shaping of The New Yorker magazine. Amy Reading's book, carefully researched and lucidly written, makes a powerful case that Katharine White was every bit as important. They gave the magazine a tone and a style. She gave it a brain."" -- Chip McGrath, former deputy editor of The New Yorker ""An important, overdue corrective to the persistently male-dominated histories of American literature as it developed over the twentieth century and, particularly, of the magazine that most fostered its growth: The New Yorker. You will be astonished to learn of the extensive networks of women supporting each other and playing important roles in the literary world from the 1920s-1950s. Impeccably researched and beautifully written, The World She Edited is an enlightening, enthralling read, revealing White's powerful influence and development of generations of writers, many of them women who are very little known today--but deserve to be, as does White herself."" -- Anne Boyd Rioux, author of Constance Fenimore Woolson: Portrait of a Lady Novelist and Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy: The Story of Little Women and Why It Still Matters ""This beautifully written book elegantly demonstrates the vital role hidden figures play in shaping cultural taste. New Yorker editor Katharine White encouraged a world of writers - women writers especially - to produce their finest work. This sensitive, compelling book does White justice, revealing the remarkable labor of pulling something better from those who believe they've already done their best. American literature as we know it owes Katharine White."" -- Carla Kaplan, author of Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters and Miss Anne in Harlem"

"""[A] remarkable piece of storytelling . . .[filled with] brilliant portraits. . . . It's great fun to read."" -- Boston Globe on The Mark Inside ""Engrossing. . . . [Reading] gets to the center of both Norfleet's story and the mass appeal of the con artist as a figure in American culture."" -- Paris Review on The Mark Inside ""An engaging book for anybody who wants to better understand misconduct in the realm of finance--and the consequences of such misconduct for everybody involved."" -- USA Today on The Mark Inside ""An entertaining read, grounded in detailed historical analysis. . . . A fascinating story of crime and punishment."" -- New York Journal of Books on The Mark Inside ""This work, which puts deception in a sociological context from the settlement of the colonies on, is riveting, exciting, and eye-opening. . . . Thoroughly researched and engagingly presented."" -- Booklist (starred review) on The Mark Inside ""This account of con artists and obsessive revenge is replete with dramatic twists and turns. . . . [and] vibrant characterizations. . . . This narrative of vigilante justice flows like fiction, as con artistry is illuminated throughout, with resonance in today's world of high-tech con artistry."" -- Publishers Weekly on The Mark Inside"

Author Information

Amy Reading is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment of the Humanities and the New York Public Library. She is the author of The Mark Inside: A Perfect Swindle, a Cunning Revenge, and a Small History of the Big Con. She lives in upstate New York, where she has served on the executive board of Buffalo Street Books, an indie cooperative bookstore, since 2018.

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