TED SOLOTAROFF (1928-2008) was a distinguished editor, critic, lecturer and memoirist. He was the founding editor of New American Review, later American Review (1967-1977), the most widely read and influential literary magazine of its time. He previously had edited Commentary and Book Week and later was a senior editor at Harper & Row. He is the author of the memoirs Truth Comes in Blows, which received the 1998 PEN award for the art of the memoir, and First Loves.

“Many writers, but perhaps not enough readers, know just how vital, creative and central a figure Ted Solotaroff has been in contemporary letters; as the most influential editor of his time, he shaped not only tastes, but the direction of American writing. These essays provide an insight into the genius of the editor. They reflect wise judgement and tough-minded individuality, enormously approachable prose weathered by the years and wide reading into a delightfully measured tone, a warm literary intelligence, a distinct authority you can immediately trust.”—Ian McEwan

"The literary community Solotaroff describes and, in his odd, varied way, helps create, is one intelligent feeling people want to inhabit. Here the idiosyncratic, modest, insular, naive and mad fuse with comprehensive sanity, grandeur and beauty."—Richard Sterm