Orville Prescott

Orville Prescott (born September 8, 1906 in Cleveland , Ohio , † April 28, 1996 in New Canaan , Connecticut ) was an American literary critic . From 1942 to 1966 he was the chief editor of the New York Times .

Prescott studied English Philology at Williams College ( BA 1930) and began his journalistic career with the local newspaper Town Tidings in Cleveland, later he switched to Newsweek . As a literary critic, he first appeared as a freelancer in the 1930s with reviews for the New York Herald Tribune and the New York Times . In 1942 the Times hired him as a permanent editor; Here he published up to four book reviews per week until his retirement in 1966 and thus exerted a great influence on the American literary scene. His taste in literature was markedly conservative, he was skeptical of formal experiments, especially works that offend his sense of morality. This earned him the wrath of Gore Vidal , who targeted Prescott's pettiness in several of his essays.

His son Peter S. Prescott (1935-2004) also made a name for himself as a literary critic.

Works (selection)

• In My Opinion: An Inquiry into the Contemporary Novel . Bobbs-Merrill, Indianapolis 1952.
• The Five-Dollar Gold Piece: The Development of a Point of View . Random House, New York 1956. (autobiography)
• Princes of the Renaissance . Random House, New York 1969.
• Lords of Italy: Portraits from the Middle Ages . Harper & Row, New York 1972.

Web links

• Mel Gussow: Orville Prescott, Times Book Critic for 24 Years, Dies at 89 ( New York Times obituary , April 30, 1996).