Robert McCrum

Robert McCrum
Born	John Robert McCrum (1953-07-07) 7 July 1953 (age 72) Cambridge, England
Education	Sherborne School
Alma mater	Corpus Christi College, Cambridge University of Pennsylvania
Occupation(s)	Writer, editor
Parent(s)	Michael William McCrum and Christine McCrum [1]
Website	robertmccrumuk.com

John Robert McCrum (born 7 July 1953) is an English writer and editor who held senior editorial positions at Faber & Faber over seventeen years, followed by a long association with The Observer .

Early life and education

The son of Michael William McCrum, a Cambridge-educated ancient historian, Robert McCrum was born in Cambridge on 7 July 1953. ^[2] He was educated at Sherborne School, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (MA (Cantab)), and the University of Pennsylvania as a Thouron Scholar. ^{[1] [3]}

Career

McCrum was editorial director at Faber & Faber from 1979 to 1989 ^[4] and editor-in-chief there from 1990 to 1996. ^[5] He served as literary editor of The Observer for more than ten years. In May 2008 he was appointed associate editor of The Observer. ^[6]

McCrum is the co-author of The Story of English with William Cran and Robert MacNeil and wrote P. G. Wodehouse: A Life. McCrum's novel Suspicion was published in 1997. ^[7]

McCrum received an honorary doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 2011. ^[8]

In August 2017, McCrum's Every Third Thought: On life, death and the endgame was published, ^[9] taking its title from Shakespeare's play The Tempest . ^[10] The book was adapted and broadcast as BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week the following month. ^[11]

Personal life

In July 1995, McCrum suffered a massive stroke. ^[12] The devastating experience and his recovery is chronicled in My Year Off: Recovering Life After a Stroke. He had been married to Sarah Lyall, an American journalist, for only two months, ^[1] and the book includes diary entries made by his wife. He also became a patron of the UK charity Different Strokes, which provides information and support for younger stroke survivors.

Lyall, who writes for The New York Times , lived in London from 1995 to 2013 and was the newspaper's London correspondent. She returned to New York with the couple's daughters in 2013; Lyall and McCrum later divorced. ^[13]

McCrum describes himself as "a confused non-believer". ^[14]

Bibliography

Fiction

• In the Secret State. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1980.
• A Loss of Heart. 1982
• The Fabulous Englishman UK: Hamish Hamilton Ltd, 1984.
• Mainland. New York: Knopf, 1991.
• The Psychological Moment. London: Martin Secker & Warburg, 1993.
• Jubilee. New York: Knopf, 1994. ISBN   0-679-42987-5 ^[15]
• Suspicion. New York: Norton, 1997. ISBN   0-393-04046-1

Non-fiction

• The Story of English. New York: Elisabeth Sifton, 1986. (With William Cran and Robert MacNeil)
• My Year Off: Recovering Life After a Stroke. New York: Norton, 1998. ISBN   0-393-04656-7 ISBN   978-0393046564 ^[16]
• P. G. Wodehouse: A Life. New York: Norton, 2004. ISBN   978-0-393-05159-9 ^[17]
• Globish: How the English Language Became the World's Language. New York: Norton, 2010. ISBN   978-0-393-06255-7 ^[18]
• The 100 Best Novels in English. London: Galileo, 2015. ISBN   978-1-903-38542-5
• Every Third Thought: On Life, Death and the Endgame. London: Picador, 2017. ISBN   978-1-5098-1528-9
• The 100 Best Non Fiction Books of All Time. London: Galileo, 2018. ISBN   978-1-9033-8583-8 ^[19]
• Shakespearean. New York London: Pegasus Books, 2021. ISBN   978-1-64313-789-6 ^[20]

References

1. "WEDDINGS; Sarah L. Lyall, Robert McCrum". The New York Times . 14 May 1995.
2. "McCrum, Robert 1953–". encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 8 October 2023.
3. "Writers in the Family" (PDF). The Thouron Awards. 2013–2014. p. 9. Retrieved 8 October 2023.
4. Foster, Sara; Gullen, Zoe, eds. (2001). Debrett's People of Today (2002 ed.). London: Debrett's. ISBN   9781870520164.
5. McCrum, Robert (25 May 2008). "Have blogs been good for books?". The Guardian . Archived from the original on 8 September 2008. Retrieved 25 May 2008.
6. McCrum, Robert (25 May 2008). "A thriller in ten chapters". The Observer . Retrieved 25 May 2008.
7. Rodgers, Linda (6 April 1997). "Suspicion – Review". NY Times Books.
8. "Honorary Graduates" (PDF). Heriot-Watt University. p. 19. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 November 2015. Retrieved 27 September 2022.
9. McCrum, Robert (24 August 2017). Every Third Thought: On life, death and the endgame (hardback ed.). Picador. ISBN   978-1509815289.
10. Morrison, Blake (6 July 2014). "Every Third Thought by Robert McCrum review – how to think about death". The Guardian . London. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
11. Reader: Nicky Henson; Author: Robert McCrum; Abridger: Barry Johnston; Producer: David Roper (4 September 2017). "Book of the Week: Every Third Thought Episode 1 of 5". Book of the Week . BBC. BBC Radio 4. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
12. McCrum, Robert (13 August 2017). "'Words are the best weapons with which to come to terms with ageing'". The Observer.
13. "'Sometimes I felt loud and gauche, like a guest who shows up at a memorial service wearing a Hawaiian shirt': the thoughts of a New York Times correspondent on leaving London". Evening Standard . 23 August 2013. Retrieved 27 September 2022.
14. "When thoughts often turn to death". The Economist . 19 August 2017. Retrieved 27 September 2022.
15. McCrum, Robert (1994). Jubilee (1st American ed.). New York: Knopf : Distributed by Random House. ISBN   978-0-679-42987-6.
16. McCrum, Robert (1998). My year off (1st American ed.). New York: W. W. Norton. ISBN   978-0-393-04656-4.
17. McCrum, Robert (2004). Wodehouse: a life (1st American ed.). New York: W.W. Norton & Co. ISBN   978-0-393-05159-9.
18. McCrum, Robert (2010). Globish: how the English language became the world's language. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. ISBN   978-0-393-06255-7.
19. McCrum, Robert (2018). The 100 best nonfiction books of all time. Cambridge, UK: Galileo Publishers. ISBN   978-1-903385-83-8.
20. McCrum, Robert (2021). Shakespearean: on life and language in times of disruption (First Pegasus Books cloth ed.). New York: Pegasus Books. ISBN   978-1-64313-789-6.

External links

• Official website