Research
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The author on mid-1900s New York politics |
Robert Caro spent about eight years on The Power Broker. He had originally estimated the project to take nine months. A former Newsday reporter, Caro realized that the parks commissioner, Robert Moses, wielded more power than the governors and mayors under which he served for four decades, accomplishing feats of civic engineering that they could not, shaping New York with highways, bridges, and new parks while displacing entire communities.[1]
Moses initially did not cooperate with Caro, who persisted even as Moses threatened those who spoke with the author. Though Moses's papers were off-limits, Caro found carbon copies in a garage. Eventually Moses spoke with Caro seven times. Once Caro addressed a disreputable business deal with Moses, Caro was shut out.[1]
Over the many years of research, Caro's family went through periods of hardship. His wife, Ina, sold their house.[1]
Publication
editWhile commissioning nonfiction for Simon & Schuster, editor Richard Kluger proposed Caro's biography of Moses. Though his boss, Robert Gottlieb, doubted the book's audience, Kluger bought the book for a small advance. Years later, he left with the contract for Atheneum Books. After Kluger left Atheneum to become a writer, Caro's agent pitched the book to Gottlieb at Knopf, who said he saw its potential after reading several pages.[2] He was particularly impressed by the meticulous depth of Caro's research.[3] When he pressed about one anecdote—how Moses's mother remarked out loud upon reading of a court judgment against her son in the newspaper—Caro told his editor about how he cross-referenced a list of people in the area against the phone book, spoke with them all, and had found the person who had delivered the newspaper that morning and overheard her remark.[4]
Gottlieb and Caro cut about 350,000 words[1] of material from the book over the course of a full year to make the overall volume bindable and salable. Gottlieb told Caro that while they could stir enough interest in one book about Moses, two volumes would be difficult, though the author and editor both appreciated the extra material. The unedited manuscript, over one million words in length, stacked nearly to three feet in height.[2] In often heated arguments,[5] Gottlieb and Caro debated down to punctuation and how much repetition readers would need without feeling patronized.[6] Gottlieb continued as Caro's editor for the next four decades, through Caro's five-volume The Years of Lyndon Johnson.[5]
References
edit- ^ a b c d Thomas 2019.
- ^ a b Gottlieb 2016, p. 112.
- ^ Gottlieb 2016, p. 113.
- ^ Gottlieb 2016, pp. 113–114.
- ^ a b Alter 2016.
- ^ Gottlieb 2016, pp. 112–113.
Bibliography
edit- Alter, Alexandra (September 23, 2016). "Robert Gottlieb: Avid Reader, Reluctant Writer". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
- Gottlieb, Robert (2016). Avid Reader: A Life. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 978-0-374-27992-9.
- Thomas, Evan (May 17, 2019). "Biographer Robert Caro on his own life's work". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286.
Further reading
edit- Leland, John (May 13, 2016). "The Dutch Prime Minister Is a Big Fan of Robert Caro". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
- Jones, Chris (April 12, 2012). "Chris Jones on Robert Caro and the Fourth Volume". Esquire. Retrieved August 29, 2021.
- McGrath, Charles (April 12, 2012). "Robert Caro's Big Dig". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
- Nelson, Michael (2003). "Power Dark, Power Bright: Robert A. Caro, Robert Moses, and Lyndon B. Johnson". The Virginia Quarterly Review. 79 (1): 1–16. ISSN 0042-675X. JSTOR 26440655. ***
- Santel, Interviewed by James (2016). "The Art of Biography No. 5". The Paris Review. Vol. Spring 2016, no. 216. ISSN 0031-2037.
- Szalai, Jennifer (April 9, 2019). "In 'Working,' Robert A. Caro Gives Us a Brief Look at the Process of Writing His Epic Books". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
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- Barry, Dan (January 8, 2021). "What We Found in Robert Caro's Yellowed Files". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
- Bonanos, Christopher (July 30, 2021). "The Power Broker Is Still Not Available As an E-Book. Except … It Is". Curbed. Retrieved August 28, 2021.
- Caro, Robert A. (December 10, 2014). "'The Power Broker,' 40 Years Later". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
- Davies, Dave (March 6, 2020). "Biographer Robert Caro On Fame, Power And 'Working' To Uncover The Truth". NPR.
- Dreifus, Claudia (January 16, 2018). "'Studies in Power': An Interview with Robert Caro". The New York Review of Books. Retrieved September 19, 2021.
- Goodkind, Nicole (April 2, 2019). "Robert Caro on politics and power: 'People today have forgotten the power of government to do good'". Newsweek. Retrieved August 28, 2021.
- Gross, Jenny (October 28, 2015). "Robert Caro on Faulty Powers". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660.
- Italie, Hillel (October 21, 2014). "40-year-old title 'The Power Broker' still standard reading for city planners". CTVNews Associated Press. Retrieved August 28, 2021.
- Ivie, Devon (April 9, 2019). "The Best Reporting Advice Robert Caro Bestows in His New Book, Working". Vulture. Retrieved August 28, 2021.
- Marchese, David (April 1, 2019). "Robert A. Caro on the Means and Ends of Power". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
- Meyer, David (April 10, 2019). "Robert Caro Stands By His 'Power Broker' Sub-Title — And Here's Why". Streetsblog New York City. Retrieved August 28, 2021.
- Phillips-Fein, Kim (June 12, 2019). "Against the Great Man Theory of Historians". Jacobin. Retrieved August 28, 2021.
- Porch, Scott (September 16, 2014). "'The Power Broker' Turns 40: How Robert Caro Wrote a Masterpiece". The Daily Beast.
- Rubinstein, Dana (May 28, 2020). "Lights. Camera. Makeup. And a Carefully Placed 1,246-Page Book". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
- Schuessler, Jennifer (January 8, 2020). "Robert Caro's Papers Headed to New-York Historical Society". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
- Williams, John (December 12, 2014). "Caro Revisits 'The Power Broker'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
- Young, Robin; Hagan, Allison (June 24, 2020). "Biographer Robert Caro Says To Understand Political Power, Listen To The People It Impacts". WBUR. Retrieved August 28, 2021.