Robert Caro, Robert Gottlieb, Lizzie Gottlieb & Jordan Pavlin: Turn Every Page

The legendary writer and his legendary editor come together with their filmmaker to discuss their fifty-year relationship, the subject of the new documentary, Turn Every Page—The Adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb.

In the early 1970s, Robert Caro was working in the Allen Room at The New York Public Library trying to finish The Power Broker, a portrait of New York City under the hands of Robert Moses. At the same time he was also starting his working relationship with editor Robert Gottlieb, a relationship that has spanned over fifty years and every single one of Caro’s books. With humor and insight, Turn Every Page charts their intertwined careers and watches as they contemplate the completion of Caro’s Lyndon Johnson books, the fifth and final volume of which he is still writing.

Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb return to The New York Public Library to discuss Turn Every Page. They are joined by the film’s director, Lizzie Gottlieb. They speak with Jordan Pavlin, Editor in Chief at Alfred A. Knopf

Turn Every Page—The Adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb will be released in theaters beginning December 30 by Sony Pictures Classics.

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ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Robert A. Caro has been described by The London Sunday Times as “The greatest political biographer of our times.” For his biographies of Lyndon Johnson, he has twice won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography, has three times won the National Book Critics Circle Award, and has also won virtually every other major literary honor. In 2010 President Barack Obama awarded Caro the National Humanities Medal, stating at the time, “I think about Robert Caro and reading The Power Broker back when I was twenty-two years old and just being mesmerized, and I’m sure it helped to shape how I think about politics.” In 2016 Caro received the National Book Award for Lifetime Achievement. Bibliography:

• The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York (1974, Knopf) - Pulitzer Prize in Biography, Chosen by the Modern Library as one of the hundred greatest nonfiction books of the twentieth century


• The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Path to Power (1982, Alfred A. Knopf Inc.) - National Book Critics Circle Award in Nonfiction


• The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Means of Ascent (1990, Alfred A. Knopf Inc.) - National Book Award in Nonfiction


• The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Master of the Senate (2002, Alfred A. Knopf Inc.) - National Book Award in Nonfiction, Pulitzer Prize in Biography


• The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Passage of Power (2012, Alfred A. Knopf Inc.) - National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography


• Working (2019, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group)

More about Robert Caro: https://www.robertcaro.com/about-robert-a-caro/

Robert Gottlieb began his publishing career in 1955. As the head of three major institutions - Simon and Schuster, Knopf, and The New Yorker, he has shaped the literary landscape of the last 65 years, publishing and editing writers (he has edited over 700 books) like Joseph Heller, John Le Carré, Doris Lessing, Salman Rushdie, Toni Morrison, Roald Dahl, Edna O’Brien, John Cheever, Bill Clinton, and Katharine Graham. Now 91 years old, he is not simply waiting to get to work on Caro’s final volume. He has just completed a biography of Greta Garbo, is editing Bill Gates, helping to run the Miami City Ballet, and is dividing his time between New York and Miami. As stated in his memoir Avid Reader, Gottlieb's greatest hope is to “hang up his pencil on the last word of the last page of the Lyndon Johnson biography… but it’s all in the lap of the gods.”

Lizzie Gottlieb has been directing theater and film in New York for 20 years. She founded an Off-Broadway theater company that developed and produced new plays. As a director, Lizzie has worked with actors including Peter Dinklage, Ethan Hawke, Robert Sean Leonard, Amy Ryan, and Michael Ian Black. Turn Every Page is her third feature documentary. Her film Today's Man aired on PBS (Independent Lens) and at festivals and conferences worldwide. The film follows the life and struggles of her brother Nicky, a young man on the autism spectrum, as he tries to navigate the world as a young adult. Lizzie's film Romeo Romeo follows a young lesbian couple as they try to have a baby. It's a story of a marriage, a heartbreak, and a commitment to a dream, with a surprising ending. It also aired on PBS (America ReFramed) and won the 2017 NLGJA award for Excellence in Documentary. Lizzie teaches documentary filmmaking at the New York Film Academy. She is the daughter of editor Robert Gottlieb and actress Maria Tucci and lives in Brooklyn with her family.

Jordan Pavlin is Editor in Chief at Alfred A. Knopf. She has edited literary fiction and award-winning bestsellers, including Jennifer Egan's Pulitzer Prize winning novel A Visit from the Goon Squad and Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In. Authors with whom she is currently working include Maggie O’Farrell, Bret Easton Ellis, Michelle Zauner, Tobias Wolff, Jenny Offill, Susan Minot, Ethan Hawke, Karen Russell, Maggie Shipstead, Julie Orringer, Yaa Gyasi, Tommy Orange, Megha Majumdar, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Kazuo Ishiguro.

READ ROBERT CARO:

• Borrow: NYPL Catalog


• E-Book app: SimplyE, available on iOS and Android

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ACCESSIBILITY

In-Person | Assistive listening devices and/or hearing loops are available at the venue. You can request a free ASL (American Sign Language) interpretation or CART (Communication Access Real-Time Translation) captioning service by emailing your request at least two weeks in advance of the event: email accessibility@nypl.org or use this Gmail template. This venue is fully accessible to wheelchairs. A visual navigation guide is available here.

Livestream | Captions and a transcript will be provided. Media used over the course of the conversation will be accompanied by alt text and/or audio description. You can request a free ASL (American Sign Language) interpretation by emailing your request at least two weeks in advance of the event: email accessibility@nypl.org or use this Gmail template.

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Robert Caro © Joyce Ravid
Courtesy Robert Gottlieb
Courtesy Lizzie Gottlieb
Jordan Pavlin © Elena Seibert