Stet : An Editor's Life by Diana Athill - used book

For nearly five decades Diana Athill edited (nursed, coerced, and coaxed) some of the most celebrated writers in the English language. Stet is her "charming and insightful memoir of life in a publishing house when it was possible to be small, live hand to mouth, and attract big authors" (Bookseller). A founding editor of the prestigious literary publishing house Andre Deutsch Ltd., Athill takes us on a guided tour through the corridors of literary London, illuminating the portraits of some of the century's most fascinating writers from her unique and privileged perspective as editor, friend, and keenly observant insider. Vividly evocative and engaging, Stet is spiced with candid observations about the type of people who make brilliant writers and ingenious publishers, and the idiosyncrasies of both; and it is enlivened by her memories of such great literary figures as Jean Rhys, V. S. Naipaul, Gitta Sereny, Norman Mailer, Philip Roth, Mordecai Richler, and a host of others. Most of all, it is Athill's voice that captivates -- intimate, lively, generous, humorous -- the voice of a favorite aunt who is as warm and big-hearted as she is worldly and irreverent. Packed with delights, this is a book about the world of books, about people who write them and the process of making them, a world dissected with sharp and irresistible honesty. Stet is an invaluable contribution to the literature of literature.