Robert B. Silvers is editor of The New York Review of Books. Prior to joining the Review, Mr. Silvers was, from 1959 to 1963, associate editor of Harper's magazine, editor of the book Writing in America and translator of La Gangrene. Before that, Mr. Silvers lived in Paris for six years (1952 to 1958), where he served with the U.S. Army at SHAPE Headquarters and attended the Sorbonne and Ecole des Sciences Politiques. He joined the editorial board of The Paris Review in 1954 and became Paris editor in 1956. He also worked as press secretary to Governor Chester Bowles in 1950. Mr. Silvers, who graduated from the University of Chicago in 1947, was born in Mineola, New York. »

The Company They Kept (paperback)

Writers on Unforgettable Friendships

Edited by Robert B. Silvers
Edited by Barbara Epstein

Now in paperback

Many of the illustrious contributors to The New York Review of Books have had deep and abiding relationships–both personal and intellectual—with other poets, writers, artists, composers, and scientists of equal stature. The Company They Kept is a collection of twenty-seven accounts of these varied friendships—most of them undeniably fraught with "idiosyncratic complexities." From Anna Akhmatova's dreamlike description of wandering through Paris with the impoverished Modigliani to Joseph Brodsky's account of his first meeting with Isaiah Berlin (from which he returned to report, around the kitchen table, to Stephen Spender and W. H. Auden), these pieces are tantalizing glimpses into the lives of those who have made The New York Review of Books into what Esquire magazine calls"the premier literary-intellectual magazine in the English language."

Reviews

...[a] smart and eclectic collection.
— Publishers Weekly

Whether fond or surprisingly frank, these essays are soothing in their intimacy, their acceptance of fallible fellow humans.
— O Magazine

An extraordinarily striking, moving and delicious collection of short essays...The writing in most of these essays is dazzling, the anecdotes and insights even more so. It is a superb collection of vignettes, and their variety throws more light on the diversity and possibilities than a treatise could.
— The Financial Times

Robert B. Silvers and Barbara Epstein co-edited The New York Review of Books for 43 years, until Epstein died in June. Over those decades, contributors to the Review have written about their personal relationships, and this volume brings together 27 memoirs of friendship. This volume should be read piece by marvelous piece: Robert Oppenheimer on Delmore Schwartz, Saul Bellow on John Cheever, Susan Sontag on Paul Goodman.
— The Chicago Tribune

When some of Stravinsky's disciples suggested that Robert Craft write the great composer's biography, Craft countered that long friendship disqualified him: "I was too close to Stravinsky to do this." Precisely because they value a perspective that brings us closer to a great creator than a biographer ever could, Silvers and Epstein have assembled a remarkable set of essays by friends of prominent musicians, scientists, poets, and novelists. Only the close proximity of friendship allows readers to glimpse Einstein taking rare delight in a day of sailing, Roethke playing tennis with fierce abandon, and Kesey playing enchanting melodies on the wandering bus he shared with his Merry Pranksters. seeing through the eyes of friends permits readers to glimpse titans up close, without the often-dehumanizing lenses of theory or ideology. Even the political passions of Mary McCarthy part long enough to disclose a woman too spontaneous to keep a diary, too homespun to let others grind her coffee beans. These wonderful reminiscences will renew readers' appreciation for those unpredictable joys shared between all close friends.
— Booklist

Sign up for our free email newsletters for updates and special offers on NYRB books.