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Tag: Toni Morrison

  • Literary Cleveland Launches Yearlong Celebration of Toni Morrison

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    Literary Cleveland thinks we need to celebrate Toni Morrison, argubly one of the most prolific writers to hail from Northeast Ohio, a little louder.

    And for a little longer than just her birthday.

    That’s why the arts organization is leading the charge to pay homage to the author for an entire year, kicking off on February 18, 94 years after Morrison was born in Lorain, Ohio.

    “Beloved: Ohio Celebrates Toni Morrison” spans libraries and bookstores from Cleveland to Cincinnati, a reflection of the characters and settings from her 11 novels—from The Bluest Eye to Beloved. Books that garnered Morrison both the Nobel and Pulitzer prizes.

    Though states like Washington and New York engage in months-long festivals or book clubs, it’s rare for one to dedicate a series of events to just one writer. Even England’s celebration of Emily Dickinson’s 195th birthday, with events across the country, barely spanned one month.

    Literary Cleveland director Matt Weinkam said that’s precisely the point: generate 12 months of buzz in six Ohio cities to keep Morrison’s legacy thrumming seven years after her death from pneumonia at 88.

    Weinkam told Scene that the idea came to him after Morrison’s passing, but took serious steps to make a yearlong celebration happen at the end of 2024. 

    “Our ambition is for every person in Ohio—young and old—to engage with Toni Morrison’s life, literature, and legacy,” he said in an email. 

    “This is our opportunity to celebrate the greatest artist in our state’s history,” Weinkam added. “Her writing challenges and inspires us as much today as when it was first published, and we can’t wait to bring it to life this year.”

    When Morrison blew up the literary establishment in the 1960s and 1970s, her writing was received by critics as both cautiously raw and freshly honest. She put an unflinching voice to tough-to-discuss topics, like the Black inferiority complex, child molestation, infanticide and the dregs of American slavery in the South.

    But despite the originality of her books, or Morrison becoming the first Black woman editor of Random House, she went two decades into her writing career without reaching any celebrity status. A 1988 letter compiled by a coalition of Black authors poked the majority-white heads of award committees for neglecting Morrison’s genius.

    “Despite the international stature of Toni Morrison, she has yet to receive the national recognition that her five major works of fiction entirely deserve,” one writer put it. “She has yet to receive the keystone honors of the National Book Award or the Pulitzer Prize.” 

    “The legitimate need for our own critical voice in relation to our own literature,” they said, “can no longer be denied.”

    Months later, Morrison was awarded the Pulitzer, for Beloved. And years after that, in 1993, she claimed the Nobel Prize in Literature for novels that “give life to an essential aspect of American reality.” Two decades later, President Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

    Over 40 confirmed events, free and open to the public, will be held in Morrison’s honor throughout the next year.

    Happenings in Cleveland include:

    • A reading of Morrison’s books at the Karamu House in February
    • A reading of Please, Louise, one her children’s books, at the Willoughby-Eastlake Public Library in February
    • A performance around Song of Solomon by the Cleveland Association of Black Storytellers in June
    • A talk with Andrea Davis Pinkey, a Morrison biographer, at the CPL in September
    • A FireFish Festival celebration in Lorain in September

    See the full list of events here.

    Subscribe to Cleveland Scene newsletters.

    Follow us: Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter

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    Mark Oprea

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  • Literary Cleveland Launches Yearlong Celebration of Toni Morrison

    [ad_1]

    Literary Cleveland thinks we need to celebrate Toni Morrison, argubly one of the most prolific writers to hail from Northeast Ohio, a little louder.

    And for a little longer than just her birthday.

    That’s why the arts organization is leading the charge to pay homage to the author for an entire year, kicking off on February 18, 94 years after Morrison was born in Lorain, Ohio.

    “Beloved: Ohio Celebrates Toni Morrison” spans libraries and bookstores from Cleveland to Cincinnati, a reflection of the characters and settings from her 11 novels—from The Bluest Eye to Beloved. Books that garnered Morrison both the Nobel and Pulitzer prizes.

    Though states like Washington and New York engage in months-long festivals or book clubs, it’s rare for one to dedicate a series of events to just one writer. Even England’s celebration of Emily Dickinson’s 195th birthday, with events across the country, barely spanned one month.

    Literary Cleveland director Matt Weinkam said that’s precisely the point: generate 12 months of buzz in six Ohio cities to keep Morrison’s legacy thrumming seven years after her death from pneumonia at 88.

    Weinkam told Scene that the idea came to him after Morrison’s passing, but took serious steps to make a yearlong celebration happen at the end of 2024. 

    “Our ambition is for every person in Ohio—young and old—to engage with Toni Morrison’s life, literature, and legacy,” he said in an email. 

    “This is our opportunity to celebrate the greatest artist in our state’s history,” Weinkam added. “Her writing challenges and inspires us as much today as when it was first published, and we can’t wait to bring it to life this year.”

    When Morrison blew up the literary establishment in the 1960s and 1970s, her writing was received by critics as both cautiously raw and freshly honest. She put an unflinching voice to tough-to-discuss topics, like the Black inferiority complex, child molestation, infanticide and the dregs of American slavery in the South.

    But despite the originality of her books, or Morrison becoming the first Black woman editor of Random House, she went two decades into her writing career without reaching any celebrity status. A 1988 letter compiled by a coalition of Black authors poked the majority-white heads of award committees for neglecting Morrison’s genius.

    “Despite the international stature of Toni Morrison, she has yet to receive the national recognition that her five major works of fiction entirely deserve,” one writer put it. “She has yet to receive the keystone honors of the National Book Award or the Pulitzer Prize.” 

    “The legitimate need for our own critical voice in relation to our own literature,” they said, “can no longer be denied.”

    Months later, Morrison was awarded the Pulitzer, for Beloved. And years after that, in 1993, she claimed the Nobel Prize in Literature for novels that “give life to an essential aspect of American reality.” Two decades later, President Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

    Over 40 confirmed events, free and open to the public, will be held in Morrison’s honor throughout the next year.

    Happenings in Cleveland include:

    • A reading of Morrison’s books at the Karamu House in February
    • A reading of Please, Louise, one her children’s books, at the Willoughby-Eastlake Public Library in February
    • A performance around Song of Solomon by the Cleveland Association of Black Storytellers in June
    • A talk with Andrea Davis Pinkey, a Morrison biographer, at the CPL in September
    • A FireFish Festival celebration in Lorain in September

    See the full list of events here.

    Subscribe to Cleveland Scene newsletters.

    Follow us: Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter

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    Mark Oprea

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  • Village Books brings community and culture to downtown Atlanta

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    “When books are banned, and stories are erased, especially Black and brown stories, we have to build safety within our community,” said Village Books owner Dr. Lakeysha Hallmon. Photo by Tabius McCoy/The Atlanta Voice

    When Dr. Lakeysha Hallmon opened Village Books on Mitchell Street this year, the decision was not driven by market trends or retail expansion plans. It was a response rooted in urgency and care.

    A native of Batesville, Mississippi, Hallmon, 44, has spent much of her adult life creating spaces that are grounded in community, culture, and accessibility. The bookstore, which opened in the second week of October, emerged amid rising book bans and renewed national debates over whose histories and voices are preserved and whose are pushed aside.

    “This year, it felt necessary,” Hallmon said. “When books are banned, and stories are erased, especially Black and brown stories, we have to build safety within our community.”

    Hallmon is also the founder of Village Retail, a storefront at Ponce City Market that she opened during the pandemic, highlighting Black-owned brands. She views Village Books as an extension of that work, one that goes beyond retail to create a space for learning, reflection, and cultural connection.

    Photo by Tabius McCoy/The Atlanta Voice

    “The synergy has already been beautiful,” she said. “People expect thoughtfulness and excellence when they walk into our spaces. Not perfection, but intention.”

    Inside Village Books, shelves reflect that philosophy. The store offers a diverse selection across genres and age groups, with a strong emphasis on Black authors and thinkers, alongside works by writers from diverse backgrounds. Literary figures such as Toni Morrison and James Baldwin are also honored through apparel displayed alongside their books, allowing customers to engage with culture in multiple forms.

    Photo by Tabius McCoy/The Atlanta Voice

    Hallmon, an avid reader, personally curated the bookstore’s initial inventory. Her selections were informed not only by publishers and literary agents but also by conversations with family members, including her 17-year-old and 10-year-old nephews, as well as friends who are authors.

    “I wanted depth,” she said. “Books that help people expand their awareness of themselves, of history and of culture.”

    Her relationship with books began early. As a child, Hallmon often spent hours in bookstores while her sister shopped elsewhere. She remembers reading late into the night, tucked under her bed with a flashlight, so absorbed that her mother would have to remind her to eat.

    “It would not surprise my mother at all,” Hallmon said. “I have loved books since I was a kid.”

    Photo by Tabius McCoy/The Atlanta Voice

    Hallmon is one of four siblings, with two sisters and a brother. Her mother, Carolyn Hallmon, died in 2011. Her father, Roger Hallmon, still lives in Mississippi. Hallmon earned her master’s degree from the University of Mississippi and later completed her doctorate at Liberty University.

    Choosing downtown Atlanta, and specifically Mitchell Street, was both strategic and deeply personal. Hallmon’s first experiences in the city came nearly 15 years ago during a visit to the National Black Arts Festival near Underground Atlanta, when she was considering furthering her education at Clark Atlanta University.

    “Downtown holds history and legacy,” she said. “Mitchell Street feels like a neighborhood with promise.”

    While the area lacks the built-in foot traffic of more established retail corridors, Hallmon said she was drawn to its potential, particularly as South Downtown redevelopment continues.

    “Small businesses help define what a city becomes,” she said. “I am drawn to places that do not have to be perfect yet.”

    Opening a bookstore in 2025 amid economic uncertainty, competition from major online retailers, and cultural pushback was a calculated risk. But Hallmon said those conditions only reinforced the urgency of the moment.

    “Either we operate from fear, or we build what our community needs,” she said. “If you build from a place of purpose, people will find you.”

    Looking ahead, Hallmon hopes Village Books becomes a destination for Atlanta readers and thinkers, hosting book talks, signings, and convenings while maintaining its intimate and welcoming feel. Expansion, she said, will focus on deepening quality rather than rapid growth.

    Beyond business, her vision is broader.

    “My hope is that we understand our collective power,” Hallmon said. “That community becomes our default, not just in moments of crisis, but in how we live every day.”

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    Noah Washington

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  • “Gender Queer” tops library group’s annual list of challenged books as works with LBGT themes targeted

    “Gender Queer” tops library group’s annual list of challenged books as works with LBGT themes targeted

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    With Florida legislators barring even the mention of being gay in classrooms and similar restrictions under consideration in other states, a report released Monday says books with LGBTQ+ themes remain the most likely targets of bans or attempted bans at public schools and libraries around the country.

    The American Library Association announced that Maia Kobabe’s graphic memoir “Gender Queer” was the most “challenged” book of 2022, the second consecutive year it has topped the list.

    The ALA defines a challenge as a “formal, written complaint filed with a library or school requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness.”

    Other books facing similar trials include George M. Johnson’s “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” Mike Curato’s “Flamer,” Stephen Chbosky’s “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” John Green’s “Looking for Alaska,” Jonathan Evison’s “Lawn Boy” and Juno Dawson’s “This Book Is Gay.”

    “All the challenges are openly saying that young people should not be exposed to LGBTQ materials,” said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, who directs the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom.

    The list also includes Toni Morrison’s first novel, the 1970 release “The Bluest Eye,” which has been criticized for its references to rape and incest; Sherman Alexie’s “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” (sexual content, profanity) and Sarah J. Maas’ “A Court of Mist and Fury” (sexual content).

    The ALA usually compiles a Top 10 list, but this year expanded it to 13 because the books ranked 10 to 13 were in a virtual tie.

    “In the past, when it was that close, we would flip a coin to see who got in the list. This year, we got rid of the coin,” Caldwell-Stone said.

    The ALA last month reported there were more than 1,200 complaints in 2022 involving more than 2,500 different books, the highest totals since the association began compiling complaints 20 years ago. The number is likely much higher because the ALA relies on media reports and accounts from libraries.

    In charts accompanying Monday’s announcement, the ALA reported the majority of complaints — nearly 60% — come from parents and library patrons. “Political/religious” groups such as the conservative Moms for Liberty account for just 17% of complaints, but they object to a disproportionate number of books, according to Caldwell-Stone. Moms for Liberty, which advocates for parental rights in schools, objected to more than 1,000 books in 2022.

    Caldwell-Stone cited the web site booklooks.org, a popular resource for conservatives to evaluate books that defines itself as “unaffiliated” with Moms for Liberty, but does “communicate with other individuals and groups with whom there is an intersection of mission and values.”

    “Many of the books on our most challenged list appear on booklooks,” Caldwell-Stone said.

    The ALA list followed last week’s report from PEN America, which found a continued rise in book bans at public schools during the first half of the 2022-2023 academic year.

    According to PEN, there were 1,477 individual book bans affecting 874 different titles, up from 1,149 bans in the second half of 2021-2022. “Gender Queer” and “Flamer” tied at 15 for the most times banned during the more recent period, with other frequently banned books including “The Bluest Eye,” “A Court of Mist and Fury” and a graphic novel edition of Margaret Atwood’s dystopian “The Handmaid’s Tale.”

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  • Judge rules online archive’s book service violated copyright

    Judge rules online archive’s book service violated copyright

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    A federal judge has sided with four publishers who sued an online archive over its unauthorized scanning of millions of copyrighted works and offering them for free to the public. Judge John G. Koeltl of U.S. District Court in Manhattan ruled that the Internet Archive was producing “derivative” works that required permission of the copyright holder.

    The Archive was not transforming the books in question into something new, but simply scanning them and lending them as ebooks from its web site.

    “An ebook recast from a print book is a paradigmatic example of a derivative work,” Koeltl wrote.

    The Archive, which announced it would appeal Friday’s decision, has said its actions were protected by fair use laws and has long had a broader mission of making information widely available, a common factor in legal cases involving online copyright.

    “Libraries are more than the customer service departments for corporate database products,” Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle wrote in a blog post Friday. “For democracy to thrive at global scale, libraries must be able to sustain their historic role in society — owning, preserving, and lending books. This ruling is a blow for libraries, readers, and authors and we plan to appeal it.”

    In June 2020, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, John Wiley & Sons, and Penguin Random House sued in response to the Archive’s National Emergency Library, a broad expansion of its ebook lending service begun in the early weeks of the pandemic, when many physical libraries and bookstores had shut down. The publishers sought action against the emergency library and the archive’s older and more limited program, controlled digital lending (CDL). Works by Toni Morrison, J.D. Salinger and Terry Pratchett were among the copyrighted texts publishers cited as being made available.


    An inside look at the Internet Archive

    04:03

    While the Authors Guild was among those opposing the emergency library, some writers praised it. Historian Jill Lepore, in an essay published in March 2020 in The New Yorker, encouraged readers who couldn’t afford to buy books or otherwise were unable to find them during the pandemic to “please: sign up, log on, and borrow!” from the Internet Archive.

    In a statement Friday, the head of the trade group the Association of American Publishers, praised the court decision as an “unequivocal affirmation of the Copyright Act and respect for established precedent.

    “In rejecting convoluted arguments from the defendant, the Court has underscored the importance of authors, publishers, and lawful markets in a global society and global economy. Copying and distributing what is not yours is not innovative — or even difficult — but it is wrong,” said Maria Pallante, the association’s president and CEO.

    The Internet Archive, founded in 1996, is a nonprofit “founded to build an Internet library, with the purpose of offering permanent access for researchers, historians, and scholars to historical collections that exist in digital format.” Unlike traditional libraries, it does not acquire books directly through licensing deals with publishers, but through purchases and donations. The archive also includes millions of movies, TV shows, videos, audio recordings and other materials.

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  • Obama Reveals His NCAA Tournament Bracket Winner Is ‘Song Of Solomon’ By Toni Morrison

    Obama Reveals His NCAA Tournament Bracket Winner Is ‘Song Of Solomon’ By Toni Morrison

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    WASHINGTON—In a social media post sharing his predictions, former President Barack Obama revealed Friday that the winner he had picked for his NCAA basketball tournament bracket was Song Of Solomon by Toni Morrison. “March Madness is here, and this season, my money’s on Song Of Solomon—though I’m certainly keeping my eye on Emily The Criminal and the musical stylings of singer-songwriter Maggie Rogers,” said Obama, whose selections for the Final Four also included the Hulu miniseries Mrs. America, Beyoncé’s Renaissance, and Bob Dylan’s entire songwriting catalog. “Song Of Solomon is an underdog, that’s for sure, but with a National Book Critics Circle Award under its belt, this may be its year. I’m predicting it crushes Nomadland in the second round, easy, but it will still need to get past Jason Isbell if he makes it to the Sweet Sixteen again. As for the women’s tournament, I’m rooting for the National Park System.” At press time, Song of Solomon had been knocked out of the tournament by Gonzaga.

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  • Review: Two publishing power brokers in ‘Turn Every Page’

    Review: Two publishing power brokers in ‘Turn Every Page’

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    Civil wars over semicolons and heated debate over the word “looms” would not, on the face of it, seem like the stuff of a gripping big-screen movie.

    But make no mistake about it, “Turn Every Page,” about the half-century relationship between author Robert Caro and his longtime editor, Robert Gottlieb, is as much a rock ’em, sock ’em clash of heavyweights as found in any blockbuster — just one where the protagonists happen to quote from “King Lear” and Homer’s “Iliad.” The search for a sharpened pencil is about the most pressing issue at hand.

    “He does the work. I do the cleanup. Then we fight,” neatly summarizes Gottlieb in the profoundly charming new documentary directed by his daughter, Lizzie Gottlieb.

    Gottlieb, who has edited Toni Morrison, Charles Portis, Salman Rushdie and many others, is exaggerating, of course. “Turn Every Page” is not about foes, though it’s harder to say if it’s about friends.

    Since Caro’s seminal Robert Moses history “The Power Broker,” they have been locked in a relationship of mutual dedication. Dedication to literature and history, but dedication, above all, to the details. Their journey together more or less started in 1973, when Caro dropped a million-word manuscript on Gottlieb, who knew, 15 pages in, that it was a masterpiece.

    “Turn Every Page,” which opens in theaters Friday, is one of the finest films you’ll see about the craft of editing — not that there are so many of those. Gottlieb, warmly erudite, describes what he does as “a service job” of finding “what will be helpful, what will serve” the text and the writer. But it should be with a strong opinion, he says: “There has to be an equality.”

    On Caro’s request, they aren’t interviewed together in “Turn Every Page,” and each even initially refused Lizzie’s interest in filming them. But as she toggles between each subject, her film leans on their similarities and parallel courses, sustaining the balance of writer-editor back-and-forth.

    They are both Manhattan men of letters with considerable longevity (Caro is 87, Gottlieb 91). They are each authorities on the power centers of New York — Caro in his investigation of Moses, and Gottlieb as the former chief of Alfred A. Knopf, Simon & Schuster and The New Yorker.

    And they are each driven by obsession. Caro can’t help researching every scrap of paper on Lyndon B. Johnson. (He remains at work on the fifth and final volume of “The Years of Lyndon Johnson” ). Gottlieb, a voracious reader (“It had never occurred to me to be anything except a reader,” he says) who has a hobby collecting women’s handbags, for reasons that mystify his wife, Maria Tucci.

    Caro’s fifth LBJ volume is to be their last book together. The question of whether they’ll both live to see it finished, you could say, looms over “Turn Every Page,” as do past battles over the overuse of some of Caro’s favored dramatic words. Disagreements about semicolons are spoken of like Union generals recalling Antietam.

    It is, undeniably, delicious stuff to listen to these war stories, just as it is sometimes chastening to hear of their battle wounds. There may be no more haunting scene in movies this year than Caro describing the pain of cutting 350,000 words — enough for two or three more books — from “The Power Broker.” You believe him, absolutely, when he says it was the hardest thing he’s ever gone through in his life, just as you grasp the immense toil behind his sprawling histories when Caro says, “Writing, for me, anyway, is hard.” That Gottlieb deeply understands and respects this struggle is surely part of his bond with Caro or any writer.

    For Caro, those words have all, naturally, been pecked out on a typewriter. In one moment, he shows the running tally inside the door to his coat closet tracking how many words he managed each day. Caro, private in his work to the point of paranoid prickliness, quickly realizes some of his notes might be too revealing and closes the door. When Caro later gets out a step stool to show the cupboard above the fridge where he nightly stores his carbon ribbons, it feels almost like Kane allowing a glimpse of Rosebud.

    In the film’s sweet finale, Caro and Gottlieb finally let Lizzie film them working together — with a pencil — over a manuscript. But (again by Caro’s request) she’s not allowed to record any sound of their conversation. Their interaction passes like a dance — not as dazzling, perhaps, as one of Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds’ routines, but, in its humble way, just as stirring.

    “Turn Every Page,” a Sony Pictures Classics release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for some language, brief war images and smoking. Running time: 112 minutes. Three and a half stars out of four.

    ———

    Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP

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  • Robert Caro, Gottlieb and the mystic chords of memory

    Robert Caro, Gottlieb and the mystic chords of memory

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    NEW YORK — Robert A. Caro and his editor, Robert Gottlieb, know each other so well.

    After a half-century together, the pair have lived in each other’s minds for so long that they can anticipate what the other will say. Their collaborations on such epics as “The Power Broker” and the yet unfinished “The Years of Lyndon Johnson” series have established Caro as a leading historian and helped confirm Gottlieb — whose roster has included Toni Morrison, Doris Lessing and Joseph Heller — as one of publishing’s most accomplished editors.

    But the two Bobs — the subjects of a new documentary, “Turn Every Page,” made by the editor’s daughter Lizzie Gottlieb — are also known for how they diverge.

    Caro, from his office on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, and Gottlieb, speaking by phone from his home on the island’s other side, shared contrasting memories on personal and editorial matters during recent interviews with The Associated Press.

    ———

    Whether Gottlieb has ever praised Caro:

    Caro: “I can honestly say that say that no such remarks have been made to me. The only remark that ever fell anywhere near that category is when we finished editing ‘Means of Ascent’ (his first Lyndon Johnson book). We worked on it all summer. And we were cutting it for some New Yorker excerpts and I think he said, ‘Not bad.’”

    “He likes to believe that,” Gottlieb, who in the film called Caro a genius, responds. “I can’t imagine working with someone that long without at least saying, ‘Hey, pretty good.’”

    ———

    On semicolons:

    Caro: “He thinks I use too many semicolons. That sounds small. It’s not small in our editing process.”

    Gottlieb: “I don’t believe that’s so. He is more focused on this than I am.”

    ———

    Whether Caro cares more than Gottlieb does about sentence rhythms:

    Caro: “He doesn’t believe it’s as important as I do.”

    Gottlieb: “It’s in his head, not mine.”

    ———

    They do agree on their happiness with the documentary releasing Dec. 30 and their regard for Lizzie Gottlieb, who thought of the film after seeing Caro present her father with an award in 2014. Lizzie Gottlieb, who also made “Today’s Man” about her brother, approached the two men separately and was initially turned down by both. Robert Gottlieb came around within weeks; Caro, months later, impressed by her willingness to keep asking.

    “She reminds me of me,” Caro, a former investigative reporter for Newsday, says. “She won’t quit and that’s a big reason I agreed to it.”

    Caro and Gottlieb may differ on details but the record is otherwise laid out clearly in “Turn Every Page,” the title inspired by advice from a Newsday editor on approaching research.

    Caro and Gottlieb first met in the early 1970s, when Caro was struggling to find a publisher for his first book: “The Power Broker,” a biography of New York urban planner Robert Moses. He was broke, had sold his home on Long Island and was living in presumed obscurity with his family in a Bronx apartment. Gottlieb, meanwhile, was head of Alfred A. Knopf.

    In what he calls the week that changed his life, Caro found both the agent and editor who remain with him now. He spoke with the agent Lynn Nesbit, who assured him that his work was well known around town and that, with a phone call, she could solve his money problems. Nesbit recommended a handful of editors, Gottlieb among them.

    “He had interesting things to say about ‘The Power Broker,’” Caro recalls. “I didn’t agree with a lot of the things he was saying, but he was speaking at a level, analyzing the book at a level that other editors weren’t.”

    Their longevity is miraculous if only because “The Power Broker” might have ended even the closest of partnerships. Caro’s original draft ran more than 1 million words and had to be narrowed to around 700,000 — equivalent to a couple of books in its own right — just to make a single volume physically possible. Their arguments were long and angry, sometimes ending with one of them “stalking out of the room,” Caro recalls. But the finished text, released in 1974 and running more than 1,200 pages, was a Pulitzer Prize winner now widely regarded as a classic of city governance, urban planning and the realities of politics.

    Author and editor had only begun. Caro had been under contract to write a book on former New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, but feared repeating material from his Moses research. He looked instead to a leader who would fit his ambition to document the uses and effects of political power on a national scale: Lyndon Johnson. Gottlieb had similar thoughts, and remembered the two bringing up the late president (who died in 1973) at the same time during a meeting.

    A planned three-volume series has expanded to five, with the end date still undetermined a decade after the fourth book, “The Passage of Power,” was released. Caro, who is planning a trip to Vietnam for research, says he is not close to finishing.

    He praises Gottlieb for accepting, without hesitation, the ever-growing scale of his work. He and Gottlieb long ago forged an unspoken agreement that Gottlieb never asks when the manuscript is coming, and Caro shows him nothing until he has a finished draft.

    “I get so much mail, all with the same question: ‘When is Volume 5 going to be finished?’” Caro says. “That you feel really good about, because it’s encouraging. But some then say, ‘Do you know how old you are?’”

    The two Bobs were in their 40s when the Johnson project began. Caro is now 87, Gottlieb 91.

    “Bob and I don’t sit around and talk about it,” Gottlieb says. “We know how the clock ticks.”

    The banter between Caro and Gottlieb at times seems fraternal. They are both “nice little Jewish boys from Manhattan,” Gottlieb observes, bookish children who went on to Ivy League colleges (Gottlieb studied at Columbia, Caro at Princeton) and the very heights of achievement. Both are well spoken, confident in their abilities and what they’re after. Both have even been known to wear horn-rimmed glasses.

    They have just enough in common for their differences to matter.

    For decades, the two never socialized. Lizzie Gottlieb came to know Heller, Lessing and some of her father’s other authors well, but says she had never met Caro until he turned 80. Time, and “Turn Every Page,” helped bring them closer. When Gottlieb is asked if he now thinks of Caro as a friend, he quickly answers yes. Caro’s response is a work in progress, as if issued in succeeding volumes.

    “Well, it’s gotten a lot friendlier,” he initially responds. “I certainly didn’t think of him as a friend when we were doing ‘The Power Broker’ or the first volume of (the Lyndon Johnson series). I’m not the kind of person who thinks of my editor as a friend.”

    But are they friends now?

    “Now we have lunches together. I love to talk about books with him,” Caro says.

    So they’re friends?

    “We’re friendly, but he’s still my editor.”

    He then explains how they don’t fight often anymore, that revisions work far more smoothly and quickly than years ago.

    “Things have evolved,” he concludes. “Are we friends now? Yes.”

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