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From the End of World War 2, to the Cold War (Introduction)
Judith Jones Editor Knopf, Jones
Judith Jones began her career as a secretary at the Paris Doubleday office at the age of 25 and built a career that would last for more than five decades. The majority of her time was spent wading through slush piles and passing on projects until one day a book caught her eye. After reading the book in one sitting, she begged her bosses to publish the book, which they did a year later, the book was The Diary of Anne Frank.
As an editor at Knopf for over fifty years, Jones nurtured the careers of literary icons such as Sylvia Plath, Anne Tyler, and John Updike, as well as helped launch new genres and trends. During the Cookbook Revolution, she published Edna Lewis, M.F.K. Fisher, Claudia Roden, Madhur Jaffery, James Beard and famously Julia Child. As a result of her quiet yet tenacious work behind the scenes, Jones transformed these authors into household names, changing cultural mores and expectations.
In addition to her work covering decades of America’s most dramatic cultural changes from the end of World War II to the Cold War, from the Civil Rights Movement to the fight for women’s equality, many of her books served as tools of quiet resistance.
To Be Continued…
Copyright ©️ Michelle R Kidwell
March.02.2024
