Jason Wolkow Epstein (August 25, 1928 – February 4, 2022) was an American editor and publisher. He was the editorial director of Random House from 1976 to 1995. He also co-founded The New York Review of Books in 1963.
Early life
Epstein was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on August 25, 1928. His father, Robert, worked as a partner in the family textile business; his mother, Gladys (Shapiro), was a housewife. His family was Jewish. An only child, he attended public schools in Milton, Massachusetts, completing high school at age 15. earning $45 a week. This was the first so-called Quality Paperbacks, which quickly became the dominant paperback format. In 1954 Anchor Books won the Carey–Thomas Award.
Epstein left Doubleday in 1958, frustrated at the company's refusal to publish Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel, Lolita. Benzion Netanyahu, Peter Matthiessen, and Paul Kennedy. He also worked with Ted Geisel, better known as Dr Seuss, who arrived with storyboards to recite "Green Eggs and Ham". He later published The Reader's Catalogue of 40,000 titles available by mail order, an analog precursor of online book selling. In 2004, he co-founded On Demand Books, marketer of the Espresso Book Machine, which reproduces a paperback book from a digital file in a few minutes. Epstein predicted that the Espresso Book Machine will supplant the 500-year-old Gutenberg printing press technology. He was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award of the National Book Critics Circle in 2001, before being conferred the Philolexian Award for Distinguished Literary Achievement six years later.
Publications
His essays and reviews have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New York Review of Books, and Condé Nast Traveler, among other publications. He is the author of the following books:
- Book Business: Publishing Past, Present and Future. W. W. Norton & Company (2001)
- Eating: A Memoir. A. A. Knopf (2010)
- East Hampton: A History and Guide (with Elizabeth Barlow) Random House (1985)
- The Great Conspiracy Trial: An Essay on Law, Liberty, and the Constitution. Random House (1970)
In his book, Book Business: Publishing Past, Present, and Future, Epstein writes about working in the New York offices of Random House. He tells of: W. H. Auden delivering the manuscript of The Dyer's Hand in a torn overcoat and slippers; Dr. Seuss reciting Green Eggs and Ham to the staff; Terry Southern writing scenes for Dr. Strangelove on a wooden table in the basement; a diffident Andy Warhol bowing and scraping to Epstein; John O'Hare showing off his Rolls-Royce in the courtyard; and Ralph Ellison smoking a cigar in Epstein's office and using his hands to explain "how Thelonious Monk developed his chords."
E.L. Doctorow's novel Billy Bathgate was dedicated to Epstein.
Personal life
Epstein married Barbara Zimmerman in 1954. They met while working at Doubleday, and their fathers knew each other.