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Sara Franklin is a journalist whose 2016 PhD dissertation included extensive interviews with the late influential Knopf book editor, Judith Jones (1924-2017). Though Jones had written a few memoir-like works herself toward the end of her life, Franklin's goal in writing The Editor was write a more in-depth biography that doesn't sugarcoat the more challenging aspects of Jones' life and provides it more historical context. The result is a very readable, interesting work.

Judith Jones had a 50+ year career as a book editor at the Knopf publishing house, where she is best known for being the long-time editor for prominent authors in the culinary space (Julia Child, Edna Lewis, James Beard and others) as well as in the fiction space (Anne Tyler, John Updike, and briefly, Sylvia Plath). Before her tenure at Knopf, she worked briefly for Doubleday in Paris and was instrumental in the English publication of The Diary of Anne Frank.

As someone unfamiliar with the publishing industry, this was a fascinating read. I was surprised at how hands-on Jones was with her culinary writers, specifically, spending enormous amounts of time cooking their recipes to test for feasibility and quality in addition to editing the words on the page. I also enjoyed learning about Jones' life outside of work; I think Franklin did a good job of balancing the historical perspective and not posthumously judging Jones by today's standards.

My statistics:
Book 13 for 2025
Book 1939 cumulatively