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Robert Benjamin Silvers (born December 31, 1929) is an American editor who has served as editor of ''The New York Review of Books'' since 1963. According to John Richardson in a 2007 ''Vanity Fair'' article, "Jason Epstein's assessment of Silvers as 'The most brilliant editor of a magazine ever to have worked in this country' has been 'shared by virtually all of us who have been published by Robert Silvers'".〔Richardson, John. "The Silvers Age", ''Vanity Fair'', June 1, 2007〕 Raised in Long Island, New York, Silvers graduated from the University of Chicago in 1947 and attended Yale Law School, but he left before graduating and worked as press secretary to Chester Bowles in 1950. He was sent by the Army to Paris in 1952 as a speechwriter and press aide, while finishing his education at the Sorbonne and Sciences Po. He soon joined the ''The Paris Review'' as an editor under the guidance of George Plimpton. From 1959 to 1963, he was an associate editor of ''Harper's Magazine'' in New York. Silvers was co-editor of the ''Review'' with Barbara Epstein for over 40 years until her death in 2006 and has been the sole editor of the magazine since then. "Like a chemist pairing ingredients to induce a specific reaction, Silvers has built his career matching the right author and subject, in hopes of generating an exciting and illuminating result."〔Marino, Philip. ("Book Smart" ), ''The University of Chicago Magazine'', University of Chicago, May–June 2012, accessed June 25, 2014〕 Silvers has edited or co-edited several essay anthologies and supervises the ''Reviews book publishing arm, New York Review Books. He appears prominently in the 2014 documentary film about the ''Review'', ''The 50 Year Argument''. Among other awards and honorary degrees, he has received the National Book Foundation's Literarian Award, the American Academy of Arts and Letters' Award for "Distinguished Service to the Arts", the Ivan Sandrof Award for Lifetime Achievement in Publishing and a National Humanities Medal. Among other honors, he is a Chevalier of the French Légion d’honneur and a member of the French Ordre National du Mérite. ==Life and career== Silvers was born in Mineola, New York and grew up in Farmingdale and then Rockville Centre, New York, the son of James J. Silvers (1892–1986), a salesman, sometime farmer and entrepreneur, and Rose Roden Silvers (1895–1979), a music critic for the ''New York Globe'' and one of the first female radio hosts for RCA. He had one brother, Edwin D. Silvers (1927–2000), a civil engineer.〔〔Cooke, Rachel. ("Robert Silvers interview: 'Someone told me Martin Scorsese might be interested in making a film about us. And he was'" ), ''The Observer'', ''The Guardian'', 7 June 2014〕 He graduated from the University of Chicago in 1947 (at age 17) and briefly attended Yale Law School.〔Kolhatkar, Sheelah. (Profile of Robert Silvers, ) ''The New York Observer'', December 18, 2005〕〔Danner, Mark. ("Editing the New York Review of Books: A Conversation with Robert B. Silvers" ), April 28, 1999 Interview at U.C. Berkeley; and ("Robert Silvers on ''The Company They Kept''" ), The Book Show, September 20, 2006, accessed April 20, 2009〕 Silvers worked as press secretary to Connecticut Governor Chester Bowles in 1950, who was campaigning for reelection.〔Stokes, Emily. ("Lunch with the FT: Robert B Silvers" ), ''Financial Times'', January 25, 2013〕 During the Korean War he served in the U.S. Army, which sent him to the SHAPE Headquarters in Paris in 1952 as a speechwriter and press aide.〔Gevisser, Mark. ("Robert Silvers on the Paris and New York ''Reviews''" ), ''The Paris Review'', March 20, 2012〕 At the same time, he attended the Sorbonne and Paris Institute of Political Studies (best known as Sciences Po), eventually receiving its ''certificate''.〔 In 1954, he met and befriended George Plimpton, and upon his discharge from the Army a few months later,〔 he joined editorial board of Plimpton's ''The Paris Review'', as managing editor,〔Silvers, Robert. ("The Revel: 8, rue Garancière" ), Remarks made on April 3, 2012 at ''The Paris Review'', printed May 7, 2012〕 while continuing his studies.〔 He was promoted to Paris editor of ''The Paris Review'' in 1956.〔 From 1959 to 1963, Silvers was associate editor of ''Harper's Magazine'', in New York,〔 where he edited an issue on the state of writing in America, engaging Elizabeth Hardwick to contribute her essay "The Decline of Book Reviewing"; this would become an inspiration for the founding of ''The New York Review of Books''.〔 He also edited the book ''Writing in America'' and translated ''La Gangrene'', which describes the brutal torture of seven Algerian men by the Paris Security Police in 1958, shortly after Charles de Gaulle came to power.〔Church, Christopher. ("Testament to Torture: The Gangrene Affair", ) ''Journal of Undergraduate Research'', Vol. 8, Issue 3, January/February 2007〕〔Haffner, Peter. ("We Do What We Want" ), 032c, Issue #23, Winter 2012/2013, accessed July 21, 2014〕 For 43 years, beginning in 1963, Silvers and Barbara Epstein edited the ''New York Review of Books'' together, until 2006, when Epstein died of cancer.〔McGrath, Charles. ("Barbara Epstein, Editor and Literary Arbiter, Dies at 77", ) ''The New York Times'', June 17, 2006, accessed April 20, 2009〕 Since then, Silvers has been the sole editor. He has described his motivation for continuing to edit the ''Review'' as follows: "I feel it's a fantastic opportunity – because of the freedom of it, because of the sense that there are marvelous, intensely interesting, important questions that you have a chance to try to deal with in an interesting way. That's an extraordinary opportunity in life. And you'd be crazy not to try and make the most of it."〔 Asked in December 2007 about who might succeed him as editor, the 78-year-old Silvers demurred, "It's not a question that's posing itself".〔Neyfakh, Leon. (What's New at The New York Review of Books?" ) ''The New York Observer'', December 13, 2007〕 When ''The New York Times'' renewed the question in 2012, Silvers said, "I can think of several people who would be marvelous editors."〔McGrath, Charles. ("Editor Not Ready to Write an Ending" ), ''The New York Times'', March 16, 2012〕 Silvers has also edited or co-edited several essay anthologies, including ''Writing in America'' (1960); A Middle East Reader: Selected Essays on the Middle East'' (1991); ''The First Anthology: Thirty Years of the New York Review'' (1993); ''Hidden Histories of Science'' (1995); ''India: A Mosaic'' (2000); ''Doing It: Five Performing Arts'' (2001); ''The Legacy of Isaiah Berlin'' (2001); ''Striking Terror'' (2002); ''The Company They Kept'' (vol. 1, 2006; vol. 2, 2011); ''The Consequences to Come: American Power After Bush'' (2008); and ''The New York Review Abroad: Fifty Years of International Reportage'' (2013).〔(Books published by the ''NY Review'' ); and ("The New York Review Abroad: Fifty Years of International Reportage" ), ''Publishers Weekly'', February 4, 2103〕 In 2009, he wrote the essay "Dilemmas eines Herausgebers" ("Dilemmas of an editor") appearing in the Austrian journal ''Transit – Europäische Revue''.〔("Charismatic megafauna" ). ''Eurozine'', January 13, 2010 review of articles including "Dilemmas of an Editor" in ''Transit – Europäische Revue'', vol. 38 (2009)〕 He also served on the editorial committee of ''La Rivista dei Libri'', the Italian language edition of the ''Review''〔Freedlander, David. ("Bloomberg Names Winners of Inaugural NYC Literary Awards" ), Politicker.com, April 26, 2012〕 until it closed in 2010.〔Erbani, Francesco. ("''la Rivista dei Libri'' ha Deciso di Chiudere ma Torna Alfabeta" ), ''la Repubblica'', May 12, 2010, accessed February 5, 2013 (in Italian)〕 A ''Financial Times'' interviewer, Emily Stokes, wrote in 2013 that Silvers views editing as "an instinct. You must choose writers carefully, having read all of their work, rather than being swayed by 'reputations that are, shall we say, overpromoted', and then anticipate their needs, sending them books and news articles" while seeking greater clarity, comprehensiveness and freshness in the writing.〔 Stokes commented that Silvers "radiates a genial warmth (told her that ) it is part of the editor's role ... not to be swayed by friendships with authors but to let reviewers express their genuine views."〔 Silvers described some of the diplomatic aspects of the job: "The act of reviewing can have a deep emotional effect. People get hurt and upset. You have to be aware of that, but you can't flinch. (must also reject reviews ) sometimes. You say, 'No, I'm terribly sorry, I can't visualise that in the paper. I don't think it's adequate to the subject.'"〔 Silvers, linked romantically in the 1960s with Lady Caroline Blackwood,〔Brubach, Holly. ("Their Better Half" ). ''The New York Times'', 17 August 2010〕〔Gaines, Steven. ("Ivana Lowell, Sober Guinness Heiress Raised by Poet, Says What Happened" ). ''New Yorker'' magazine, September 19, 2010〕 has lived with Grace, Countess of Dudley (b. 1923; widow of the 3rd Earl of Dudley)〔Lundy, Darryl, ed. ("Grace Maria Kolin" ). ''ThePeerage.com'', 28 September 2010〕 since 1975,〔 with whom he shares a passion for opera.〔Scott, Janny. ("Ideas: One Mind, But What A Mind; Defining the Passions Of the Liberal Elite For Over 2 Decades", ) ''The New York Times'', November 1, 1997〕〔 Silvers commented that Dudley's "fineness of mind and spirit has been the center of my life."〔 A long-time pescetarian, Silvers "was struck by the essays of ... moral philosopher Peter Singer, who has written extensively about animal rights."〔 ''The 50 Year Argument'', a 2014 documentary film about the ''Review'' co-directed by Martin Scorsese,〔Cooke, Rachel. ("Robert Silvers interview: 'Someone told me Martin Scorsese might be interested in making a film about us. And he was'" ), ''The Observer'', ''The Guardian'', 7 June 2014〕 is "'()nchored by the old-world charm' of its editor, Robert Silvers".〔Dalton, Stephen. ("''The 50 Year Argument'': Sheffield Review" ), ''Hollywood Reporter'', June 7, 2014〕〔Knelman, Martin. ("Scorsese takes a break from the Mean Streets in ''The 50 Year Argument''" ), ''Toronto Star'', January 20, 2015〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Robert B. Silvers」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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