Robert Weil is an Executive Editor and Vice President of the publishing imprint W.W. Norton / Liveright.[1] From 2011 to 2022 he was the Editor-in-Chief and Publishing Director of Liveright, succeeded by Peter J. Simon in July, 2022.
Weil graduated from Yale College with a B.A. in History in 1977, and originally considered teaching high school before beginning his publishing career with Times Books in 1978 as an Editorial Assistant.[2] Two and a half years later he moved to the former Omni Magazine. With Omni Magazine he introduced a book division and packaged and agented science books to publishers before becoming Senior Editor at St. Martin's Press in 1988, a division of Macmillan Publishers.[3] Weil's acquisitions included Michael Wallis's Route 66, Henry Roth's tetralogy of novels called The Mercy of a Rude Stream, Oliver Stone's autobiographical novel A Child's Night Dream, and John Bayley's Elegy for Iris.[4]
In 1998, Weil moved to W.W. Norton & Company as an Executive Editor.[5] His acquisition of most of the Patricia Highsmith backlist, which included several new volumes, in 1999, helped launch the Highsmith renaissance in the U.S. and the 2015 film Carol starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, based on the novel The Price of Salt, as well as Highsmith's diaries, published in 2021.[6] Weil also worked for several years with Paul McCartney (and Paul Muldoon[7]) on the editing of McCartney's book The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, published in 2021.[8]
In 2011, Weil was named the Editor-in-Chief and Publishing Director of Liveright Publishing Corporation.[9] Per a 2021 profile in Publishers Weekly, "The relaunched imprint released its first books in 2012. It started with two full-time staffers and a list of about 20 books per year, and has grown to eight staffers and about 40 books annually."[10] During Weil's tenure as Editor-in-Chief, Liveright received four Pulitzer Prizes (among nine finalists)[11] as well as a National Book Award (among eight nominees).[12] The current staff of Liveright includes Peter J. Simon, Peter Miller, Gina Iaquinta, Nick Curley, Haley Bracken, Clio Hamilton, Fanta Diallo, Maria Connors, Kadiatou Keita, and Luke Swann.
Beyond editing, Weil frequently lectures on writing, publishing history, and the state of American culture and literature. He has spoken in Munich, Guadalajara, Miami, Chicago, and at Yale University, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Nebraska, among others. He has also written on books and publishing for various publications including The Washington Post and ArtForum.
| Year | Title | Author | Accolades | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | From Bondage (Mercy of a Rude Stream, Vol. 3) | Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction | ||
| 1997 | The Smell of Apples: A Novel | Los Angeles Times Book Prize for First Fiction | ||
| 1998 | All on Fire: William Lloyd Garrison and the Abolition of Slavery | Finalist for the National Book Award for Nonfiction | ||
| 1999 | The Hairstons: An American Family in Black and White | National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography | ||
| 1999 | Elegy for Iris | New York Times Bestseller Basis for Iris (2001 film) | ||
| 2000 | Darkness in El Dorado: How Scientists and Journalists Devastated the Amazon | Patrick Tierney | Finalist for the National Book Award for Nonfiction | |
| 2003 | Nelson Mandela's Favorite African Folktales | Nelson Mandela (Editor) | NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work for Children | |
| 2005 | Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime from the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terrorism | Los Angeles Times Book Prize for History | ||
| 2008 | The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family | Pulitzer Prize for History National Book Award for Nonfiction Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography | ||
| 2008 | New York Times Bestseller | |||
| 2009 | Stitches: A Memoir | Finalist for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature New York Times Bestseller | ||
| 2009 | The Book of Genesis | New York Times Bestseller | ||
| 2009 | Dancing in the Dark: A Cultural History of the Great Depression | Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism | ||
| 2010 | Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits | Los Angeles Times Book Prize for History The Bancroft Prize | ||
| 2010 | Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History | Yunte Huang | Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award (Biography) Edgar Award (Critical/Biographical) California Book Award (Nonfiction) | |
| 2012 | Portrait of a Novel: Henry James and the Making of an American Masterpiece | Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Biography Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography | ||
| 2012 | The Social Conquest of Earth | New York Times Bestseller New York Times Notable Book Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction | ||
| 2012 | Why Does the World Exist?: An Existential Detective Story | New York Times Bestseller Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction | ||
| 2013 | Confronting the Classics: Traditions, Adventures, and Innovations | Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism | ||
| 2013 | Invisible Armies: An Epic History of Guerrilla Warfare from Ancient Times to the Present | New York Times Bestseller | ||
| 2013 | Karl Marx: A Nineteenth-Century Life | Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Biography | ||
| 2013 | Letters to a Young Scientist | New York Times Bestseller | ||
| 2014 | Blood Will Out: The True Story of a Murder, a Mystery, and a Masquerade | New York Times Bestseller | ||
| 2014 | The Last Kind Words Saloon: A Novel | New York Times Bestseller | ||
| 2014 | The Meaning of Human Existence | New York Times Bestseller Finalist for the National Book Award for Nonfiction | ||
| 2014 | Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time | The Bancroft Prize | ||
| 2015 | The Complete Works of Primo Levi | New York Times Notable Book | ||
| 2015 | New York Times Bestseller Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction | |||
| 2015 | Words Without Music: A Memoir | New York Times Bestseller | ||
| 2016 | Cousin Joseph: A Graphic Novel | New York Times Bestseller | ||
| 2016 | ’’Most Blessed of the Patriarchs’’: Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination | New York Times Bestseller | ||
| 2016 | New England Bound: Slavery and Colonization in Early America | Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for History New York Times Notable Book | ||
| 2016 | Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life | National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography Edgar Award (Critical/Biographical) Bram Stoker Award for Best Non-Fiction New York Times Notable Book | ||
| 2017 | The Annotated African American Folktales | NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work – Fiction | ||
| 2017 | The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America | Longlisted for the National Book Award for Nonfiction New York Times Bestseller New York Times Notable Book Winner of the Hillman Prize | ||
| 2017 | The Gulf: The Making of An American Sea | Pulitzer Prize for History Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction New York Times Notable Book | ||
| 2018 | The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam | Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography | ||
| 2018 | These Truths: A History of the United States | New York Times Bestseller | ||
| 2018 | We the Corporations: How American Businesses Won Their Civil Rights | Shortlisted for the National Book Award for Nonfiction Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction New York Times Notable Book | ||
| 2018 | The Prison Letters of Nelson Mandela | NPR Best Books of 2018 | ||
| 2019 | Audience of One: Trump, Television, and the Fracturing of America | New York Times Notable Book | ||
| 2019 | Inseparable: The Original Siamese Twins and Their Rendezvous with American History | Yunte Huang | Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography | |
| 2019 | Shortest Way Home: One Mayor's Challenge and a Model for America's Future | New York Times Bestseller | ||
| 2020 | Afropessimism | Longlisted for the National Book Award for Nonfiction | ||
| 2020 | The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X | Les Payne and Tamara Payne | National Book Award for Nonfiction Pulitzer Prize for Biography New York Times Notable Book | |
| 2020 | If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future | Longlisted for the National Book Award for Nonfiction | ||
| 2020 | The Saddest Words: William Faulkner's Civil War | New York Times Notable Book | ||
| 2020 | New York Times Bestseller | |||
| 2021 | On Juneteenth | New York Times Bestseller New York Times 10 Best Books of the Year New York Times Critics Best Books of 2021 | ||
| 2021 | Pessoa: A Biography | New York Times Critics Best Books of 2021 Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography | ||
| 2021 | New York Times Bestseller Barnes & Noble Book of the Year | |||
| 2023 | New York Times Bestseller | |||
| 2023 | Emperor of Rome: Ruling the Ancient Roman World | New York Times Bestseller | ||
| 2023 | Daughter of the Dragon: Anna May Wong's Rendezvous with American History | Yunte Huang | New York Times Notable Book Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography |