Gentleman editor

I liked the affectionate portrait of Robert Silvers, editor of the New York Review of Books, in the current issue of Guardian Books. Silvers and his co-editor Barbara Epstein are throw-backs to a more literate America:

"There is only one story you need to know about Bob," says the writer Timothy Garton Ash. "Four o'clock on Christmas day: the family is gathered around the turkey, and the phone rings. It's Bob. 'Tim,' he says, 'How are you doing? On column six of the third galley, there's a dangling modifier.'"

Well, if there is only one story you need to know about Bob I guess you don’t need to read the article now, but go on – it’s a nice picture of a world and a system of values that is slipping away.