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Richard Jackson, editor

Richard JacksonI just hand­ed in a new book to my edi­tor Richard Jack­son. When pub­lished, it will be the twen­ty-sec­ond book I have worked on with him. The books he edit­ed include The True Con­fes­sions of Char­lotte Doyle, Noth­ing but the Truth, Pop­py, The Man who was Poe—among the books for which I am best known. Oth­er writ­ers will tell you the same. If you match his name with the big awards in the children’s book world, he has been asso­ci­at­ed with more win­ners than any oth­er editor.

What is he like to work with? I can only tell you how he works with me, because one aspect of his edi­to­r­i­al skill is that he works dif­fer­ent­ly with dif­fer­ent writ­ers. That is to say, he is keen­ly tuned into the writ­ing style and per­son­al­i­ty of the many dif­fer­ent peo­ple with whom he works. I have no idea how he worked with Paula Fox, Gar­ry Paul­son, or Judy Blume, to name three very dif­fer­ent writ­ers with whom he has worked. There is some­thing of the chameleon in him—in a pos­i­tive way. I once asked him how he would like to be in a room full of his writ­ers. He vis­i­bly winced.

He has always edit­ed many, many books, but when­ev­er I spoke to him, he was instant­ly there, in my project, as if he had noth­ing else to do, or need­ed to think about oth­er text than that project. Many a time, when I thought a book was done, he would call and say, “I’ve been think­ing…” and what he has thought about was some­thing miss­ing and vital to the book.

His instincts are very sharp, and indeed, he’s a very smart, an intel­li­gent per­son, who grasps what the writer intends, and then some. He knows lit­er­a­ture. He sees what the writer can do. He will ask ques­tions, not tell you what to do, though he has nev­er ducked mark­ing up a man­u­script. Inevitably the writer—this writer anyway—in the process comes to under­stand an aspect of the work not ful­ly under­stood before. His line edit­ing is of the same high order, cut­ting away the chaff, bring­ing forth the intent.

When we have talked about books in process I always came away ener­gized with a new sense of clar­i­ty, of being chal­lenged. And it must be said we talk about oth­er things oth­er than the cur­rent book. We share cer­tain interests—theatre, for example—and our talks are punc­tu­at­ed by a lot of laugh­ter. It is fun for me to talk to him, a much loved and admired friend, a col­league, with­out doubt fun­da­men­tal to my life as a writer.

The most amaz­ing thing about him, is that I know there are many oth­er writ­ers who can say the same thing.

3 thoughts on “Richard Jackson, editor”

  1. Richard Jack­son is a leg­end. I was com­plete­ly starstruck when I had a chance to meet him last year. I think he per­son­i­fies what a good per­son is– a sense of humor, engaged in the moment and wide­ly knowl­edge­able about the world of the arts and more. Per­haps edit­ing has giv­en him a chance to be the first read­er for many great books and made them greater by see­ing their pos­si­bil­i­ties. Thank you for acknowl­edg­ing the impact he has had on your work. I hope there are many such edi­tors com­ing up int he trench­es. We need them.

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  2. How did your work with him begin? Was he “assigned” as a house edi­tor or did you con­nect in some oth­er way? How does an author new to the field find an edi­tor like yours?

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