Jonathan Galassi on FSG and Book Publishing
Jonathan Galassi is the author of three collections of poetry and a novel, Muse (2015) set in the publishing world. He is also president and publisher of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, and an eminent translator of Italian poetry.
We met in his New York office (with the window open) to talk about, among other things, book publishing, Stanley Unwin; convincing, moving, artful voices; the capacity to hear; reading, aesthetic response and shrewdness; Tom Friedman; confidence, style, overpaying for books, reader loyalty, Faber & Faber, Bob Giroux, T.S. Eliot, Mitizi Angel, Elizabeth Bishop, the Random House system, the magical aura of FSG, Giacomo Leopardi, editors becoming publishers, Roger Straus, conglomerates, paperback rights, Hothouse, old maids and cocksmen, Bob Gotlieb, pertinent questions, Marilynne Robinson, fragmented culture and disturbing politics, Trump taking the air out of the publishing business, Rupi Kaur and Instagram poets, diverse cultures, the average age of The New Yorker reader, Amazon reviews, and the rewards of owning books.