Stet: An Editor's Life - Softcover

Athill, Diana

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0802138624 ISBN 13: 9780802138620

Publisher: Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press, 2002

Synopsis

Diana Athill's Stet is "a beautifully written, hardheaded, and generally insightful look back at the heyday of postwar London publishing by a woman who was at its center for nearly half a century" (The Washington Times). A founding editor of the prestigious publishing house Andre Deutsch, Ltd., Athill takes us on a guided tour through the corridors of literary London, offering a keenly observed, devilishly funny, and always compassionate portrait of the glories and pitfalls of making books. Stet is a must-read for the literarily curious, who will revel in Athill's portraits of such great literary figures as Jean Rhys, V. S. Naipaul, Norman Mailer, Philip Roth, Mordecai Richler, and others. Spiced with candid observations about the type of people who make brilliant writers and ingenious publishers (and the idiosyncrasies of both), Stet is an invaluable contribution to the literature of literature, and in the words of the Sunday Telegraph, "all would-be authors and editors should have a copy." "Wryly humorous ... notable for its extraordinary lucidity...." -- The New York Times Book Review "A beguiling tonic to book business sob stories... Stet can barely contain Athill's charm and great big heart." -- Newsday "In addition to telling a good story, Athill writes profoundly about how she is affected by the books she loves." -- The Boston Globe

About this title

Review:

Diana Athill has had a most interesting and varied life, and the title she has chosen for her autobiography is proofreaders' jargon for "Let it stand". In other words: no regrets. It's a fine title. As a grand old lady of British publishing, Athill can look back on 50 years of work with the great Andre Deutsch, and many close-working relationships with writers such as VS Naipaul, Jean Rhys and Brian Moore. One of the distinguishing features of Athill's book is its honesty, both with her colleagues and with herself. (She has already been scolded by another reviewer for revealing that she had an affair with Andre Deutsch, and once kissed one of her authors). Her portrait of Brian Moore is not always very flattering, and as for Naipaul, it is with a sigh of relief that she admits that they are no longer friends, and she is free to admire him simply as a writer, if not as a man. And there is a whole chapter devoted to a forgotten and tragic character called Alfred Chester, whom Athill edited for a while. He ended up in Israel living virtually as a hermit, until he died of heart failure brought on by drink and drugs. It was all "horribly sad". The final sense, however, is one of tremendous energy and enthusiasm for all things bookish, and one can relish the grand, throwaway manner. Of her early girlhood, she recalls simply, "Reading was what one did indoors, as riding was what one did out of doors".--Christopher Hart

About the Author:

DIANA ATHILL was born in 1917. She helped Andre Deutsch establish the publishing company that bore his name and worked as an editor for Deutsch for four decades. Athill's distinguished career as an editor is the subject of her acclaimed memoir Stet, which is also published by Granta Books, as are five volumes of memoirs, Instead of a Letter, After a Funeral, Yesterday Morning, Make Believe, Somewhere Towards the End and a novel, Don't Look at Me Like That. In January 2009, she won the Costa Biography Award for Somewhere Towards the End, and was presented with an OBE. She lives in London.

About this edition

• Publisher: Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0802138624
• ISBN 13: 9780802138620
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256